Category Archives: 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Stroszek
Directed by Werner Herzog
Written by Werner Herzog
1977/West Germany
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime (free to members)
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Bank employee: We want to help; but, frankly, we need – the money.

I wouldn’t call it a comedy but it is a unique and powerful film.

The story begins in Berlin. Gentle street musician Bruno Stroszek (Bruno S.) is constantly getting in trouble because of his drinking. He is released from jail and returns to his old flat which his elderly friend Scheitz (Clemens Scheitz) has been keeping for him. He also reunites with his friend Eva (Eva Mattes), a prostitute. Eva’s pimps switch from beating her up to beating him up. They also destroy his accordian.

Scheitz has a nephew who has invited him to America. The three decide this is the way to escape their miserable existence.

After a brief stopover in New York, the trio heads to Wisconsin where the nephew lives.  In short order they are able to purchase a huge mobile home and color TV on the installment plan.  Eva is the only one with steady work.  She is a waitress at a truck stop. After a while, they are constantly nagged by the bank for the installment payments.  She finds ways of supplementing her income.  Finally, both Eva and the bank are fed up and the men are left homeless.  The film has an unforgettable ending which I shall not reveal.

I love this story of strangers in a strange land and I suppose there is some dark black humor here.  The score is a fantastic blend of Beethoven, Chet Atkins, and Sunny Terry. Thomas Mauch contributes his usual sterling cinematography, with the beauty of the images contrasting with the sordidness of these people’s lives.  Highly recommended.

The American Friend (Der amerikanische Freund)
Directed by Wim Wenders
Written by Wim Wenders from Patricia Highsmith’s novel Ripley’s Game
1977/West Germany
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Criterion Channel
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Tom Ripley: Must be good to work here. Then when you finish something, you can see what you’ve done.
Jonathan Zimmermann: It’s not that easy. Not that safe and easy. What do you make?
Tom Ripley: I make money. And I travel a lot. I’m bringing the Beatles back to Hamburg.

This excellent thriller was clearly directed by a film buff.

Tom Ripley (Dennis Hopper) is up to his old tricks.  Currently, he is in Hamburg peddling paintings by an artist (Nicholas Ray) who has faked his own demise to force prices up.  He meets picture framer and art restorer Jonathan Zimmerman (Bruno Ganz) at an auction.  Zimmermann tips off his friend, a bidder, that the blue in the painting is “wrong” and then refuses to shake Ripley’s hand.  That’s enough to put Jonathan on Ripley’s list.  The bidder informs Ripley that Jonathan is suffering from a blood disease and is no longer doing much restoring.

Soon thereafter, Ripley shows up at Jonathan’s shop requesting to have a picture framed. He learns that the framer has a wife and small son.  Jonathan apologizes for his behavior at the auction with a small gift.  Ripley says he has heard about Jonathan’s illness and how it is getting worse.  He says he knows how Jonathan can make a great deal of money by carrying out contract killings.  No way, says Jonathan.

Then Raoul Minot, an associate of Ripley’s, approaches Jonathan and makes a specific proposal for a hit. He says he has heard that Jonathan does not have long to live.  Although Jonathan’s own doctor denies any reason for immediate concern, Minot lures him to Paris for a second opinion.  Soon Jonathan is tempted to make a deal.  I will stop here.  With Samuel Fuller as a mobster.

I love Bruno Ganz and Wim Wenders and I like this film a lot.  There are references to various films and film personalities throughout.  Not in an obtrusive way but so that obsessive movie watchers can delight in recognizing them.  Three American directors – Hopper, Ray, and Fuller – appear as actors.  It’s a dark but gripping thriller. I had forgotten the ending, which is truly spectacular.  Recommended.

Annie Hall
Directed by Woody Allen
Written by Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman
1977/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Alvy Singer: A relationship, I think, is like a shark. You know? It has to constantly move forward or it dies. And I think what we got on our hands is a dead shark.

I loved this on original release and on every viewing since.  A “nervous” romantic comedy but one of the very best.

