Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! Directed by Russ Meyer Written by Jackie Moran; story by Russ Meyer 1965/USA Eve Productions
First viewing/Amazon Instant
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
[box] Varla: I never try anything. I just do it. And I don’t beat clocks, just people! Wanna try me?[/box]
Easy to see why this is a cult film. Harder to see why we all have to watch it before we die.
Three stone cold vixen go-go dancers – Varla, Rosa and Billy – take a car trip in the desert and end up kidnapping a bikini-clad girl after killing her boyfriend. They come across an old man who is reputedly holding big bucks at home and seduce his sons to help get at the dough. But is it really going to be that easy?
This is certainly unlike anything that precedes it. It is campy, raunchy, dirty fun. Liked the proto-punk sound track. I’m not so sure that I will be watching again though.
The War Game Directed by Peter Watkins Written by Peter Watkins 1965/UK British Broadcasting Corporation
First viewing/Vimeo
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
[box] Commentator: These children are orphans of the attack. They were each asked what they now wanted to grow up to be.
Child: I don’t want to be nothing. [/box]
Excellent TV docu-drama about how British civilians would be affected by “limited nuclear war”
The BBC uses its standard newsreel format to make the radioactive and other fallout of “Hiroshima” size nukes on Britain real. We see the shortages, overcrowding, horrific injuries and slow, agonizing radiation poisoning. Message to leaders who see facile answers to international conflict in a nuclear option is still heartbreakingly relevant.
I was so glad to find this on Vimeo – Thanks Steve! It was well worth seeing. Recommended.
Despite the fact that the film is entirely fictional, it won the Academy Award for Best Documentary, Feature.
Tokyo Olympiad (Tokyo Orinpikku) Directed by Kon Ichikawa Written by Kon Ichikawa, Yoshio Shirasaka, Shuntaro Tanikawa, and Natto Wada 1965/Japan Organizing Committee for the Games of the XVIII Olympiad/Toho Company
Repeat viewing/FilmStruck
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
[box] I’ve made various types of films: period dramas, modern dramas, films set in the Meiji period. But I don’t make any distinctions between them – they’re all films. True, with a period drama, there are certain conventions. With a modern drama, there is a different style of shooting. So you have to make changes according to the genre, but I never think, “This is a period drama, so I have to shoot it in such and such a way.” Films are films. If you don’t understand that, then you start filming lies. – Kon Ichikawa[/box]
Beautiful, thrilling document of Tokyo’s last Olympic moment by one of Japan’s great directors.
Ichikawa takes a great variety of approaches to covering the 1964 Olympics. Some segments are straightforward depictions of events. Others focus on individual athletes. Slow-motion sequences highlight the beauty of trained bodies in motion.
But it’s not just athletes. The fans in the stadium and environs get a loving look see. I read that the Olympic Organizing Committee had hoped for a “commercial film” glorifying Japanese athletes and winners. Instead it got this humanistic version which is so much more.
Kon Ichikawa obviously loved people and the outcome was a loving portrait of a time and nation with all their warts. At three hours, he maintained interest throughout. I think Ichikawa is underrated. The Kurosawa-Ozu-Mizoguchi triumvirate should be a quartet. His output including The Burmese Harp, Fires on the Plain, An Actor’s Revenge, and this film certainly merit greater recognition for the director. Highly recommended.
Chimes at Midnight (AKA “Falstaff”; Campadas a medianoche) Directed by Orson Welles Written by Orson Welles from plays by William Shakespeare based on Holinshed’s “Chronicles” 1965/Spain/Switzerland Internacional Films/Alpine Films First viewing/Netflix rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
[box] Falstaff: My King! My Jove! I speak to thee my heart!
Prince Hal: I know thee not, old man; fall to thy prayers!/ How ill white hairs become a fool and jester![/box]
I wasn’t really in the mood for Shakespeare, but Chimes at Midnight lured me in with excellent acting and striking camera work.
Welles condensed episodes from Richard III;Henry IV, Parts I and II:Henry V; and (I think) The Merry Wives of Windsor into one story centering on the friendship between Prince Hal (Keith Baxter) (later Henry V) and the obese, earthy and witty older man Falstaff (Orson Welles). Prince Hal enjoys a life of debauchery in the company of Falstaff and his cronies while his father, Henry IV (John Gielgud), despairs the decadence of his son and heir.
Prince Hal is all too aware, however, that the Crown will occupy him exclusively once it is his. He coldly casts off his one-time mentor. With Jeanne Moreau as prostitute Doll Tearsheet and Margaret Rutherford as Mistress Quickly.
