Category Archives: 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Bonnie and Clyde
Directed by Arthur Penn
Written by David Newman and Robert Benton
1967/US
Warner Brothers/Seven Arts; Tatira-Hiller Productions
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Farmer: All I can say is, they did right by me – and I’m bringin’ me and a mess of flowers to their funeral.[/box]

Did this change Hollywood films forever or just for the next ten years?  Was it a change for the better?

Bonnie Parker (Faye Dunaway) is beyond bored working as a waitress in her small Texas town.  She needs excitement – sexual excitement in particular.  She meets handsome Clyde Barrow (Warren Beatty) as he attempts to steal her mother’s car.  Clyde admits right away that he is an ex-con who robs banks.  That sounds plenty exciting to Bonnie and she and Clyde take off on a crime spree that lasts for most of the film.  Unfortunately, Clyde’s not up to much in the sexual excitement department.  Nonetheless, there is a real love between the two.

Along the way, Bonnie and Clyde hook up with Clyde’s brother Buck (Gene Hackman) and his irritating new wife Blanche (Estelle Parsons).  Completeing the gang is driver C.W. Moss (Michael J. Pollard).   As the spree continues, the gang’s escapes from the law become increasingly violent.  It doesn’t help that the gang attempted to humiliate a very determined Texas Ranger.  With Gene Wilder in his film debut as an undertaker who gets carjacked.

You can feel the electricity of the “new” surging through this picture from the cast, to the screenplay, through the style.  Sexually frank and graphically violent, Bonnie and Clyde prefaces work that would grow even more so throughout the seventies.

For the first time on this viewing, I was bothered by the misanthropy of the thing.  All the characters, even the leads, are laughably odd.  It’s sophisticated enough to also earn them some empathy, though.  When I suspect a movie is also laughing at its audience it starts to lose points with me.  Not many as this remains an absolute must-see.  The ending is like nothing we had never seen before.  Stunning.

Estelle Parsons won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.  Burnett Guffey won for Best Cinematography.  Bonnie and Clyde was nominated in the categories of Best Picture; Best Actor; Best Actress; Best Supporting Actor (Hackman); Best Supporting Actor (Pollard); Best Director; Best Original Screenplay; and Best Costume Design.

Clip

All attempts to add Georgie Fame’s rendition of the unused theme song (The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde) failed.  Worth looking up!

The Producers
Directed by Mel Brooks
Written by Mel Brooks
1967/US
Crossbow Productions/Springtime Productions/U-M Productions
Repeat viewing/Amazon Instant
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Franz Liebkind: Hitler… there was a painter! He could paint an entire apartment in ONE afternoon! TWO coats![/box]

Like his later films, Mel Brooks’s film debut is totally over-the-top – and very funny.

Washed-up Broadway producer Max Bialystock (Zero Mostel) raises money for his productions by making love to his backers – all of whom are little old ladies. All his shows flop,  Timid accountant Leo Bloom (Gene Wilder) arrives to inspect the books and points out that Max has skimmed money from one of his shows.  He explains how, theoretically, Max could make millions from a guaranteed flop.  Max is immediately seized with the idea and sets about convincing poor Leo to join in.

The two search far and wide for the perfect script.  They find this in Nazi fanatic Franz Liebkind’s libretto for “Springtime for Hitler”.  They can then concentrate on finding the perfect Hitler. (Dick Shawn) and perfect director.  With Estelle Winwood as an old lady and Lee Meredith as a hot Swedish secretary.

Somehow novice Brooks took his novice cast and created a work of outrageous comedic genius.  Gene Wilder was so perfect for his part!  You look at each part and think this is really too much.  But you can’t help laughing. Highly recommended if you are in the mood for some nonsense.

Mel Brooks won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Gene Wilder was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar.

“Springtime for Hitler” – Just saw this yesterday and it made me laugh out loud again today!

The Graduate
Directed by Mike Nichols
Written by Buck Henry and Calder Willingham from a novel by Charles Webb
1967/USA
Lawrence Turman
Repeat viewing/my DVD collection
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Mr. Braddock: Ben, what are you doing?

