Category Archives: 1970

The Boys in the Band
Directed by William Friedkin
Written by Marc Crowly from his play
1970/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing?/Netflix rental

Michael: Believe it or not, there was a time in my life when I didn’t go around announcing I was a faggot.
Donald: Well, that must have been before speech replaced sign language!

What starts out as a kind of gay The Women (1939) ends as a melodramatic truth telling session along the lines of Who’s Afraid fo Virginia Woolf? (1966).  The razor-sharp repartee  and excellent acting make this very stage-bound picture good cinema as well.

As the story begins, we follow eight flamoyantly gay men as they pursue a working day in New York City. One of their number, Michael, is hosting a birthday bash for another named Harold.  Before the guests arrive Michael gets a call from an old college friend Alan.  Alan seems desperate and in dire need of friendly conversation. He wants to come over. The guests start arriving and the catty bitchy barbs start flying.  The men start dancing and having a good time.  The cast is completed by a hustler purchased as one of the birthday presents.

Then Alan arrives.  The men let it all hang out in front of him and Alan’s gallant effort to ignore their sexuality fails miserably.

Then birthday boy Harold shows up.  He has offended the host and eventually provokes Michael to initiating a variant game of Get the Guests.  This one involves daring partygoers to call the greatest love of their lives and handing out points.  Much melodrama ensues.

This movie really brought back a special time in my like.  I was very into theater and my best friend was a gay man who quoted from the dialog of this thing constantly.  I’m not sure if I actually saw the movie but I know I read the script of the play.  Anyway. this was a winner for nostalgia and for solid film-making.  A not-so-guilty pleasure for those who love a little trashy camp in their lives – like me.

It’s also a reminder of the world before HIV/AIDS.  Five of the cast members had succumbed to the disease by 1993.

7 Plus Seven
Directed by Michael Apted
1970/UK
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/YouTube

Michael Apted – Narrator: Are you happier now than you were then?

What a difference seven years makes!

In 1964, MIchael Apted selected a group of seven-year-olds – 10 boys and 4 girls – that were meant to be representative of a wide spectrum of British society – and made a one-off TV documentary called Seven Up! (1964).  The premise was that this was to be a “glimpse of England in the year 2000,” when the children would be in their prime.

This installment reunites the entire cast of the first film when they are now fourteen-years-old.  They have all aged nicely, save for Suzy who no longer seems to want to look at the camera, and give thoughtful opinions on a whole range of timely issues such as racism, hippies, the importance of having money, the opposite sex, etc., etc.  Several flashbacks to the first film are used to contrast the childrens’ outlooks, behavior, and opinions and make this documentary watchable as a single film.

I absolutely love this series.  It is fascinating to watch these people grow up and age.  They seem like friends after a couple of episodes.  There are those whose path in life seems rooted in the expectations of age seven and those that change in sometimes remarkable ways.  Apted is highly skilled at getting to the heart of the matter.  Most highly recommended.

Clip – These particular kids know exactly where they are going

Claire’s Knee (Le genou de Claire)
Directed by Eric Rohmer
Written by Eric Rohmer
1970/France
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

Jerome: Every woman has her most vulnerable point. For some, it’s the nape of the neck, the waist, the hands. For Claire, in that position, in that light, it was her knee.

Another sun-baked picture about the vagaries of love from director Eric Rohmer.  I love him so.

Jerome (Jean-Claude Brialy), a diplomat, is spending his last summer as a bachelor at an idyllic lakeside resort.  He runs into old friend Aurore, a novelist.  She is content to enjoy a bit of time between her last lover and her next.  Early on Jerome informs Aurore that his fiancee is not his type physically or personality-wise, but their open relationship has worked well for the last six years and he expects that to continue after their marriage.  At any rate, he is no longer very interested in any one but her.

Aurore fancies including Jerome as a character in her next novel.  To that end, she informs him that his landlady’s teenage daughter Laura (Beatrice Romand) is in love with him and dares him to follow through.Jerome is game and spends most of the rest of the picture flirting and playing mind games with the precocious 17-year-old.

