Category Archives: 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

All That Jazz
Directed by Bob Fosse
Written by Robert Alan Arthur and Bob Fosse
1979/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/DVD
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Joe Gideon: [to God, while wandering the hospital after surgery] What’s the matter? Don’t you like musical comedy?

Roy Scheider is amazing in Bob Fosse’s unique semi-autobiographical musical.

Joe Gideon (Scheider) is a speed-dropping, hard drinking, womanizing genius. He has no morals but he sure can choreograph and direct.

As the film begins, Joe is visited by Angelique, the Angel of Death (Jessica Lange, all in white). She is mercilessly truthful with Joe about his many vices but principally his constant lying and game playing.

Joe has a new movie called The Standup waiting to premiere (an obvious reference to Fosse’s Lenny (1974). He is also casting for a new Broadway musical. We watch that production go from audition to sometime in the middle of rehearsals. We see some elaborate numbers being choreographed. We never really learn what the musical is about because the plot of the actual film is about Joe’s last weeks before his death.

Joe is constantly accompanied in his delirious substance fueled reveries by ex-wife Audrey (Leland Palmer), girlfriend Kate Jagger (Ann Reinking), bimbo Victoria (Deborah Geffner), and daughter Michelle (Erzsebet Foldi). He has treated all these ladies very badly.

Joe continues to abuse his body in every way possible until he has his inevitable heart attack. With Ben Vereen as a sort of MC.

I last saw this on original release when it was all a little bit too weird for me. This time I loved it! It’s a great film that wraps brilliant choreography, biting wit, and something to think about in one spectacular package. All the actors are great but I have a special affection for Jessica Lange. And Scheider is a phenomenon. He’s good in every movie he is in and here he has a chance to lay it all on the line. Recommended.

All That Jazz won Oscars for Best Art Direction – Set Decoration, Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing, and Best Adapted Score.  It was nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Cinematography.

Mad Max
Directed by George Miller
Written by James McCausland, George Miller and Byron Kennedy
1979/Australia
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Nightrider: Born with a steering wheel in his hand and lead in his foot. He is the Nightrider cruising at the speed of fright! This is the Nightrider, and we ain’t never coming back! I’m a fuel-injected suicide machine! I am a rocker! I am a roller! I am the out-of-controller! I am the Nightrider!

If you like brutal violence, explosions and the squealing of tires, this might be the movie for you. Mel Gibson’s film debut made him a star and this blockbuster provided the template for others in coming decades.

The year is sometime in the near future. The setting is outback Australia. Anarchy has overtaken society. Max works for a relatively weak police force trying to keep the peace for the populace by taking out the violent, sadistic motorcycle gangs that are terrorizing the countryside. Later when the gang gravely injures his partner and kills his his wife and child, Max’s pursuit of the gang becomes personal and he earns the name “Mad Max”.

I’m not a big fan of explosions, brutal violence, and screeching cars. So this was not made for me. It works well for what it is.

The Marriage of Maria Braun
Directed by Ranier Werner Fassbinder
Written by Ranier Werner Fassbinder, Pea Frohlich and Peter Marthesheimer
1979/West Germany
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Karl Oswald: Afraid someone will think we’re having an affair?
Maria Braun: I don’t care what people think. I do care what you think. And you’re not having an affair with me. I’m having an affair with you.

I love Fassbinder and this movie has become a favorite on first viewing.

Maria (Hanna Schygulla) marries Hermann Braun (Klaus Lowitsch) during the final days of WWII. They enjoy half a day and a whole night together before he is sent to the front. He is then listed MIA for months and months. She refuses to believe he is dead and searches for him at train stations for awhile then gives up looking and gets a job as a bar girl at a US GI bar. She takes up almost immediately with a generous black soldier.

Later, Hermann returns and finds her in the arms of the soldier. But he doesn’t stick around long as he takes the rap for a crime Maria has committed and goes to jail.

Maria faithfully visits him. She launches herself into big business with the help of another lover but Hermann is the only man for Maria. Maria is a great success but this will not prevent the story in proceeding to an unforgettable ironic climax.

This film has many things to say about German post-war politics, the German Economic miracle, and the vagaries of love and human nature. Schygulla is simply mesmerizing and the film is shot with the utmost style and care. Highly recommended.

Shanghai Express
Directed by Josef von Sternberg
Written by Jules Furthman based on a story by Harry Hervey
1932/US
Paramount Pictures
IMDb Page
Repeat viewing/Criterion Channel
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Shanghai Lily: Well, Doc, I’ve changed my name.
Captain Donald ‘Doc’ Harvey: Married?
Shanghai Lily: No. It took more than one man to change my name to Shanghai Lily.

Von Sternberg avoids the excesses of some of his later films and puts together an exciting fast-paced thriller. But the highlight as always is the way von Sternberg’s camera makes love to Dietrich’s face. Anna May Wong is also iconic in this one.

