Tag Archives: 1967

In the Heat of the Night (1967)

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In the Heat of the Night
Directed by Norman Jewison
1967/USA
The Mirisch Corporation
Repeat viewing
#453 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
IMDb users say 8/10; I say 9/10

 

[box] Gillespie: Whatcha hit him with?

Tibbs: Hit whom?

Gillespie: “Whom”? “Whom”? Well, you a northern boy? What’s a northern boy like you doing all the way down here?[/box]

And the List serves up another practically perfect movie …

Philadelphia homicide detective Virgil Tibbs (Sidney Portier) comes to Sparta, Mississippi to visit his  mother but finds he is not allowed to leave when a major investor is murdered. First, Virgil is suspected as the murderer.  Then, in spite of himself, Police Chief Gillespie (Rod Steiger) has to acknowledge that he needs Virgil’s expertise to solve the case.  But in a South still transitioning from segregation, the townspeople don’t want Virgil mixing in their affairs and are a constant danger.

This movie could have easily descended into preachiness.  Instead, the strong performances by the two leads and the deft screenplay make this an entertaining police procedural first and a message film second.  (Does anybody else but me grin throughout most of the Portier-Steiger exchanges?)  I also like the fact that Gillespie is an outsider like Virgil and that Virgil himself is almost steered wrong by his own personal feelings.  And you can’t miss when the great Ray Charles is singing over the credits.

Trailer

David Holzman’s Diary (1967)

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David Holzman’s Diarydavid-holzmans-diary-movie-poster
Directed by Jim McBride
1967/USA
Produced by Jim McBride
#486 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
First viewing

I ran out of 1934 rentals to watch so I picked this at random because it was on Netflix streaming. First, let me say that I was really glad I knew absolutely nothing about this film when I put it on. There are many surprises that shouldn’t be spoiled.

“Le cinéma, c’est vingt-quatre fois la vérité par seconde.” ― Jean-Luc Godard

It is New York City in 1967. A young film maker has just lost his job and received a draft notice.  He decides he will film his life in hopes to understand it better. He has faith in the Godard quote “Film is truth 24 times per second” and thinks that he may be able to connect with objects, events, and people by capturing them on celluloid.

The narrator’s girlfriend is an important part of his life so he keeps filming her at random times, including while she is sleeping nude. She rapidly calls their relationship off but he continues to more or less stalk her for the rest of the film. He also captures the atmosphere of his neighborhood and the people there, spies on a woman in an apartment across the street, follows a random woman leaving the subway, gets propositioned by  a transvestite, etc., etc.
David Holzman's Diary 5The soundtrack includes a lot of TV and radio news which gives a real flavor of the time. There is a fantastic sequence of high-speed shots from all the TV shows he watched one night that is like a mini time capsule.  In between the street photography, there are lots of times where the guy just rants to the camera. In the end, he is disappointed that his film did not explain his life.  I think the audience is a lot more able to spot his gradual disintegration than he is.

I’m not able to describe this very well and it may sound boring but I was fascinated throughout. (It helps that the movie is only 74 minutes long.)

David Holzman's Diary 1SPOILER: Well, this film’s claim to fame is that it is a fake documentary/satire but I didn’t know that and I was surprised when the credits started rolling. This made me even more impressed with the film. It is so cleverly done.

“Every edit is a lie.” ― Jean-Luc Godard

Admittedly, there were some parts where I was asking myself a) how did this guy get so much money to buy equipment and live on the Upper West Side of Manhattan?; b) who is filming him? c) did all these unwilling victims of his photography sue him? d) why would somebody release such an unflattering picture of himself? At any rate, the film makers tricked me into believing it was a documentary.  This would make a good companion piece to Buñuel’s Land Without Bread,  I definitely liked this one better than that, though.

This film was selected to the National Film Registry, Library of Congress, in 1991. Must one see this before one dies?   I don’t know if I would go that far but I did enjoy it and I know I’ll think about it.

Clip – “watching television”