Category Archives: 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Papillon
Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner
Written by Dalton Trumbo and Lorenzo Semple Jr. from a book by Henri Charriere
1973/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Dega: Blame is for God and small children.

Steve McQueen is at his very best in this story of desperate men on a desperate quest to escape Devil’s Island.

The story is a semi-fictional account of Henri ‘Papillon’ Charriere’s (McQueen) time in the French Penal Colony of Guyana between 1931 and 1945.  Charriere earned the nickname from the butterfly prominently tattooed on his chest.  Charriere had been falsely convicted of murdering a pimp and sentenced to life at hard labor. Prior to this, he had earned a reputation as a safe-cracker.  On the sea journey to the island Charriere forms what turns out to be an enduring friendship with Louis Dega (Dustin Hoffman), a timid myopic counterfeiter.  The two could not be more different but with Louis’s money and Papillon’s guts they make a good team.

Life is extremely hard in French Guyana.  The place is hot, disease-ridden, and filthy; the men are hardly fed; the labor is very hard; and the guards are cruel.  The prisoners are treated like scum that cannot be punished severely enough.  A first escape attempt is punishable by two years in solitary confinement, the second by five years.  99.9% of all escapees are caught and punished.

The story tracks a couple of different escape attempts and Papillon’s years in solitary confinement.  Food is so scarce that he resorts to capturing insects to survive.  In the meantime, Dega has bribed his way into a desk job.  He attempts to assist by smuggling in fresh coconut.  When this is discovered, Papillon is put on half-rations and nearly dies.

After his final stint in solitary, Papillon and Dega ask to be sent to the most isolated offshore island.  There they cobble together houses and start farming.  But Papillon is one stubborn man.  With a fine cast of supporting players including Victor Jory, Anthony Zerbe, and George Colouris.

I’ve seen this a time or two over the years and must have zoned out each time since I remember almost none of it.  That’s funny because I love a good prison escape movie.  This time, however, it hooked me within half an hour and I was engrossed in the story throughout the film’s 2 1/2 hour running time.

I’ve always thought of McQueen as playing his own cool persona but he had to really stretch here and I thought he was pretty wonderful.  Rumor has it McQueen’s Oscar snub resulted from rubbing the wrong studio executives the wrong way.  Hoffman and the rest cast shine as well.  Recommended.

Jerry Goldsmith was nominated for the Oscar for Best Music, Original Score.

Day for Night (La nuit americaine)
Directed by Francois Truffaut
Written by Francois Truffaut, Jean-Louis Richard, and Suzanne Schiffman
1973/France
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Alexandre: [about Julie’s movie star mother) She hated the way we shoot movies – in bits and pieces! I remember escorting her to the premiere of her first big Hollywood movie. A fantastic evening! When the film ended, she sat there, then turned to me and said: “I did all that? All I remember is the waiting.”

Consummate movie fan Francois Truffaut makes the ultimate movie for film buffs.

Director Ferrand (Truffaut) is making a what sounds like a pretty trite melodrama called “Meet Pamela” on location in the French Riviera.  A young Frenchman (played by Alphonse – Jean-Pierre Leaud) and English beauty Pamela (played by Julie – Jacqueline Bisset) fall in love and marry in England.  Several months later the husband takes Pamela home to meet the folks.  Pamela falls in love with Alphonse’s 50-something father (played by Alexandre – Jean-Pierre Aumont) and runs off with him.  Both Alphonse and his mother (played by Severine – Valentina Cortese) are outraged and Alphonse vows revenge. We follow the making of this movie from the first day of production to the last.

The movie begins with several takes of an extra-laden crowd scene.  We observe the intricate choreography necessary to create every day reality.  We gradually learn to know the principals.  Alphonse is in love/lust with script-girl intern Lilian, though she is pretty clearly not as smitten with him.  Severine has developed a drinking problem and finds it hard to remember her lines or follow her blocking.  Julie is recovering from a recent nervous breakdown after which she married her doctor.  Alexandre makes mysterious visits to the local airport everyday.

In contrast to the cast, which seems to have plenty of free time to play musical beds and indulge in tantrums, the crew works at a frantic pace to stay within budget and on schedule despite repeated off-stage gitches that threaten to scuttle the whole production. And the whole way we get an insider view on how movie magic is made.