Alvie Singer (Woody Allen) is a stand-up comedian and writer who lives in New York City.  In fact, the prototypical Woody Allen character, a Jewish wise guy and neurotic.  He has had much woman trouble in his life including two divorces.  One day, his friend Rob (Tony Roberts) invites him to play doubles tennis with Roberts’ girlfriend and Annie Hall (Diane Keaton).  There is an immediate attraction.  Annie is a white-bread Mid-Westerner and pretty insecure.  The couple take the first tentative steps to romance.

They fall in love.  Alvie pays for her analysis and encourages her to read the kind of books he likes – morose contemplations on death.  She gradually becomes more confident.  Confident enough to pursue her dreams of becoming a singer.  She also starts attending college classes and liking them.

They move in together.  The normal stresses and strains of domesticity emerge.  She is growing and he is not.  She is invited to Los Angeles to cut a record and loves it there.  Alvie hates the place.  The inevitable break-up is bittersweet.  With Carol Kane and Janet Margolin as Alvie’s ex-wives; Paul Simon as himself under another name; Colleen Dewhurst as Annie’s mother and Christopher Walken as her demented brother.  Sigourney Weaver made her film debut in this movie.  Blink and you will miss her as Alvie’s post-break-up date.

This movie is funny and wise at the same time.  I like that Allen put the entire blame on his relationship difficulties on himself.  Diane Keaton is utterly radiant.  The whole thing just works.  Star Wars fans may disagree but I think this film deserved all its awards.

Annie Hall won Academy Awards in the categories of Best Picture, Best Director,  Best Actress, and Best Original Screenplay.  Allen was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar.

The Man Who Fell to Earth
Directed by Nicholas Roeg
Written by Paul Mayersberg from a novel by Walter Tevis
1976/UK
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime (free to members)
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Mary-Lou: What are they like, your children?
Thomas Jerome Newton: They’re like children. Exactly like children…

David Bowie’s charisma saves this depressing and badly paced science fiction movie.

Bowie is an alien on a mission to Earth to save his dying planet which is running out of water.  He lands in the U.S., goes by the name of Thomas Jerome Newton and carries a British passport and a thick bankroll of 100-dollar bills.  His idea is to start a profitable business to finance the space craft he will need to go back to his planet.  He enlists the help of patent attorney Oliver Farnsworth (Buck Henry) and scientist Nathan Bryce (RipTorn).  Thomas keeps himself and his motives to himself.  He misses his wife and children.

Thomas’s instant-develop photography business is wildly successful.  He has a hard time adjusting to earthly ways.  He also trusts everybody.  He meets Mary-Lou (Candy Clark) who saves him from an attack of fainting.  Unfortunately, she is a raging alcoholic.  First Thomas learns the pleasures of earthly sex.  Finally, she convinces him to join her for a few drinks.  Alcohol has the effect of making Thomas see visions of his planet and family, and only makes him more miserable.  Mary-Lou is holding on to Thomas with all her strength and her charms and his drinking habit slow down his escape.

Greedy capitalists cannot abide Thomas’s wealth and his honest benevolent business.  So they set out to destroy him.

I love David Bowie and think he did excellently in his first film.  The other actors are also very good.  I was particularly impressed by Candy Clark who ages about 20 or 30 years.  Her make-up man did one hell of a job.  I found the second half of the movie to drag badly.   I also didn’t quite understand the point.  Was Thomas going to be able to take our water home?  Was his plan to bring his family to earth?  Recommended to Bowie fans.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTyCWXWW8dM

The Killing of a Chinese Bookie
Directed by John Cassavetes
Written by John Cassavetes
1976/US
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Cosmo Vitelli: I’m a club owner. I deal in girls.

John Cassavetes makes a gangster film that is easily as intimate as his character studies.