Benjamin: Well, I would say that I’m just drifting. Here in the pool.[/box]

Loved this movie when I saw it in high school and love it still. Maybe you had to be there.

Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) returns home to Beverly Hills after earning his Bachelor’s degree.  He is completely adrift.  None of the alternative futures his parents are imagining for him – “plastics”, graduate school, marriage into their set – appeals in the least.  But at his welcoming home party, Mrs. Robinson presents herself as a diversion from his alienation.  She is the wife of his father’s partner and seduces him without pretense or qualms.  He eventually gives in.  Neither’s heart is engaged.

Act II begins when Benjamin’s parents and Mr. Robinson all insist that Ben take Elaine Robinson out.  He finds himself more or less forced to despite the fierce resistance of his older lover.  Things get worse when he falls in love with Elaine.

The Criterion Blu-Ray is loaded with features and I binged on both commentaries and the film yesterday.  Stephen Soderbergh interviews Mike Nichols in one of them and the director provides many stories and insights.  The plot description doesn’t convey just how funny and biting the story is.  The camera work and directorial style are also unlike anything we had seen before.  Highly recommended.

Mike Nichols won the Academy Award for Best Director.  The film was nominated in the categories of Best Picture; Best Actor; Best Actress (Bancroft); Best Supporting Actress (Ross); Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium; and Best Cinematography.  According to IMDb, this was the last time a film won for Best Director and failed to garner any other awards.

Le Samourai
Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville
Written by Jean-Pierre Melville and Georges Pellegrin from a novel by Joan McLeod
1967/France/Italy
CICC/Fida Cinematografica/etc.
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Jef Costello: I never lose. Never really.[/box]

Melville’s excellent neo-noir and its anti-hero influenced many Hollywood films of the late sixties and beyond.

Jef Costello (Alain Delon) is a hit man.  His meticulous attention to detail has ensured that he has no criminal record.  We follow him, sans dialogue, as he plans his next contract on a night club owner.  The hit is successful but he is spotted leaving the club by its pianist (Cathy Rosier).  He gets lucky when she gives him a break during the police line-up.  This does not persuade a crafty and persistent Police Commissaire (Francois Perier) and he begins a relentless pursuit of his man.

His employers did not expect “problems” and Jef finds that they are now after him as well. The chase is on and he becomes increasingly desperate.  Will he get sloppy after all these years?  With real-life wife Nathalie Delon as Jef’s prostitute “girlfriend”.

I really enjoyed this movie – perhaps more on this second viewing than I did on the first. The metro chase that is the crowning set-piece reminds me so much of others I have seen in later Hollywood movies.  Delon is at his icy best and Perier is fantastic as a very smart cop.   The jazzy score is a gem.  Highly recommended.

Cool Hand Luke
Directed by Stuart Rosenberg
Written by Don Pearce and Frank Pierson from Pearce’s novel
1967/USA
Jalem Productions
Repeat viewing/Amazon Instant
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Captain: You run one time, you got yourself a set of chains. You run twice you got yourself two sets. You ain’t gonna need no third set, ’cause you gonna get your mind right.[/box]

The Christ symbolism and anti-establishment message haven’t aged all that well.  The performances, however, will be entertaining us for years to come.

We meet Luke (Paul Newman), a good ol’ Southern boy, as he is decapitating  parking meters.  We learn during the course of the movie that Luke is by nature reckless and the crazier the stunt he pulls the better he likes it.  He is sent up for two years to a work camp where he will serve his time on a chain gang maintaining roads.  The harsh bosses and guards faze Luke not in the least.  He becomes the idol of his fellow prisoners.  He even earns the trust and friendship of the big man in the cell-block, Dragline (George Kennedy), after a rocky start.

Luke’s problems start with the first of his escape attempts.  After this, the tone darkens as the authorities attempt to break Luke’s unbreakable spirit.  With Jo Van Fleet in a small but memorable role as Luke’s mother and Strother Martin unforgettable as “The Captain”.

Well, I guess they lied to us when they said that I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932) put a nail in the coffin of the chain gang system.  It apparently was alive and well in Florida, where the film was set, in 1967.  There is some really heavy-handed stuff here, including a shot of Newman laying on a table that looks like a crucifixion.  But mostly it is kept fairly light and the largely male cast shines, with Newman incredible in the lead.  Still a must-see despite my minor reservations.

