100 Greatest Movies of the 70's: 41. All the President's Men

Arthur Hiller is a terribly crude director; never seen this movie.

 

63. Amarcord

Amarcord is a 1973 Italian drama film directed by Federico Fellini, a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age tale that combines poignancy with bawdy comedy. It tells the story of a wild cast of characters inhabiting the fictional Borgo based on Fellini's hometown of Rimini in 1930s Fascist Italy. Amarcord is Romagnolo for "I remember"

Titta's sentimental education is emblematic of Italy's "lapse of conscience". Fellini skewers Mussolini's ludicrous posturings and those of a Catholic Church that "imprisoned Italians in a perpetual adolescence" by mocking himself and his fellow villagers in comic scenes that underline their incapacity to adopt genuine moral responsibility or outgrow foolish sexual fantasies.

The film won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, and was nominated for two Academy Awards: Best Director and Best Writing, Original Screenplay.

A young woman hanging clothes on a line happily points out the arrival of "manine" or puffballs floating on the wind. The old man pottering beside her replies, "When puffballs come, cold winter?s done." In the village square, schoolboys jump around trying to pluck puffballs out of the air. Giudizio (Aristide Caporale), the town idiot, looks into the camera and recites a poem to spring and the swirling, drifting "manine".

At the hairdresser?s, a Fascist has just had his head newly shaved when Fiorella arrives to accompany her sister Gradisca (Magali Noël), the village beauty, to the traditional bonfire celebrating spring. As night falls, the inhabitants of Borgo make their way to the village square where Fellini presents his comic characters: the blind accordion player (Domenica Pertica) relentlessly tormented by schoolboys; Volpina (Josiane Tanzilli), the stringy blond nymphomaniac; the stout and buxom tobacconist (Maria Antonietta Beluzzi); Titta (Bruno Zanin), the rosy-cheeked adolescent protagonist based on Fellini's childhood friend; and Aurelio (Armando Brancia), Titta?s father, a construction foreman of working-class background. Modest and reserved, Aurelio responds in frenzied anger to Titta?s pranks while Miranda (Pupella Maggio), his wife, always comes to her son?s defence. Miranda?s brother, Lallo (Nando Orfei), lives with Titta?s family, sponging off his brother-in-law. In tow are Titta?s grandfather (Peppino Ianigro), a likeable old goat with an eye on the family?s young maid, and a street vendor, Biscein (Gennaro Ombra), the town?s inveterate liar.

Giudizio sits an effigy of the "Old Witch of Winter" in a chair on the stack and Gradisca is given the honour of setting it aflame. Lallo maliciously removes the ladder, trapping Giudizio atop the inferno. "I?m burning!" he screams as the crowd dances gaily round the bonfire and schoolboys run amuck exploding firecrackers. From a window, the Fascist bigwig (Ferruccio Brembilla) fires his pistol into the air. "I feel spring all over me already," says Gradisca in ecstasy.

The local aristocrat and his decrepit wife raise a toast to the dying flames. Schoolboys drag Volpina near the cinders then swing her back and forth in rhythm to the blind accordionist?s tune. A motorcyclist roars through the glowing coals in a mindless display of exhibitionism. Black-clothed women scoop the scattered embers into pans as the town lawyer (Luigi Rossi) appears walking his bicycle. Like Giudizio, he addresses the camera to explain choice titbits of the town?s history. A florid suite of raspberries interrupts his charming pedantry and he departs in a huff.

Zeus (Franco Magno), the red-haired crusty schoolmaster, presides over an official class photograph. After showing us a wall hung with the portraits of the king, the pope, and Mussolini, Fellini serves up a sequence of classroom antics involving Titta, Gigliozzi (Bruno Lenzi), Ovo (Bruno Scagnetti), and Ciccio (Fernando de Felice), the class fat boy who has a crush on Aldina (Donatella Gambini), a lovely brunette. If the schoolboys are stereotypical delinquents, their teachers are ridiculous. During her inane lessons on Giotto?s perspective, the Fine

 

Not really a fan of late Fellini; and haven't seen this.

