#31 — Grey Gardens (Ellen Hovde, Albert Maysles, David Maysles and Muffie Meyer, 1975) There are some things in this warped, wild, mixed-up world that outpace even the most fantastic and fanciful of imaginations. Upon discovering such a thing, perhaps … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 70s — Number Thirty-One
#32 — Husbands (John Cassavetes, 1970) Like most of his very best work, Husbands practically seethes with the enraged creativity of filmmaker John Cassavetes. Notoriously disenchanted with the Hollywood system (or at least whatever splintered remains were left of it … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 70s — Number Thirty-Two
#33 — Shampoo (Hal Ashby, 1975) There are so many different that a film can surprise, and I’ll freely and fully admit that I ultimately prefer the shrewder, more low-key surprises to the trickster gotchas designed to upend everything that … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 70s — Number Thirty-Three
#34 — Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977) Let’s start with this important piece of information for the youngsters out there: the word “Episode” does not appear in the title of the film director George Lucas released in 1977. In fact, … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 70s — Number Thirty-Four
#35 — The Exorcist (William Friedkin, 1973) William Friedkin often insisted, and perhaps still maintains, that The Exorcist isn’t a horror movie. It’s perhaps understandable that the director would prefer avoiding having any sort of reductive label attached to a … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 70s — Number Thirty-Five
#36 — Harold & Maude (Hal Ashby, 1971) Engaging in an exercise like this countdown naturally inspires the generation of all sorts of half-baked theories, trying to condense disparate ranges of films made by wildly different and unique directors into … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 70s — Number Thirty-Six
#37 — Day for Night (François Truffaut, 1973) Auteur theory was first posited in the mid-nineteen-fifties in the pages of Cahiers du cinéma, advocated most persuasively by a young French film critic named François Truffaut. Suggesting the director should be … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 70s — Number Thirty-Seven
#38 — The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (Joseph Sargent, 1974) While it’s interesting to speculate on the various intricacies within the movie industry that led the American cinema of the nineteen-seventies to have a little more heft to … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 70s — Number Thirty-Eight
#39 — Real Life (Albert Brooks, 1979) The reputation of the debut directorial effort by Albert Brooks is so bolstered by the seeming prescience of its premise that it can be easy to lose sight of the detail that the … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 70s — Number Thirty-Nine
#40 — Carnal Knowledge (Mike Nichols, 1971) One of the things that I can never quite get over when considering the general cinema of the seventies is the mad rush of mature content, not just in terms of bouncing nudity … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 70s — Number Forty
Coffee for Two 