Welles plays Falstaff as a sort of naughty Santa Claus and is downright lovable in this part. The production is sumptuous and and contains everything from battle scenes to farce to intimate character study. Welles’s directorial imagination is still working at full fever pitch in this, his own favorite of his films. Recommended.
Alphaville (Alphaville, une etrange aventure de Lemmy Caution) Directed by Jean-Luc Godard Written by Jean-Luc Godard 1965/France/Italy Andre Michelin Productions/Filmstudio/Chaumiane
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
[box] Alpha 60: Once we know the number one, we believe that we know the number two, because one plus one equals two. We forget that first we must know the meaning of plus.[/box]
Second viewing confirmed my opinion that Godard is just too full of himself for me.
The story takes place some time in the future in a city called Alphaville that is run by the Alpha 60 computer and logic. Alphaville looks exactly like the seedier side of 1965 Paris. Our hero secret agent Lemmy Caution (AKA Ivan Johnson) (Eddie Constantine) arrives from the Outlands (New York) on a mission to bring back Professor Leonard Nosferatu Von Braun, who controls the computer, dead or alive.
First he meets Von Braun’s daughter Natasha (Anna Karina) who has been assigned to accompany him on his travels through Alphaville. Then he meets with fellow secret agent Henri Dickson (Akim Tamiroff) who is on the verge of either suicide or murder.
Lemmy and Natasha fall in love – an emotion that is unknown and forbidden in Alphaville. The bulk of the movie is occupied by cool looking strangeness and pretentious philosophy.
Godard reminds me of a precocious teenager who thinks it is brilliant to just stuff every random idea that comes into his head, no matter how obvious or inane, into his movies. My readers are already sick of hearing about what I think about that.
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (Tini zabutyck predkiv) Directed by Sergei Parajanov Written by Ivan Chendej and Sergei Parajanov from a novel by Mikhaylo Kotsyubinsky 1964/USSR Dovzhenko Film Studios
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
[box] Our history begins before we are born. We represent the hereditary influences of our race, and our ancestors virtually live in us. James Nasmyth [/box]
Amazing cinematography and imagery of a totally alien (to me) culture highlight a one-of-a-kind film.
The story illustrates the ancient customs of the Hutsul people of Ukraine through the life of one man, Ivan. As a boy, his sole surviving brother loses his life protecting Ivan from a falling tree. At the funeral, evil Yurko kills Ivan’s father. Young Ivan meets Yurko’s daughter Marichka. Playmates become lovers but their Romeo and Juliet affair is ended by tragedy.
Ivan wanders grief-stricken and lost for quite some time but eventually marries the seductive Palagna. He is still in love with Marichka however and their union bears no children. In a bid to win Ivan completely, Palagna consults Yurko, who is a sorcreer. She begins an affair with him …
This movie is a complete visual and sonic feast. It is surreal yet hyper-detailed. One niggle is that the plot is more or less a vehicle for showing wedding, funeral, Christmas, church, etc. customs, folkdress, etc., etc. I thought it dragged by the end though it may be that I was just suffering sensory overload. Definitely a must-see however.
The Sound of Music Directed by Robert Wise Written by Ernest Lehmann from the stage musical book by Russell Crouse and Howard Lindsay and the book by Maria von Trapp 1965/USA Robert Wise Productions/Argyle Enterprises
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
[box] The Baroness: Somewhere out there is a lady who I think will never be a nun. Auf Wiedersehen, darling.[/box]
I had forgotten just how beautiful Robert Wise made Austria look.
As the film begins, Maria von Trapp (Julie Andrews) is a novice nun in an Austrian covent. Although she is a thoroughly good person, discipline is not her strong suit. Her impulsive love of life causes her to be late to everything, for example. Mother Superior (Peggy Wood) decides she needs a trial of life outside the convent to discover if she has a true vocation as a nun. She is sent to be the new governess to wealthy widower Captain Von Trapp’s brood of seven children.
Initially Maria and the very strict and stern Captain don’t see eye to eye about child-rearing. But eventually she wins over his mind and heart. The entire story is played out against the background of the Nazi anschluss, which the Captain vehemently opposes. With Eleanor Parker as the Captain’s fiancee and Richard Hayden as an impresario.
As a travelogue, this musical works wonderfully well. It’s a classic musical and though some may find it a tad too saccharine, the songs are good and Andrews was born to sing them. Recommended particularly as a family film.
The Sound of Music won Academy Awards in the categories of Best Picture, Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Sound and Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment. It was nominated in the categories of Best Actress; Best Supporting Actress (Peggy Wood); Best Cinematography, Color; Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color; and Best Costume Design, Color.