 

62. Bananas

Bananas is a 1971 comedy film written by Mickey Rose and Woody Allen, directed by Allen, and starring himself and Louise Lasser. Parts of the plot were based on the book Don Quixote, U.S.A. by Richard P. Powell. It was filmed on location in New York City, Lima (Peru), and various locations in Puerto Rico, including San Juan, Carolina and Loiza. This film is number 78 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies".

Fielding Mellish (Woody Allen) is a neurotic blue collar man who tries to impress social activist Nancy (Louise Lasser). Trying to get in touch with the San Marcos revolution, he visits the fictional South American country, or "banana republic," attempting to show his concern for the native people. However, nearly killed by the local caudillo, only to be saved by the revolutionaries, he is then indebted to help them. Mellish clumsily learns how to be a revolutionary. When the revolution is successful, the Castro-style leader goes mad, forcing the rebels to place Mellish as their President. When traveling back to the U.S. to obtain financial aid, he reunites with his activist ex-girlfriend and is exposed. In a classic courtroom scene, Mellish tries to defend himself from a series of incriminating witnesses. He is eventually sentenced to prison, but his sentence is suspended on the condition that he doesn't move into the judge's neighborhood. Nancy then agrees to marry him. The between-the-covers consummation of their marriage -- an event that was over much more quickly than Nancy had anticipated -- was announced "play by play" by Howard Cosell.

 

His best early movie, I think.

 

Funniest assassination ever.

 

Probably his best movie period. Certainly his funniest. This one just has me in stitches from word one. Masterpiece of comedy.

 

Priceless comedy set-pieces (EG the ordering of lunch for an army of rebels from a local delicatessen), quotably absurd dialogue ("Cole slaw for 900 men!") and Marvin Hamlisch's memorable score combine to make Bananas a classic, and arguably Allen's best movie from his "early, funny" period.

 

61. Bound for Glory

Bound for Glory is a 1976 American biographical film directed by Hal Ashby and adapted by Robert Getchell from Woody Guthrie's 1943 autobiography Bound for Glory. The film stars David Carradine as folk singer Woody Guthrie and Ronny Cox, Melinda Dillon, Gail Strickland, John Lehne, Ji-Tu Cumbuka and Randy Quaid.[1]

Bound for Glory was the first motion picture in which inventor Garrett Brown used his Steadicam invention for filming moving scenes. Director of Photography Haskell Wexler won an Oscar for Best Cinematography

Much of the film is based on Guthrie's attempt to humanize the desperate Okie Dust Bowl refugees in California during the Great Depression. Many of the scenes were filmed in and around Bakersfield and Kern County, actual places of Dust Bowl strife and settlement. Most of the Texas town of Pampa was filmed in Isleton, CA, a small Delta town with an old main street. Guthrie is best known for his very popular folk songs, most notably, "This Land Is Your Land".

 

This is a great movie, and Carradine gives an equally great performance.

Guthrie's mother suffered from Huntingdon's chorea; she was institutionalized after setting fire to the family home. Guthrie himself died of it, as did two of the three children of his first marriage (the other died in a car accident, as did his youngest daughter by the third marriage). A sister and another daughter died in a fire. In other words, this poor dude had plenty of reason to sing the blues. The three youngest children of the second marriage seem free of the disease (Arlo, Joady & Nora), however.

 

60. Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore is a 1974 American drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Robert Getchell. It stars Ellen Burstyn as a widow who travels with her preteen son across the American Southwest in search of a better life, along with Alfred Lutter as her son and Kris Kristofferson as a man they meet along the way. This is Martin Scorsese's fourth film.

The film co-stars Billy Green Bush, Diane Ladd, Valerie Curtin, Lelia Goldoni, Lane Bradbury, Vic Tayback, Jodie Foster, and Harvey Keitel.