Cosmo Vitelli (Ben Gazzara) is a strip club owner.  The entire operation is a product of his own imagination.  He has written and choreographed all the numbers.  Sad to say, his imagination is stuck in some kind of time warp and you could envision the same kind of show at a second-rate burlesque house in the 1930’s.  There are various squabbles but the cast and crew form a kind of loving family.

Cosmo has many flaws, principally womanizing and gambling. On the very day Cosmo pays off an old gambling debt he is approached by fellow club owner Mort Weill (Seymour Cassel) and given free run of the premises and its illegal casino.  Seymour is easily led on until he is $23,000 in debt to the mob.  His creditors expect immediate payment.  Cash being unavailable the gang, including the super impatient Flo (Timothy Cary),  strongly suggest that assassination of  a Chinese bookie could compensate.

The rest of the film is concerned with the planning, execution, and aftermath of the crime. From this point we start also delving into Cosmos’s confrontation with his own mortality. The numbers at the strip club feature a fare amount of female nudity.

I thought this was a very interesting companion piece to Mikey and Nicky (1976).  In both films the flawed protagonists are contemplating a violent end.  It’s hard to pick between May’s film and this one.  May has Cassavetes beat in the pacing and heart departments. Cassavetes’ film is clearly superior in the image department.  It probably deserves another viewing and some thought before I form a firm opinion on this one.  Nonetheless recommended.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ztlsDq5luU

Cria cuervos (Cria!)
Directed by Carlos Saura
Written by Carlos Saura
1976/Spain
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel
1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

“Raise ravens and they’ll pluck out your eyes” – Spanish proverb

Carlos Saura shows us the darkness and light of childhood in this sad and beautiful film.

The film was made as Francisco Franco lay dying and covers a time shortly before this. The setting is Madrid, Spain.  The story is told as flashbacks within flashbacks, a format I generally dislike but that works very well here.

Our heroines are the three daughters of a fascist officer and his wife (Geraldine Chaplin). Eight-year-old Ana (Ana Torrent) is the central figure and the most highly sensitive of the girls.  Her sisters are maybe twelve and five.  Ana witnesses her father in bed with his mistress shortly before the woman runs out and he is found dead, presumably from a heart attack.

Ana’s adored mother Maria died somewhat earlier in incredible pain, presumably from cancer.  We see her and Ana interacting affectionately in earlier days and also scenes where Ana witnesses her bitter arguments with her father and her painful last days.

Currently the girls are living with their aunt Paulina, Maria’s sister, their invalid grandmother, and Ana’s guinea pig Roni.  Paulina is stricter than their mother was but is struggling mightily to bond with the children.  The children love to be naughty when no one is looking. They play a game of dress-up in which they act out the arguments between their mother and father.

The film flashes back to Maria telling Ana that a jar of powder labeled “baking soda” is a potent poison. Armed with the powder, Ana attempts to redress her grievances.

Ana Torrent was a real find for Saura and she carries the film on her capable, natural shoulders.  Geraldine Chaplin is equally superb.  The children suffer more heartbreak than many people do in an entire lifetime.  The film sensitively explores the inner life of a traumatized child.  Not a fun watch but highly recommended.

Carrie
Directed by Brian De Palma
Written by Lawrence G. Cohen from a novel by Stephen King
1976/US
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Margaret White: Carrie, you haven’t touched your apple cake.
Carrie: It gives me pimples, Mama.
Margaret White: Pimples are the Lord’s way of chastising you.

A movie about humans doing cruel and disgusting things to each other was not for me, no matter how well it was made.

Carrie (Sissy Spacek) is a high school senior.  She is viewed as the class weirdo.  One day in the gym showers she discovers she is bleeding and panics.  It is her much-delayed first menstrual period.  The girls think this is hilarious and taunt her.  As punishment, the gym teacher assigns all the mean girls to detention.  Those that refuse detention will be unable to attend the senior prom.  The meanest of all the girls (Nancy Allen) plans an elaborate revenge on Carrie with her boyfriend (John Travolta).