George Kennedy won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.  The film was nominated in the categories of Best Actor; Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium; and Best Music, Original Music Score.

Andrei Rublev
Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky
Written by Andrey Konchalovskiy and Andrei Tarkovsky
1966/USSR
Mosfilm/Tvorsheskoe Obedinienie i Kinorabotnikov
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Andrei Rublyov: I am what I am. You couldn’t teach me integrity.[/box]

Frame after exquisite frame make up this sublime meditation on art, religion, faith, and life.

The setting is early 15th Century Russia.  The film pivots on real-life master icon painter Andrei Rublev.  Rather than an autobiography though, we get a complex portrait of medieval Russia delivered through several episodes, some of which do not feature Rublev. Included is a Tartar invasion, monastic life with a sort of Mozart-Salieri artistic jealousy thing going on, a very early hot air balloon, etc. etc.

My favorite episode is the one where a Prince orders a young man, the only survivor of a dynasty of bell-makers, to cast a humungous church bell.  The penalty for the bell’s failure to ring will be quick execution.  We get deep into the casting process and it is just fascinating.

This is a very long but endlessly rewarding film.  In only his second feature film, Tarkovsky pulls off shots that are literally jaw-dropping in their scale and beauty.  It ends by transitioning from B&W to glorious color as Tarkovsky takes an up-close view of Rublev’s icons.  The score is fantastic.  Very highly recommended.

I am ending 1966 on a high note.  I was stunned when I discovered this was not a List film for 1966 but it turns out that is the IMDb date based on a private screening for Soviet authorities.  The Book has the film dated 1969, which is when it was first publicly screened in the USSR.  1967 here we come!

Au hasard Balthazar
Directed by Robert Bresson
Written by Robert Bresson
1966/France/Sweden
Argos Films/Athos Films/Parc Film/Svensk Filmindustri
First viewing/Netflix rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Gerard: Lend him to us.

Marie’s mother: He’s worked enough. He’s old. He’s all I have.

Gerard: Just for a day.

.Marie’s mother: Besides, he’s a saint. [/box]

Visually stunning film but sad film that chronicles the suffering of a young girl and the donkey she adopted.

Marie and her family seem to live an idyllic life in rural France.  The children come upon a nursing donkey colt and beg to adopt it.  Father is eventually agreeable and he is brought home, where the children dote on him.  The donkey is baptized Balthazar.  When he is old enough, he is put to work hauling loads on the farm and pulling the donkey cart that the family travels in.

The family becomes increasingly impoverished,  Years later Marie has the misfortune of meeting and falling in love with a thorough delinquent named Gerard.  Gerard runs with a gang of teenagers who are constantly up to no good.  He finds malicious ways of exploiting Balthazar.  Balthazar falls into various hands, all of which mistreat him.  But he is stoic to the end.  Not so Marie, who has by now become corrupted.

This movie is about saintliness with Balthazar being the true saint – faithful and long-suffering.  Humans pale in comparison.  This is not an easy film to watch as there is a fair amount of animal cruelty.  I can see why it is considered a masterpiece though. It is visually stunning in that slow Bressonian way and the music is exquisite.  Amateur acting can at times be a drawback.

Closely Watched Trains (Ostre sledovane vlaky)
Directed by Jiri Menzel
Bohumil Hrabal and Jiri Menzel from Hrabal’s novel
1966/Czechoslovakia
Flivome studio Barrandov
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Max: A woman is nature’s finest jewel.[/box]

A totally charming coming-of-age comedy.

The setting is German-occupied WWII Czechoslovakia.  Young Milos Hrma comes from a long line of men who have managed to survive without actually doing any physical work. As such, he is happy to get an apprenticeship as a train dispatcher.  In this capacity, he seems mainly to observe the few trains that pass through his small town station.  His co-workers do very little work either.  Instead, the three men spend all their time chasing after women in some way, shape, or form.