The fun the cast and crew looked to be having making this “insider” send-up of the movie business made the movie a whole lot of fun for me as well.  All the actors are great in these parts.  There’s quite a lot of Antoine Donel in Leaud’s character.  It’s always entertaining to see him get in one scrape after another due to his immaturity.  I last saw this on original release and it has only risen in my estimation.  Warmly recomended.

Day for Night won the Oscar for Best Foreign-Language Film.  Valentina Cortese received a very well-deserved nomination for Best Supporting Actress.  The film was also nominated for Best Director and Best Writing, Original Screenplay.

American trailer – fortunately I watched the subtitled version

The Sting
Directed by George Roy Hill
Written by David S. Ward
1973/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Johnny Hooker: He’s not as tough as he thinks.
Henry Gondorff: Neither are we.

There’s a reason this is a widely beloved classic.  You’ll get no disagreement from me.

The year is 1936. The film opens in New York where Johnny Hooker (Robert Redford) and colleagues work a scam that parts a sharp dresser from his wallet.  Unfortunately, the victim was a numbers runner for big-time crime boss Doyle Lonnegan (Robert Shaw), who will settle for nothing but murder for revenge.  Johnny’s friend Luther (Robert Earl Jones) is killed and Johnny heads off to Chicago to look up master con artist Henry Gondorff (Paul Newman) who he believes can help him plot the ultimate sting on Lonnegan.

Luther was a popular man and Johnny and Henry easily recruit dozens of pros to help them carry out their scheme.  Henry raises the necessary capital by cheating Lonnegan, who is also cheating, at poker.  Surely everyone reading this knows what happens next.  If not, get busy and see this movie!  With a wonderful cast of supporting actors including Charles Durning as a corrupt cop, Ray Walston as one of the con men, and Eileen Brennan as Newman’s girlfriend.

Whenever I watch this I come out with grins as big as Newman’s and Redford’s at the end.  It’s another of those rare occasions in film history when the talents of all concerned were operating at their height and combined to make magic.  And it reintroduced America to the music of Scott Joplin!  Obviously a must see.

The Sting won Oscars for Best Picture; Best Director; Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Factual Material or Material Not Previously Published or Produced; Best Art Direction-Set Decoration; Best Costume Design; Best Film Editing;Best Music, Scoring Original Song Score and/or Adaptation.  It was nominated for Best Actor (Redford); Best Cinematography and Best Sound.

Fantastic Planet (La planete sauvage)
Directed by Rene Laloux
Written by Rene Laloux and Roland Topor from a novel by Stefan Wul
1973/France/Czechoslovakia
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Narrator: After a while, I lost my intimacy with Tiwa. As she grew up, she gave up her playthings.  Deprived of lessons, I decided to run away.

On the planet of Ygam, giant blue beings called Draags coexist with tiny humanoids called Oms.  Oms can be domesticated and kept as pets.  Wild Oms reproduce prodigiously, hide in trees and caves, and are treated by the Draags as vermin.  Adult Draags spend a good deal of their time in meditation.

As the film begins, a giant blue hand is playing roughly with a Om mother, who is frantically trying to flee with her newborn baby.  The mother “stops moving” and Tiwa, a young Draag, begs her father to let her adopt the baby.  She names him Terr.  All Oms will run away given the slightest opportunity but Terr is controlled remotely by his owner with a collar around his neck.

Draags learn through a device that imparts knowledge permanently into their memory cells.  Terr can get the message too and learns along with Tiwa.  He then runs away with the knowledge device and meets a female who is able to remove his collar.  The two of them join a colony of Oms and Terr shares the knowledge.  There are many clashes on the way to peaceful coexistence of the races.  I loved the ending.

Well, fantastic is right!  Everything about this movie is spendid from the surreal artwork, to the clever story, to the beautiful music.  Take 72 minutes and lose yourself in a different world.