Carrie has clearly been traumatized by her religious fanatic mother Margaret (Piper Laurie). Now that she is a “woman”, Margaret fears that all the sins and evils of Eve will descend her daughter.  Then one of the girls (Amy Irving in her film debut) talks her boyfriend into taking Carrie to the prom.  Margaret forbids this but Carrie is intent on going and says nothing can stop her.  How true this is!

The prom turns out to be a huge humiliation to Carrie.  Unbeknownst to everyone, Carrie can fight back – and in spectacular fashion.

I generally have a bad reaction to cruelty in movies and my reaction to this one was no exception. I also found some of the script kind of dated and trite. The acting, on the other hand, was phenomenal and the special effects were stunning.

Sissy Spacek was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar; Piper Laurie was nominated for Best Supporting Actress

All the President’s Men
Directed by Alan J. Pakula
Written by William Goldman from a book by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward
1976/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

John Mitchell: [on phone] All that crap you’re putting in the paper? It’s all been denied. You tell your publisher, tell Katie Graham she’s gonna get her tit caught in a big wringer if that’s published. Good Christ, that’s the most sickening thing I ever heard.

A true story that is as suspenseful as any thriller even when you know the ending.

The film begins when a security guard detects a break-in at the headquarters of the Democratic National Party at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C.  He calls the police and five burglars are apprehended.  Papers on the burglars led to the arrests of Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy both of whom had connections to the White House and the Committee to Re-Elect the President.

Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) and Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) are rookie reporters for The Washington Post.  Woodward is assigned to cover the arraignment of the men and discovers that high-powered attorneys are interested in the case.  This arouses his suspicions and he follows up.  Eventually Bernstein is assigned to partner with Woodward on the story.

The two form a powerhouse team after some initial friction.  They are getting nowhere when Woodward contacts an official that comes to be known as “Deep Throat” (Hal Holbrook). He speaks to him only on the condition that he is not quoted even as an anonymous source.  His advice is to “follow the money”.  This the two reporters do.  It is a frustrating but fascinating journey through Washington bureaucracy.  Most people are unwilling to talk but unwittingly make the reporters even more suspicious.

Eventually, the story gets so big that Washington Post Executive Editor Ben Bradlee (Jason Robards) is encouraged to put somebody more seasoned on the case.  He declines to do so.  In the end, a couple of honest insiders speak up and their info leads all the way to the top. The rest is history.  With Jane Alexander as a bookkeeper and Jack Warden and Martin Balsam as editiors.

I saw this in the theater when it came out.  It holds up beautifully all these years later.  It was so interesting to see all the location shots of Washington, D.C. where I was to work many years later.  The thoroughly engrossing screenplay is aided by a wonderful cast and meticulous production design.  Recommended.

All the President’s Men won Academy Awards in the categories of Best Supporting Actor (Robards); Best Adapted Screenplay; Best Art Direction-Set Decoration; and Best Sound. It was nominated in the categories of Best Picture; Best Supporting Actress (Alexander); Best Director; and Best Film Editing.

Network
Directed by Sidney Lumet
Written by Paddy Chayefsky
1976/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Howard Beale: Things have got to change. But first, you’ve gotta get mad!… You’ve got to say, ‘I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!’ Then we’ll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis. But first get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it: “I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!”

In 2021, this scathing critique of the TV ratings game seems less outrageous than prescient.

Howard Beale (Peter Finch) has been the evening news anchor at UBS (the “fourth network”) for eleven years.  The network is under new ownership by Communications Corporation of America (CCA).  CCA executive Frank Hackett (Robert Duvall) will no longer tolerate low ratings for any program, including the news.  News Bureau Chief Max Schumacher (William Holden) has the task of giving Howard, an old friend, two weeks notice.  The next night Howard gets on the air and announces his retirement and his intention of committing suicide on the air a week later.  He is summarily fired but soft-hearted Max allows him to make a formal farewell to his audience.  Howard, who has been hearing voices, takes advantage of this opportunity to launch into his famous populist rant and urge his audience to express their pent-up rage audibly.  When shouts are heard coming from windows all over America, the executives know they have a hit on their hands.  Max is disgusted.

