#41 — Opening Night (John Cassavetes, 1977) I’m not sure how good John Cassavetes was at birthdays or anniversaries, but he sure gave his wife a helluva gift every time he pushed a script across the breakfast table. Gena Rowlands … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 70s — Number Forty-One
#42 — Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978) The influence of John Carpenter’s Halloween exacted a lot of damage to the horror genre, at least for those who valued a certain amount of imagination in such fare. Made for a miniscule budget–half of … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 70s — Number Forty-Two
#43 — Cabaret (Bob Fosse, 1972) Christopher Isherwood published a novel called Goodbye to Berlin in 1939. John Van Druten took that work and transformed it into a play called I Am a Camera, which was first produced in 1951, … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 70s — Number Forty-Three
#44 — Scarecrow (Jerry Schatzberg, 1973) I’m hardly the only person who tends to point to the cinema of the nineteen-seventies as a blessed peak of the art form (conveniently ignoring that for every wonderfully aspirational effort there were plenty … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 70s — Number Forty-Four
#45 — Richard Pryor: Live in Concert (Jeff Margolis, 1979) I had an old friend who theorized that watching someone who is the best at what they do plying their trade is always an amazing experience, even if (or maybe … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 70s — Number Forty-Five
#46 — That Obscure Object of Desire (Luis Buñuel, 1977) I will readily admit to generally finding myself less enamored with the films that rely heavily upon the absurdly symbolic. My bias tends to those films that insinuate themselves deeply … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 70s — Number Forty-Six
#47 — Assault on Precinct 13 (John Carpenter, 1976) By most assessments, the glory of American cinema in the nineteen-seventies was largely a result of major studios turning over significant dollars to daring directors who then spun that money into edgy … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 70s — Number Forty-Seven
#48 — Stroszek (Werner Herzog, 1977) It’s difficult to write about Stroszeg without caving in and turning the whole thing into a prolonged essay on all the distinctive elements that make Werner Herzog’s films, the good and the bad, so … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 70s — Number Forty-Eight
#50 — All That Jazz (Bob Fosse, 1979) For those trying to determine the half-life it takes for a visionary film director to decay from an award-lauded masterpiece to a wildly indulgent fever dream, the Oscar class of 1972 (or … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 70s — Number Forty-Nine
#50 — The In-Laws (Arthur Hiller, 1979) In half-watching a recent horror film the other night, I got into a discussion about the ways the story in question ticked off a multitude of basic, commonly shared fears. That’s what good … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 70s — Number Fifty
Coffee for Two 