Pierrot le fou Directed by Jean-Luc Godard Written by Jean-Luc Godard 1965/France/Italy Films Georges de Bouregard/Rome Paris Productions/SNC/Dino de Laurentiis Cinematografia
First viewing/Netflix rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
[box] Samuel Fuller: Film is like a battleground. There’s love, hate, action, violence, death… in one word: emotion.[/box]
The good: Raoul Coutard’s glorious color cinematography and Anna Karina’s face. The bad: Everything else.
The plot such as it is involves the adventures and relationship of Ferdinand (Jean-Paul Belmodo) and Marianne (Anna Karina) who for some reason are on the run from terrorists. Marianne insists on calling Ferdinand Pierrot. They basically drift along having interminable pointless arguments and discussions about life and art. Then comes the abrupt explosive ending.
I’m not going to waste a lot of time analyzing this film. I find Godard to be totally insufferable. The only thing that keeps me watching these is the List and the often beautiful images that go along with his pretentious (lack of) storytelling.
Onibaba Directed by Kaneto Shindo Written by Kaneto Shindo 1964/Japan
Kindai Eiga Kyokai/Toho Eiga Co Ltd.
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
Woman: I’m not a demon! I’m a human being!
Beauty and horror meet in this savage film.
In 14th Century Japan, the mother and wife of a missing conscriptee eke out a meager living by killing vulnerable samurai, selling their belongings, and then dumping the bodies into a deep pit. The murders are assisted by the head-high grasses that surround their hut.
Into this milieu arrives Hachi, a neighbor who accompanied the missing man into battle. He assures the women that their loved one is dead. Mom can’t forgive Hachi but he easily seduces the daughter into secret nightly lovemaking sessions. When Mom finds out she does everything in her power to prevent the meetings.
She is unsuccessful until alone one night she comes across a samurai wearing a ghastly demon mask. He informs her that the mask is to conceal his face, the most handsome in all Japan. The meeting cuts the samurai’s life expectancy short and gives Mom another idea for splitting up the lovers.
This movie is gruesome in the extreme. The killings, including one of a dog, are brutal. Yet at the same time the supernatural elements have a stark grandeur and Shindo’s vision of the natural world is lyrical. Highly recommended.
Mary Poppins Directed by Robert Stevenson Written by Bill Walsh and Don DaGradi from books by P.J. Travers 1964/USA Walt Disney Productions
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
[box] Mary Poppins: You know, you *can* say it backwards, which is “docious-ali-expi-istic-fragil-cali-rupus” – but that’s going a bit too far, don’t you think?[/box]
A treat at all ages.
The Banks children, Jane and Michael, go through nannies at a rapid rate. The latest to leave in a huff is Katie Nanna (Elsa Lanchester). What the children would really like is attention from their workaholic banker father (David Tomlinson) and sufragette mother (Glynnis Johns). Like a miracle, Mary Poppins blows in on a favorable wind to make everything all better. She introduces the children to Burt (Dick Van Dyke), a cockney jack of all trades, and takes them on fabulous adventures.
The little troupe travels to the English country side where they have fun at a carnival, on the farm, and in a fox hunt and over the roofs of London with the chimney sweeps. Finally, Mary’s suggestion that Mr. Banks take the children for an outing to his bank eliminates the need for her services. With Hermoine Baddeley as a maid, Arthur Treacher as a constable, Ed Wynne as Uncle Albert and Jane Darwell as the Bird Woman.
I’ve loved this movie since it came out and nobody’s going to change my mind now. In fact, watching it this time I was amazed at how fast I was totally immersed in the story and music. Dick Van Dyke’s execrable Cockney accent even had its peculiar charm. Julie Andrews is the glue that holds the whole thing together. She has a certain charming tartness that helps all that sugar go down. Recommended.
Mary Poppins won Academy Awards in the categories of Best Actress; Best Film Editing; Best Effects, Special Visual Effects; Best Music, Original Song (“Chim-Chim-Chiree”); and Best Music, Substantially Original Score. It was nominated in the categories of Best Picture; Best Director; Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium; Best Cinematography, Color; Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color; Best Costume Design, Color; Best Sound; and Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment.
I’ve been a classic movie fan for many years. My original mission was to see as many movies as I could get my hands on for every year from 1929 to 1970. I have completed that mission.
I then carried on with my chronological journey and and stopped midway through 1978. You can find my reviews of 1934-1978 films and “Top 10” lists for the 1929-1936 and 1944-77 films I saw here. For the past several months I have circled back to view the pre-Code films that were never reviewed here.
I’m a retired Foreign Service Officer living in Indio, California. When I’m not watching movies, I’m probably traveling, watching birds, knitting, or reading.
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