American Trailer (I watched a sub-titled version)

American Graffiti
Directed by George Lucas
Written by George Lucas, Gloria Katz, and Willard Hyuck
1973/US
IMDb Page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Fat City
Directed by John Huston
Written by Leonard Gardner from his novel
1972/US
IDMb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime (free to members)
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Tully: I know how I look. I look like a bum. I am a bum.
Oma: You’re not a bum. If you took a little more pains in your appearance I bet you could even get a job you really liked.
Tully: The job I’d really like hasn’t been invented.

Late in his career, John Huston brings us one of the great boxing movies.

The setting is Stockton, California.  Tully (Stacy Keach) is a washed-up pro boxer.  He is also a down-and-out alcoholic.  He goes to the gym one day to fool around and finds 18-year old Ernie (Jeff Bridges) doing a great job with the punching bag.  He thinks Ernie has real potential and tells him to look up his old manager at another gym. The manager also sees a future for Ernie and takes him on.

Tully spends most of his time in skid row bars.  Other regulars there are Oma (Susan Tyrell) and her boyfriend Earl, who is an African-American.  Oma has quite a mouth on her when she is drunk which is usually.  Eventually, Earl goes to jail and Tully starts living with Oma.

Ernie wins a couple of fights.  He also knocks up his girlfriend Faye (a brunette Candy Clark in her film debut).  He marries her but must get a day job, thus ending his fighting days.  In the meantime, Tully decides to give pro fighting another try, sobers up and goes into training.  This is not so easy to do with Oma around.  I’ll end there.

I’m still waiting to find a John Huston movie I don’t like.  I loved this one.  There’s plenty of boxing but really it’s a character study.  The acting is fantastic.  I was not acquainted with Susan Tyrell and am glad to see she got an Oscar nomination for her performance.  She absolutely disappears into her part.  The men are also great.  This is almost certainly going on to my Favorite New-to-Me Movie of 2020 list.  Recommended.

Super Fly
Directed by Gordon Parks, Jr.
Written by Phillip Fenty
1972/US
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Curtis Mayfield: [singing] Ain’t I clean, bad machine; Super cool, super mean; Feelin’ good, for the man; Super fly, here I stand; Secret stash, heavy bread; Baddest bitches, in the bed; I’m your pusherman, I’m your pusherman; I’m your pusherman…

The soundtrack alone makes this worth seeing.

Youngblood Priest (Ron O’Neal) looks to have it made.  He has the best of everything, a brand-new Cadillac with a Rolls-Royce grille, and rotating black and white girlfriends.  He is a cocaine dealer on the streets of Harlem.

In a story as old as the movies, Priest figures he can get out of the game with a big final score.  The plan is to buy 30 kilos of cocaine for $300,000 and sell it on for a cool million.

Priest contacts his old friend who got him into the business.  The friend is no longer dealing.  He is able to sell Priest a kilo and finally agrees to try to secure 15 kilos for him through his contacts.  Those contacts are quite willing to have Priest as a pusher.  They are less willing to see him leave the game.

This movie was the first to be made and financed entirely by African-Americans.  It’s odd that this is how they chose to portray themselves.  Anyway, the story is fairly predictable and some of the acting is amateur-level.  However, the whole movie is accompanied by an amazing funky soundtrack penned and performed by Curtis Mayfield. This makes the movie go down pretty easily.  Of course you could just listen to the album.

The NAACP condemned the film for glorifying drug use and stereotyping African-Americans.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAh_4s_-tas

The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (Die bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant)
Directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Written by Rainer Werner Fassbinder
1972/West Germany
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Petra von Kant: I think people need each other, they’re made that way. But they haven’t learnt how to live together.

High style, deep emotion, and visual art make up this beautiful, sometimes brutal, film about unrequited love.

Petra von Kant (Margrita Carstensen) is a 35-year-old fashion designer.  She lives with Marlene (Irm Hermann), who does literally everything for her.  This includes catering to her every whim from bringing drinks to dancing.  She also apparently designs all Petra’s clothes and does her writing for her.  It is implied but not explicitly indicated that the two are in a sado-masochistic relationship.  Marlene is a very important character though she does not have a single line of dialogue.

Petra’s friend introduces her to Karin Timm (Hanna Schygulla), who has returned to Germany after the failure of her marriage.  For Petra it is love at first sight.  She invites Karin to move in with her.  They become lovers of sorts though Karin is not about to give up men.  All this is carried out in front of Marlene.  It is not going to end well for anyone concerned.