Burstyn won the Academy Award for Best Actress and the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance, and the film won the BAFTA Award for Best Film.


When Socorro, New Mexico housewife Alice Hyatt's trucker husband Donald is killed in an accident, she decides to have a garage sale, pack what's left of her meager belongings and take her precocious son Tommy to Monterey, California, where she hopes to pursue the singing career she abandoned when she married.

Their financial situation forces them to take temporary lodgings in Phoenix, Arizona, where she finds work as a lounge singer in a seedy bar. There she meets the considerably younger and seemingly available Ben, who uses his charm to lure her into a sexual relationship that comes to a sudden end when his wife confronts Alice. Ben mercilessly beats his wife for interfering with his extramarital affair. Fearing for their safety, Alice and Tommy quickly leave town.

Having spent most of the little money she earned on a new wardrobe, Alice is forced to delay their journey to the West Coast and accept a job as a waitress in Tucson so she can accumulate more cash. At the local diner owned by Mel, she eventually bonds with her fellow servers ? independent, no-nonsense, outspoken Flo and quiet, timid, incompetent Vera ? and meets divorced local rancher David, who soon realizes the way to Alice's heart is through Tommy.

Still emotionally wounded from the difficult relationship she had with her uncommunicative husband and the frightening encounter she had with Ben, Alice is hesitant to get involved with another man so quickly. However, she finds David is a good influence on Tommy, who has befriended wisecracking, shoplifting, wine-guzzling Audrey, a slightly older girl forced to fend for herself while her mother makes a living as a prostitute.

Alice and David warily fall in love, but their relationship is threatened when Alice objects to his discipline of the perpetually bratty Tommy. The two reconcile, and David offers to sell his ranch and move to Monterey so Alice can try to fulfill her childhood dream of becoming another Alice Faye. But in the end Alice decides to stay in Tucson, coming to the conclusion that she can become a singer anywhere.

 

A very good film. Love, love, love the opening sequence. And Kris Kristofferson is OK, which is a mammoth achievement in and of itself.

 

Not seen this one.

 

I find this one of the most interesting of Scorsese films. It's the one movie, that when I think back at Scorsese's movies. I always forget this one exists, which means it hasn't made a huge impact one me, yet I I'm quite fond of it, it's very diffirent from most of his other films. Ellen Burstyn's performance is wonderful and she earned that oscar.

In conclusion, I need to see it again.

 

59. Days of Heaven

Days of Heaven is a 1978 American romantic drama film written and directed by Terrence Malick and starring Richard Gere, Brooke Adams, Sam Shepard and Linda Manz. Set in the early 20th century, it tells the story of two poor lovers, Bill and Abby, as they travel to the Texas Panhandle to harvest crops for a wealthy farmer. Bill encourages Abby to claim the fortune of the dying farmer by tricking him into a false marriage. This results in an unstable love triangle and a series of unfortunate events.

Days of Heaven is widely recognized as a landmark of 1970s cinema. Many commentators have noted the way the film emphasizes powerful symbolic imagery over conventional dialogue and plotting


The story is set in 1916. Bill (Gere), a Chicago manual laborer, knocks down and kills a boss in the steel mill where he works. He flees to the Texas Panhandle with his girlfriend Abby (Adams) and younger sister Linda (Manz). Bill and Abby pretend to be siblings to prevent gossip.

The three hire on as part of a large group of seasonal workers with a rich, shy farmer (Shepard). The farmer learns that he is dying of an unspecified disease. When he falls in love with Abby, Bill encourages her to marry him so that they can inherit his money after he dies. The marriage takes place and Bill stays on the farm as Abby's "brother." The farmer's foreman suspects their scheme. The farmer's health unexpectedly remains stable, foiling Bill's plans.

Eventually, the farmer discovers Bill's true relationship with Abby. At the same time, Abby has begun to fall in love with her new husband. The farmer goes after Bill with a gun, but Bill kills him. Bill then flees with Abby and Linda. The foreman and the police pursue and eventually find them, and the police kill Bill. Abby leaves Linda at a boarding school and goes off on her own.