In the meantime, a new ratings-obsessed entertainment programmer, Diana Christensen (Faye Dunaway), is in town.  She successfully pitches the idea of having a part reality TV, part drama called the “Mao Tse Tung Hour”.  A domestic terrorist organization will stage a real “happening” and the network will create a drama based on the event.  Diana also manages to move Howard from the news division to the entertainment division to capitalize on his rabid following.   He is now billed as the mad prophet of the airways.

Despite his contempt for Diana’s ideas about television, Max cannot escape his attraction to the much younger woman.  For Diana, the affair is strictly sexual.  She is all business all the time.  Meanwhile, Howard’s madness intensifies.  When he protests CCA’s acquisition by the Saudis, the management tries a couple of different tactics to stop him. With Beatrice Straight as Max’s wife and Ned Beatty as the CEO of CCA.

Network looked into the future, a future that looked far-fetched at the time but seems increasingly realistic as the years have gone on.  Paddy Chayefsky’s brilliant script anticipated both reality TV and sensationalist, politicized news programming.  Are we but one step away from the Q-Anon Show?  All the components of filmmaking come together to create something that perfectly achieves its intentions.  Highly recommended.

Network won Academy Awards in the Categories of Best Actor (Finch); Best Actress (Dunaway); Best Supporting Actress (Straight); and Best Original Screenplay.  It was nominated in the categories of Best Picture; Best Actor (Holden); Best Supporting Actor (Beatty); Best Director; Best Cinematography; and Best Film Editing.

Taxi Driver
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Written by Paul Schrader
1976/US
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Travis Bickle: You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me? Then who the hell else are you talking… you talking to me? Well I’m the only one here. Who the fuck do you think you’re talking to? Oh yeah? OK.

Martin Scorsese’s first masterpiece is as relevant now as it was then, sad to say.

Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) is a lonely Vietnam veteran who can’t sleep at night.  So he gets a job driving a cab for 12 hours a night.  Already preoccupied with the sin and corruption of New York City, his job as cabbie just provides him with more evidence that some kind of avenging rain should come and wash the trash, human and otherwise, off the streets.  Despite his hatred for vice, he spends much of his time in porno theaters, where he does not seem to be watching the movies.

His one vision of innocence comes when he sees Betsy (Cybill Shepherd) walking down the street in a white dress.  Betsy is a campaign worker for Senator Charles Palantine who is running in the primary for the Presidential nomination (party unstated).  Travis drops into NYC campaign headquarters and chats Betsy up.  Intrigued by his crazy adoration, she agrees to have coffee with him.  Then she agrees to a date.  He takes her to a porno movie and she drops him like a hot potato.

Travis gradually becomes more unhinged.  He decides it is he that has the mission to clean up the dirty city,  He encounters Iris (Jodie Foster),  a twelve-year-old prostitute, and it becomes his mission to save her as well.  The only way he can get to her is to pay so he does and gives her a lecture on how she should go home and have a normal teenage life.  Iris agrees to meet Travis for coffee and a conversation in which it is clear that the teenage hooker has it way more together than Travis does.

As part of his mission, Travis acquires an arsenal of weapons.  He spends much of his off-time at shooting ranges or at home practicing his draw.  He continues on his downwards spiral.  I will stop here except to note we get a bloody climax and a very interesting denoument.  With Albert Brooks in his film debut as a campaign worker; Harvey Keitel as a pimp; and Peter Boyle as a fellow cabbie.

This has it all: brilliant acting; a scathing and powerful script; stunning visuals; and a fantastic score by Bernard Herrmann. Ticks all the buttons for a time not so unlike our own: loneliness, isolation, paranoia, demagogues, ideological violence, political violence,  angry white men; etc., etc.  Not for the faint of heart but highly recommended.

Taxi Driver was nominated in the categories of Best Picture; Best Actor; Best Supporting Actress (Foster); and Best Music, Original Score.

Trailer