All this changes when Laura’s gorgeous 17-year-old half-sister Claire shows up.  Jerome is overcome with desire, specifically the desire to caress Claire’s knee.  First he has to get around Claire’s boyfriend.   I will go no further.

This is a happy, good-looking film.  Some might find it talky, but I find the talking amusing and interesting.  The luminous cinematography is by Nestor Almendros.  I just love the way Rohmer keeps taking the stuffing out of stuffy men. Recommended.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLGpWN1elJ0

Tora! Tora! Tora!
Directed by Richard Fleischer, Kinji Fukasaku, and Toshio Masuda
Written by Larry Forrester, Hideo Oguni and Ryuzo Kikushima
1970/Japan/US
IMDb page
First viewing/Netflix rental

“At 1:23pm Zeros were approaching Pearl Harbor where it was 7:53am. At that moment the flight commander radioed Admiral Nagumo “TORA, TORA, TORA” The repeated code word, meaning “tiger,” stood for ‘We have succeeded in surprise attack’.” Two minutes later torpedo bombers began diving on Battleship Row.”
― John Willard Toland, Infamy: Pearl Harbor and its Aftermath

Fans of explosions need look no farther!

This US-Japanese views the attack on Pearl Harbor from the perspective of both sides. The Japanese dialogue is subtitled.  The period encompasses from a couple of weeks before the attack to the attack itself.

The first half of the movie tries to cram in as much history as possible through expository dialogue. So we get some long speeches and not too much excitement or memorable characters to identify with.

But then the bombers come and all hell breaks loose!  With Martin Balsam, Joseph Cotten, E. G. Marshall and James Whitmore as bigwigs on the U.S. side and So Yamamura as Admiral Yamamoto.

The special effects are the reason to watch this.  It might not seem like so much now but this was about as good as it got in 1969.

A.D. Abbott and L. P. Flowers won the Academy Award for Best Special Visual Effects.

Le cercle rouge
Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville
Written by Jean-Pierre Melville
France/1970
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Instant

Le chef de la police: All men are guilty. They’re born innocent, but it doesn’t last.

Terrific French noir from the master of the genre.

As the story begins, Corey (Alain Delon) is preparing to be released from prison. A guard sneaks into his cell and tells him about a “no-risk” jewel heist opportunity just waiting to be taken up.  The super-cool Corey is not overly enthusiastic but says he will look into it.

Simultaneously, Vogel (Gian-Maria Volonte) is being transported by train handcuffed to Police Inspector Mattei (Brouville).  Vogel manages to escape and is relentlessly pursued by Mattei for the rest of the film.

Corey’s first act upon release is to relieve his former criminal associate of several thousand francs he believes are owed to him and a gun.  The victim’s henchmen are now on the hunt for Corey.

Vogel frantically looks for a hiding place and selects the trunk of Corey’s car.  After the men size each other up, they become partners and begin planning the heist.  A drunken sharpshooter (Yves Montand) completes the heist team.

The heist takes  27 minutes and is completed without any dialogue whatsoever.  It is mesmerizing – like the rest of this sparsely written but meticulously filmed beauty.

OK, get ready for a gush.  This movie is fantastic in every way. I love movies that get down to the details of how things are done and found this completely engrossing. And what a cast!. Henri Decae’s cinematography, full of moody blues, is superb. Includes a nice score by Eric Demarsan.  Recommended.

Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (Indagine su un cittadino al di sopra di ogni sospetto)
Directed by Elio Petri
Written by Elio Petri and Ugo Pirro
1970/Italy
IMDb page
First viewing/Netflix rental

Il Dottore – Former head of homicide squad: The people are children and, therefore, we have no choice but to repress: The repression is our vaccine!

I loved how Petri’s brilliant political thriller seamlessly blends sexy suspense with a savage indictment of corruption in high places.