In a rather “Stagecoach”-like plot, several strangers board the train from Peking to Shanghai during the Chinese Civil War. These include the notorious Shanghai Lily (Dietrich); shady Chinese Lady Hui Fei (Wong); Captain Donald Harvey (Clive Brook), embittered former lover of Lily; Sam Salt (Eugene Pallette) a gambler; Mr. Carmichael a disapproving preacher; and Henry Chang (Warner Oland) a duplicitous Eurasian.

Lily and Donald encounter each other early on and spar and argue throughout the film. Mid-trip Chang reveals himself to be a rebel leader and wants to find a passenger influential enough to trade for a comrade captured by the other side. The women are as pawns but in the end it is they that vanquish the bad guys.

I’m prepared to be corrected but I think this may possibly be the most beautiful and glamorous Dietrich ever looked on film. Sternberg seems to be in a frenzy of sado-masocistic delight as he films her in and through every conceivable sheer fabric.

The one weak point in the film was Clive Brook. He comes off as stiff, stodgy, haughty and the last man on earth someone like Dietrich would take up with. I enjoy this one whenever I see it and highly recommend it.

The Criterion Channel is featuring a collection of pre-Code films produced by Paramount this month, several of which I have never seen. I’ll be dipping into that here and there.

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Clueless
Directed by Amy Heckerling
Written by Amy Heckerling
1995/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Mel: Do you know what time it is?
Cher: A watch doesn’t really go with this outfit, daddy.

I am currently re-rereading Jane Austen’s “Emma” so I thought I should do a re-watch of this modern reboot. It’s far broader comedy than Austen ever dreamed of but it’s pretty good.

Cher (Alicia Silverstone) is the daughter of a high-powered attorney. Her hobbies are clothes shopping, applying makeup, and persuading her teachers and others to cut her undeserved breaks. Her best friend Dionne (Stacy Dash) is cut from the same cloth. They consider themselves the most popular girls at Beverly Hills High.

Cher succeeds in getting her debate teacher (Wallace Shawn) to raise her grade by surreptitiously getting him together with a wallflower civics teacher.

So when Cher spots cute stoner Tai (Brittany Murphy) she is ready to launch her career with the in crowd and make another match. Will Cher wise up and stop being such an entitled brat?

The film borrows only certain elements of the novel’s plot and I found its heroine far less sympathetic. It’s more a farce than a comedy of manners. But it’s kind of fun.

The Jerk
Directed by Carl Reiner
Written by Steve Martin, Carl Gottlieb, and Michael Elias
1979/US
IMDb Page
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Navin R. Johnson: Are you a model?
Marie: No. I’m a cosmetologist.
Navin R. Johnson: Really? A cosmetologist? That’s unbelievable. That’s impressive. Must be tough handling the weightlessness.

I hate comedies that try to make us laugh with stupid jokes and gags. This film is a giant exception.

As the movie begins Navin R. Johnson (Steve Martin) is a bum on skid row. He tells us the story of his life as the film segues into flashback. Navin was raised by poor black sharecroppers in the South believing he was their birth child. On his birthday, his mother informs him he was adopted. He determines to make his own way through the world.

We follow Martin through a couple of jobs – in a gas station and with a carnival. He is incompetent at everything he does. And when a sniper wants to shoot a random stranger he chooses him. After this adventure, he meets his first love Marie (Bernadette Peters).

She thinks he’s cute and further inspires him to bigger and better things. He invents a glasses frame called “Opti-Grab” that earns his fortune before it takes it away. With Maurice Evans in his final film performance as a butler and M. Emmet Walsh as a sniper.

This is a very, very dumb movie. I can’t imagine just why I find it so hilarious. Maybe it’s the slightly intellectual approach to low humor. And Martin and Peters, who were an item IRL at the time, are adorable together.

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Being There
Directed by Hal Ashby
Written by Jerzy Kosinski from his novel
1979/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Morton Hull: Do you realize that more people will be watching you tonight, than all those who have seen theater plays in the last forty years?
Chance the Gardener: Why?

This excellent movie is a wry commentary on the media, politics and culture of 1979. It remains relevant today.

Chance (Peter Sellers) has lived his entire life in the mansion of a wealthy old man in Washington D.C. Little was expected of him as he was evidently a bit “slow”. He was completely satisfied tending the garden and watching TV everyday.

One day, the old man dies. Chance is left to fend for himself dressed in some tailored old clothes. His life changes when Ben Rand’s (Melvyn Douglas) car strikes him. Ben and his wife Eve (Shirley McLaine) take Chance home to recover and more or less adopt him.

Chance the gardener sounds like “Chauncy Gardiner” to the Rands and so he is known from then on. Ben is an advisor to the President. He is super impressed with Chaucey’s philosophy. Though Chauncey is a man of few words, his knowledge confined as it is to gardening and TV, the political elite make everything into a wise analogy. Later, Eve attempts to seduce Chauncey, who evidently is stuck at about the third grade level. By the time the farce is over he is being discussed for a Presidential nomination.

This is a comedy but not a laugh riot. It’s a whimsical movie with a potent sting at its heart. I liked it better on a second viewing. Sellers is wonderful. But I thought Douglas was even better in his performance as a worldly cynical dying man whose last days are comforted by what he thinks is Chauncey’s deep philosophy. He richly deserved his Best Supporting Actor Oscar. What a long and distinguished career he had! Sellers received a Best Actor nomination.