 

ah, malick!

 

58. All That Jazz

All That Jazz is a 1979 American musical film directed by Bob Fosse. The screenplay by Robert Alan Aurthur and Fosse is a semi-autobiographical fantasy based on aspects of the dancer, choreographer, and director's life and career. The film was inspired by Fosse's manic effort to edit his film Lenny while simultaneously staging his 1975 Broadway musical Chicago. It borrows its title from a Kander and Ebb tune in that production.

Choreographing and casting for dancers for his next Broadway show, while editing his severely over-budgeted and over-scheduled Hollywood production about a stand-up comic, is getting to Joe Gideon. He is a workaholic, choreographer, and theater director who chain-smokes and chain-sleeps with all of his dancers. Without a daily dose of Vivaldi, Visine, Alka-Seltzer, Dexedrine and sex, he wouldn't have the energy to keep up the biggest show of them all ? his life. His girlfriend Katie Jagger, his ex-wife Audrey Paris, and daughter Michelle try to pull him back from the brink, but it is too late for his exhausted body and stress-ravaged heart. Decades of overworking and constant tremendous stress have gotten to Gideon. In his imagination, he already flirts with an angel of death named Angelique.

Gideon's condition gets worse, as after a particularly stressful script rehearsal with the penny-pinching backers, he is taken to a hospital with chest pains and admitted with severe attacks of angina. Joe tries to take it in stride and walk straight back to the rehearsal, but is ordered to stay for three to four weeks to rest his heart and recover from his exhaustion. The show is postponed, but Gideon continues his antics from the hospital bed. Champagne flows, endless strings of women frolic around and the cigarettes are always lit. Cardiogram readings don't show any improvement - Gideon is playing with death. As the paltry reviews for his feature film (which has been released without him) come in, Gideon has a massive coronary and is taken straight to coronary artery bypass surgery.

The backers for the Broadway show must decide now whether it's time to pack up or replace Gideon as the director. Their matter-of-fact money-oriented negotiations with the insurers are juxtaposed with graphic scenes of open heart surgery. They realize the best way to recoup their money, even make a profit, is to bet on Gideon dying ? which would bring in a profit of over USD$500,000 ? not bad in the crazy unpredictable world of showbiz. Meanwhile, elements from Gideon's past life are staged into a dazzling sequence of set-ups ? himself directing from the hospital bed, while on life support. Realizing his death is imminent, his mortality unconquerable, Gideon has another heart attack. In glittery musical numbers, he goes through the five stages of death ? anger, denial, bargaining, depression and acceptance - featured in the stand-up routine he has been editing. As death closes in on Gideon, the fantasy episodes become more hallucinatory and extravagant and in a final epilogue that is set up as a truly monumental live variety show featuring everyone from his past, Gideon himself takes center stage.

 

A great riff on 8 1/2. I think I liked it more, actually...

 

Fosse's unfortunate penchant for heavily obvious irony is everywhere apparent, alas.

Great dancing, though.

 

57. Monty Python's Life of Brian

Monty Python's Life of Brian, also known as Life of Brian, is a 1979 British comedy film written, directed and largely performed by the Monty Python comedy team. It tells the story of Brian Cohen (played by Graham Chapman), a young Jewish man who is born on the same day as, and next door to, Jesus Christ, and is subsequently mistaken for the Messiah.

The film contains themes of religious satire which were controversial at the time of its release, drawing accusations of blasphemy and protests from some religious groups. Thirty-nine local authorities in the UK either imposed an outright ban, or imposed an X (18 years) certificate (effectively preventing the film from being shown, as the distributors said the film could not be shown unless it was unedited and carried the original AA (14) certificate). Certain countries banned its showing, with a few of these bans lasting decades. The film makers used such notoriety to benefit their marketing campaign, with posters stating "So funny it was banned in Norway!".