For a movie that was reportedly written in twelve hours and filmed in 10 days, this looks like several million bucks.  It is one beautiful image after another.  The story is depressing and highly stylized yet I loved this film.  Unlike Godard, Fassbinder uses style to convey meaning and emotion rather than for its own sake.  It’s a story filled with unpleasant people.  I cannot help but recommend it highly.

Criterion Collection: Three Reasons

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (Le charm discret de la bourgeoisie)
Directed by Luis Buñuel
Written by Luis Buñuel and Jean-Claude Carriere
1972/France/Italy/Spain
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime free to members
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Rafael Acosta: We are not against the students, but what can you do with a room full of flies? You take a fly-swatter and Bang! Bang!

This farce is certainly Buñuel’s funniest film and possibly his best.

The story is told as vignettes, including several  interlocking dreams so it’s hard to say where “fact” ends and fiction begins.  Ambassador Rafael Acosta (Fernando Rey) of the Republic of Miranda, a fictitious dictatorship in Latin America, smuggles cocaine using the diplomatic pouch in a scheme with his associates Francois Thevenot and Henri Senechal.  He is playing a cat and mouse game with a pretty young terrorist who is trying to kill him.  He is also having an affair with Thevenot’s wife Simone (Delphine Seyrig).  The Thevenot’s always have Mr. Thevenot’s tipsy sister Florence in tow.  Mr. Senechal is hot and heavy with his wife Alice (Stephane Audran).  The group is eventually completed with the addition of a bishop who becomes the Senechal’s gardener.

These people. who are victim of various degrees of food snobbery and entitlement, are constantly hosting dinners for each other.

Their meals are always disrupted by something absurd.  We get soldiers on army maneuvers, a hit squad, the diners discovering the food is fake and they are actually in a play they don’t know the lines for, etc.  There are also several sequences where random strangers suddenly ask to tell their own dreams.

Biuñuel had a real twinkle in his eye and director and company look to have had a good time making this.  He uses his anti-plot to skewer the Church, middle-class morality, international diplomacy, banana republics, politics, the military and on and on.  The film really is great fun and is highly recommended.

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie won the Oscar for Best Foreign-Language film. Buñuel and Carriere were nominated for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Factual Material or Material Not Previously Published or Produced.

40th Anniversary Re-issue Trailer

The Harder They Come
Directed by Perry Henzell
Written by Perry Henzell and Trevor D. Rhone
1972/Jamaica
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Fandor Channel on Amazon Prime
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

So as sure as the sun will shine
I’m gonna get my share now, what’s mine
And then the harder they come
The harder they fall, one and all – “The Harder They Come” – lyrics by Jimmy Cliff

I love Jimmy Cliff, reggae music and this movie.

Ivan(hoe) Martin (Cliff) is a poor country boy.  His granny dies and he goes to the big city of Kingston, Jamaica to make his fortune.  Unfortunately, Kingston is full of poor young men who can’t catch a break.  Ivan has the same fate as he struggles to get work and keep it. He falls for a preacher’s ward and they begin to live together.  Ivan knows one thing.  He can sure sing.

Ivan goes to a recording studio and cuts the title tune.  He is offered $20 for this amazing song.  He refuses but finds the studio exec has a lock on the local media.  He finally accepts the 20 bucks but the studio exec does not want the record to get wide airplay because he wants to keep Ivan humble and in his pocket.

This does not sit well with Ivan.  He is lured into the ganja trade.  When he kills some cops, his record becomes a big hit and he becomes a fugitive from justice and folk hero.  The movie features several songs by Cliff as well as music from Toots and the Maytalls, David Scott, The Slickers, Desmond Dekker, and the Melodians.

Well, the soundtrack alone is reason enough to see this movie.  The acting is strictly amateur but Henzell really captures the third-world vibe, the grime and poverty, as well as the beauty of the Jamaican countryside.  If you dig the music, you must see the film.

Retrospective trailer

Cliff sings “Many Rivers to Cross” on Saturday Night Live – gives me the chills