Poor Milos is in love with “nice girl” train conductor Masa.  She wants to take their relationship to the next level but when he tries he cannot perform.  This leads to him to pursue anything in a skirt, no matter how unlikely,  who will allow him to practice for the next time.  The Germans put in an appearance when one of his co-workers gets in trouble after he takes up with the telegraph operator by playing a game of strip poker that ends in hanky-panky with a rubber stamp.

I was smiling throughout the film and broke out into audible chuckles several times.  I find Czech cinema of this period to combine the wry, political, satiric, and tragic in the best possible way.  The performances are memorable.  Recommended.

American trailer

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Il buono,il brutto, il cattivo)
Directed by Sergio Leone
Written by Agenore Incrocci, Furio Scarpelli, Luciano Vincenzone and Sergio Leone
1966/Italy/Spain/West Germany
Produzione Europee Associate/Arturo Gonzalez Produciones Cinematograficas/Constantin Films
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Tuco: When you have to shoot, shoot. Don’t talk.[/box]

This may not be the “greatest” film of 1966 but it is certainly my favorite!

“The Good” is Blondie (Clint Eastwood) – good in the sense that he’s the least bad of these greedy treasure hunters.  “The Ugly” is crazy Tuco (Eli Wallach).  He and Blondie run a scam in which Blondie “captures” the wanted Tuco, claims the reward, and then shoots down his “friend” just before the hangman drags the floor out from under him.  Blondie and Tuco also like to play dirty, sadistic tricks on each other.  “The Bad” is “Angel Eyes” (Lee Van Cleef) whom you really don’t want to run into.  He racks up most of the body count early in the film.

Tuco and Blondie run across a dying Confederate soldier who tells Tuco the name of the cemetery a large sum of gold is buried in and Blondie the name on the grave.  After many adventures, the three wind up at the same place for one of the greatest showdowns in movie history.

I love this movie just as much after my tenth viewing as after the first.  The humor relieves the violence and the actors are all more than perfect for their roles.  Reportedly Eastwood was miffed that Eli Wallach was given the best part.  He was absolutely right.  Also love, love, love the operatic staging.  I watched the three-hour director’s cut.  I thought the version I saw in the theater was perfect.  This didn’t need to be stretched out.

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf
Directed by Mike Nichols
Written by Ernest Lehman from a play by Edward Albee
1966/USA
Warner Bros./Chenault Productions
First viewing/Netflix rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] George: And that’s how you play “Get the Guests”.[/box]

This goes immediately on top of my Best New-to- Me Films of 2019 list. I don’t see how the play could have been adapted any better.

It is 2 AM and all concerned have been drinking since 9 PM at a party.  George (Richard Burton) is an Assoicate Professor in the History Department at a private college.  His wife Martha is the college president’s daughter.  George evidently has been a major disappointment to both his wife and her father.  Martha has invited a younger couple to their home for after party drinks.  Nick (George Segal) is the new guy in the Biology Department.  His wife Honey (Sandy) is a ditzy blonde with a weak stomach.

Even before the guests arrive, George and Martha are at each other’s throats. They declare “total war” and the barbs and insults continue in full force before their embarrassed guests.

When Martha reveals a family secret, the usually mild-mannered George goes into maximum overdrive.

I don’t generally enjoy watching people  being cruel to each other – one reason I have avoided watching this for so long.  But I do love clever, penetrating dialogue and the film is jam-packed with it. This really must be the apex of the career of both Burton and Taylor. The actors wouldn’t come to mind as exactly right for the parts, yet they carry off their roles brilliantly.    The ending got me really thinking which is always a major bonus.  Highly recommended.

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? won Academy Awards in the categories of Best Actress; Best Supporting Actress; Best Cinematography, Black-and-White; Best Art Direction/Set Decoration, Black-and-Whte; and Best Costume Design, Black-and-White.  It was nominated in the categories of Best Picture; Best Director; Best Actor; Best Supporting Actor; Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium; Best Sound; Best Film Editing; Best Music, Original Movie Score.  This was the last year in which the Academy divided the technical awards between black-and-white and color films.

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? was the first film to require that children under 18 be accompanied by a parent.

Trailer

Liz Taylor’s awesome Bette Davis impression