Kramer vs. Kramer
Directed by Robert Benton
Written by Robert Benton from a novel by Avery Corman
1979/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Billy Kramer: I want my mommy!
Ted Kramer: I’m all you got.

This is a good movie about marriage, divorce, and child-rearing American style.

Ted Kramer (Dustin Hoffman) is a self-centered hot-shot advertising executive. His wife Joanna (Meryl Streep) is an unwilling stay-at-home mom. She is miserable. Her husband will not listen to her. Her self-esteem is at a very low ebb. One day she walks out leaving 7-year old Billy (Justin Henry) behind. She figures he’s better off without her.

Ted has no clue how to even make breakfast much less raise his son. He is expected to be devoted 24/7 to his job to justify his recent promotion. His boss wishes Ted would ship Billy off to other relatives. Ted won’t or can’t do this.

Ted’s job performance begins to suffer greatly but he gradually becomes a wonderful father. After 18 months, a newly confident Joanna returns and wants her son back. A brutal custody battle awaits. With Jane Alexander as Ted’s divorced friend.

This movie has perfect acting which made me really care about all the characters. Justin Henry is at the center of the film and he is a very natural and appealing child actor. Everything else about it is solid.

The film received Oscars in the categories of Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress (Streep), Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. It was nominated in the categories of Best Supporting Actor (Henry, the youngest person ever to receive an Oscar nomination); Best Supporting Actress (Alexander), Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing.

Breaking Away
Directed by Peter Yates
Written by Steve Tesich
1979/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Dave: Hell, I don’t want to go to college Dad. To hell with them. I’m proud of being a cutter.
Dad: You’re not a cutter. I’m a cutter.

It’s not arty and it’s not “great” but this is one of my all-time favorite movies. And it stands up well to the test of time.

The setting is Bloomington, Indiana home of the University of Indiana. Four working class high-school buddies – Dave (Dennis Christopher), Mike (Dennis Quaid), Moocher (Jackie Earle Haley) and Cyril (Daniel Stern) – have made a pack to take a year to just hang out after they graduate. Mike is a bitter ex-high-school football star who didn’t get a sports scholarship. Mike sees getting a job as a betrayal of the pact. Moocher is a tiny firecracker with a mean temper. Cyril is affable and thinks he is dumb. But Dave is something special. He is obsessed with bicycle racing and he is exceptionally talented at it. He idolizes the Italian team, speaks Italian all the time, listens to opera music and drives his parents crazy.

There is a running battle between the University students and the townies, called “Cutters” because the local stone quarry is a major employer. Dave is somewhere in the middle and romances a coed disguised as an Italian exchange student.

The story will see the growth of most of the boys into new roles. Dave matures through disillusionment and triumph.

This is one of the great coming-of-age films. I adore the performances of Dave’s mom (Barbara Barrie) and Dad (Paul Dooley) especially. They make great loving parents, though Dad doesn’t show it much. Mom is a sweetheart and a bit whimsical like her son. All the boys are great. It’s just a wonderful feel-good film and I highly recommend it.

The film won the best original screenplay Oscar. It was nominated in the categories of Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress (Barrie) and Best Music, Adapted Score.

My Brilliant Career
Directed by Gillian Armstrong
Written by Eleanor Whitcombe from a novel by Miles Franklin
1979/Australia
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Sybylla: I can’t lose myself in somebody else’s life, when I haven’t lived my own yet.

There are so few good female coming-of-age films. This is one.

The film is set around the turn of the 20th Century. Sybylla Melvyn (Judy Davis) lives with her parents and many siblings in the outback of Australia. Her father is a drunkard and her mother is thoroughly worn-out. Everybody works hard except Sybylla who practices the piano and daydreams about an illustrious career in some kind of artistic field. She drives her parents to distraction. Finally, her salvation comes when her Grandma Bossier (Aileen Britton) invites her to live with her and her grown children at her palatial estate.

It turns out that Sybylla’s mother married beneath her class. Grandma’s main idea seems to be getting Sybylla married off to someone rich and “suitable”. But Sybylla thinks marriage would only interfere with her intended and as yet undetermined “career”.

She spends a lot of time wingeing about how ugly she is until her Aunt Helen takes her in hand. Ultimately, Sybylla is proposed to by a wealthy Englishman. She has an easy time rejecting him because she doesn’t like him.

She meets handsome young Harry Beecham (Sam Neill) when she accepts an invitation to visit his Aunt Gussie (Patricia Kennedy). Sybylla flirts wildly with him. They fall in love. Can Sybylla stay true to her dream?

This movie looks gorgeous throughout with beautiful location cinematography. For the first part of it, I found Davis’s character quite annoying. She acts like the original Manic Pixie Dream Girl with her tricks and teasing. But adversity makes her grow up and I ended with that feeling of satisfaction I get from a really good movie. The acting is uniformly wonderful. Davis is absolutely on fire.

The film was nominated for a Best Costume Design Oscar.

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