Gian Maria Volonte (he is never named in the film, I will call him Il Dottore) is about to leave his job as Chief of the Homicide Division for a promotion to the Political Department.  He and his mistress Augusta (the smoking hot Florinda Bolkan) like to indulge in mildly sado-masochistic fantasies in which he either plans her murder or subjects her to a humiliating interrogation.  We see one such role-play as the movie begins.  There will be flashbacks to previous sex games throughout the movie.  Within a couple of minutes, Il Dottore murders Augusta for real.  He deliberately plants evidence pinning the crime on himself.

Although he is no longer Chief of Homicide, he inserts himself as thoroughly into the investigation as if he were.  His former employees and even his replacement are awed by and afraid of Il Dottore.  Il Dottore is even more sadistic in his work life than he is in his sex life.  He uses his considerable clout and commanding presence to lead the entire homicide squad on a wild goose chase while providing additional information against himself and  taunting them the entire time .  He is trying to find out if he really is above the law.

In the meantime, it is 1969 and Il Dottore is in charge of putting down violent political protests by young revolutionary radicals and Communists.  He is as brutal at this as at everything else and his interrogation style suits his penchant for cruelty.    At some point the murder investigation and the political repression intersect.    I will stop there as this really is a mystery in which the question was is not who-dunnit but why and whether the homicide squad will ever discover the identity of our crafty killer.  The movie has an unforgettable ending.

I was really impressed with this movie. The story is engrossing and the images are stunning. Gian Maria Volonte was born to play this kind of role and is superb here. The upbeat score is by Ennio Morricone. Recommended.

The film won the Academy Award for Best Foreign-Language Picture.

U.S. trailer (dubbed, I watched the subtitled version)

Three Reasons to Watch

George C. Scott won the Best Actor Oscar for his memorable performance as General George Patton in Fox’s classic war biopic Patton  but he declined to accept the nomination and the gold statuette award (and did not attend the awards ceremony in 1971), because he did not feel himself to be in any competition with other actors, calling it a “meat parade” or “meat market.” Earlier, he had declined his nomination for his role in The Hustler (1961), becoming the first actor to decline an Oscar nomination.

With Helen Hayes’ win as Best Supporting Actress for Airport, she became the first person to receive Academy Awards in the two categories honoring performers. She had previously won Best Actress 38 years earlier for The Sin of Madelon Claudet.

MPAA’s “M”(Mature) rating was changed to PG (Parental Guidance). Nevada millionaire Kirk Kerkorian bought MGM in 1970, and then promptly downsized the company.  The sell-off financed an expansion of Kerkorian’s hotel-casino investments, and began a decline for the studio.

Plenty of actors made their film debuts including: Tommy Lee Jones; Diane Keaton; Susan Sarandon; Sissy Spacek; and Sylvester Stallone.  The film world lost Cathy O’Donnell; Ed Begley; Billie Burke; Edward Everett Horton; and Charles Ruggles.

Richard Nixon ordered troops in Vietnam to cross the border into neutral Cambodia.  The Ohio National Guard shot 13 students at Kent State, killing 4, at protest rally against the war.  Eleven days later police shot 12 students, killing 2, during racial violence at Jackson State University in Mississippi.  The voting age was lowered to 18.

An oxygen tank exploded and Apollo 13’s lunar landing was aborted.  After much anxiety, the crew was brought safely home.

“Bridge Over Troubled Water” by Simon and Garfunkel spent six weeks on the Billboard charts and was the No. 1 hit of the year.  The music world lost Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix.

Collected Stories by Jean Stafford won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction; No Place to Be Somebody by Charles Gordone won for Drama; and Seymour Hirsch won the International Reporting Prize for his exclusive disclosure of the Mei Lai massacre in Viet Nam.  Time Magazine’s Man of the Year was West German Chancellor Willie Brandt “for his bold approach to the Soviet Union and the East Bloc”.

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The list of movies I will select from is here.  I would be glad to get suggestions for anything good I may have left out.

Montage of photos from Oscar winners

Montage of photos from Oscar nominees in the major categories