The film was a box-office success, grossing fourth-highest of any film in the UK in 1979 and highest of any British film in the United States that year. It has remained popular since then, receiving positive reviews and being named 'Greatest comedy film of all time' by several magazines and television networks.


Brian Cohen is born in a stable a few doors from the one in which Jesus is born, which initially confuses the three wise men who come to praise the future King of the Jews. Brian grows up an idealistic young man who resents the continuing Roman occupation of Judea. While attending Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, Brian becomes infatuated with an attractive young rebel, Judith. His desire for her and hatred for the Romans lead him to join the Peoples' Front of Judea (PFJ), one of many fractious and bickering separatist movements, who spend more time fighting each other rather than the Romans.

After several misadventures (including a brief trip to outer space in an alien spaceship), and escaping from Pontius Pilate, the fugitive winds up in a lineup of would-be mystics and prophets who harangue the passing crowd in a plaza. Forced to come up with something plausible in order to blend in and keep the guards off his back, Brian babbles pseudo-religious truisms, and quickly attracts a small but intrigued audience. Once the guards have left, Brian tries to put the episode behind him, but he has unintentionally inspired a movement. He grows frantic when he finds that some people have started to follow him around, with even the slightest unusual occurrence being hailed as a "miracle". After slipping away from the mob, Brian runs into Judith, and they spend the night together. In the morning, Brian opens the curtains to discover an enormous mass of people outside his mother's house, all proclaiming him the Messiah. Appalled, Brian is helpless to change their minds, for his every word and action are immediately seized as points of doctrine.

Neither can the hapless Brian find solace back at the PFJ's headquarters, where people fling their afflicted bodies at him demanding miracle cures. After sneaking out the back, Brian finally is captured and scheduled to be crucified. Meanwhile, a huge crowd of natives has assembled outside the palace. Pilate (together with the visiting Biggus Diccus) tries to quell the feeling of revolution by granting them the decision of who should be pardoned. The crowd, however, simply shouts out names containing the letter "R", in order to mock Pilate's mispronunciation. Eventually, Judith appears in the crowd and calls for the release of Brian, which the crowd echoes, since the name contains the letter "R". Pilate then agrees to "welease Bwian".

The order from Pilate is eventually relayed to the guards, but in a moment parodying the climax of the film Spartacus, various crucified people all claim to be "Brian of Nazareth" and the wrong man is released. Various other opportunities for a reprieve for Brian are denied as, one by one, his "allies" (i

 

"All right... all right... but apart from better sanitation and medicine and education and irrigation and public health and roads and a freshwater system and baths and public order... what have the Romans done for us?"

 

Absolutely nothing!

 

George Harrison (yes, the Beatle) is in the movie, he financed it as the studios were too timid due to it's "religious" contraversy. He's in the "What have the Romans done of us?" scene.

Spike Milligan is also in it, but he just happened to be in Morocco at the time. He's in the "follow the gourd" scene.

Life of Brian is my favourite Python flick, as you'll laugh until you wet yourself. I don't understand how people can see it as sacriligious, as they never mock Jesus, just the people who misinterpret his message.

So very, very quotable:

"He's not the Messiah! He's a very naughty boy!"

"Yes, we're all individuals!"
"I'm not!"
"Shhh!"

"We should put aside our differences and unit against the common enemy!"
"The Judean People's Front!"
"No, the Romans!"
"Oh."

"'People called Romanes, they go the house?'" (actually, that entire scene)

"I'm Brian, and so's my wife!"

"He has a wife, you know. Incontinentia Buttocks."

And pretty much anything else Pilate and Biggus Dickus say.

 

[image=http://www.miketidmus.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/life_of_brian_400.jpg]

"I have a vewy gweat fwiend in Wome called 'Biggus Dickus', sir."

 

"We'll have no more Wogers, no more Woderwicks and no more Wudoph the Wed Noes Weindeers."

"Crucifixion? Out that door, line on the left, one cross each."