1979--The Year in Review

If I could deliver an emphatically passionate love letter to a single movie year, it would be this one. Okay, so I was a precocious 13-year-old kid in 1979--I was watching movies at the theater and on cable like a bonafide madman and, yeah, everything we see as kids, we hold up as the best the world has to offer. But who can really dispute the quality of the following list? It’s a monster, this collection of works, and it made me decide to devote my life to loving movies. I scream it proudly: 1979 remains the greatest of all cinematic years--yes, this is a HIGHLY personal choice, however, I defend it with scrapping gusto (it's certainly the one that most informs the movies as of 2016). To support my argument, it was a big year for Canada, Japan, Germany, and especially for Australia (where Mad Max, My Brilliant Career, The Plumber, Tim, and The Odd Angry Shot provided a further gateway into that country's newly remarkable film output). As for America: there were many Saturday Night Live-related debuts: Steve Martin, Bill Murray, Albert Brooks, and Dan Aykroyd. It was a landmark year for Meryl Streep who has three movies on the list, thus beginning her command of the cinema. 1979 was the most romantic of all movie years (with A Little Romance at the head of the pack, though Manhattan, Tess, Voices, Yanks, and Starting Over come real close), and the most musical (All That Jazz, Manhattan, Hair, Quadrophenia, Rock n' Roll High School, The Muppet Movie, The Kids are Alright, Over the Edge, Elvis, Rust Never Sleeps, The Rose, and The Great Rock n' Roll Swindle), and the funniest (Being There, The In-Laws, The Jerk, 1941, Richard Pryor: Live in Concert, Monty Python's Life of Brian, 10, The Whole Shootin' Match, Meatballs, and Real Life), Many excellent science-fiction entries (Alien, Mad Max, Stalker, Time After Time, The China Syndrome, Star Trek: The Motion Picture and The Black Hole) and respectable horror movies (Phantasm, The Brood, Nosferatu The Vampire, Salem's Lot, Vengeance is Mine, Dracula, Zombie, and Driller Killer). And so many wonderfully intimately human movies like Best Boy, Breaking Away, Going in Style, Norma Rae, Rich Kids, Love on the Run, The Onion Field, Who's Who, Gal Young 'Un, Heartland, French Postcards, and The Marriage of Maria Braun. Plus, I must point out this year's output transformed so many of the craft categories. Art direction, makeup, special effects, music, costume design, cinematography, editing and especially sound made great leaps this year. Oh, I could go on and on. So many fine productions here. At any rate, these final choices for 1979 were positively laborious. Making each move was like trying to not tumble off a needle tip, and then the finality felt like breaking bad news to my very closest friend. Ultimately, though, my selection for Best Picture was really obvious to me, as I must have watched it 20 times in 1979 alone. It is Bob Fosse's true masterpiece, and the single title I would vigorously support as an induction into the cinematic canon. NOTE: These are MY choices for each category, and are only occasionally reflective of the selections made by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (aka The Oscars). When available, the nominee that actually won the Oscar will be highlighted in bold. 

PICTURE: ALL THAT JAZZ (US, Bob Fosse)
(2nd: Manhattan (US, Woody Allen)
followed by: Apocalypse Now (US, Francis Ford Coppola)
A Little Romance (US, George Roy Hill)
Tess (UK, Roman Polanski)
Breaking Away (US, Peter Yates)
The Tin Drum (West Germany, Volker Schlöndorff)
Best Boy (US, Ira Wohl)
Alien (US, Ridley Scott)
Kramer vs. Kramer (US, Robert Benton)
Oblomov (USSR, Nikita Mikhalkov)
The Black Stallion (US, Carroll Ballard)
Over the Edge (US, Jonathan Kaplan)
Being There (US, Hal Ashby)
Going in Style (US, Martin Brest)
Hair (US, Milos Forman)
The Onion Field (US, Harold Becker)
Wise Blood (US, John Huston)
Richard Pryor: Live in Concert (US, Jeff Margolis)
The China Syndrome (US, James Bridges)
Woyzeck (West Germany, Werner Herzog)
Stalker (USSR, Andrei Tarkovsky)
Mad Max (Austrailia, George Miller)
The Marriage of Maria Braun (West Germany, Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
Norma Rae (US, Martin Ritt)
Starting Over (US, Alan J. Pakula)
The In-Laws (US, Arthur Hiller)
That Sinking Feeling (Scotland, Bill Forsyth)
Phantasm (US, Don Coscarelli)
The Jerk (US, Carl Reiner)
Voices (US, Robert Markowitz)
Meatballs (Canada, Ivan Reitman)
1941 (US, Steven Spielberg)
The Brood (Canada, David Cronenberg)
Vengeance is Mine (Japan, Shohei Imamura)
Quadrophenia (UK, Franc Roddam)
The Warriors (US, Walter Hill)
Rich Kids (US, Robert M. Young)
Time After Time (US, Nicholas Meyer)
Hardcore (US, Paul Schrader)
Who's Who (UK, Mike Leigh)
My Brilliant Career (Australia, Gillian Armstrong)
North Dallas Forty (US, Ted Koecheff)
Monty Python’s Life of Brian (UK, Terry Jones)
Real Life (US, Albert Brooks)
Escape from Alcatraz (US, Don Siegel)
Rock ‘n’ Roll High School (US, Allan Arkush)
The Muppet Movie (US, James Frawley)
Gal Young 'Un (US, Victor Nunez)
The Corn is Green (US, George Cukor)
The Whole Shootin’ Match (US, Eagle Pennell)
Heartland (US, Richard Pearce)
The Plumber (Austraila, Peter Weir)
Scum (UK, Alan Clarke)
Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears (USSR, Vladimir Menshov)
The Europeans (UK, James Ivory)
Murder by Decree (Canada, Bob Clark)
The Kids are Alright (US, Jeff Stein)
The Odd Angry Shot (Australia, Tom Jeffery)
The Wanderers (US, Walter Hill)
Love on the Run (France, Francois Truffaut)
Yanks (UK, John Schesinger)
10 (US, Blake Edwards)
Nosferatu, the Vampyre (West Germany, Werner Herzog)
The Seduction of Joe Tynan (US, Jerry Schatzberg)
The Rose (US, Mark Rydell)
The Great Train Robbery (US, Michael Crichton)
Elvis (US, John Carpenter)
Winter Kills (US, William Richert)
The Great Rock ’n’ Roll Swindle (UK, Julian Temple)
Butch and Sundance: The Early Days (US, Richard Lester)
Tim (Australia, Michael Pate)
The Lady in Red (US, Lewis Teague)
French Postcards (US, Willard Huyck)
California Dreaming (US, John Hancock)
The Electric Horseman (US, Sydney Pollack)
Salem's Lot (US, Tobe Hooper)
And Justice For All (US, Norman Jewison)
Rust Never Sleeps (US, Neil Young)
Dracula (US, John Badham)
Fedora (US, Billy Wilder)
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (US, Robert Wise)
Love at First Bite (US, Stan Dragoti)
Beneath the Valley of the Ultravixens (US, Russ Meyer)
Mr. Mike's Mondo Video (US, Michael O' Donahue and Ernie Fosselius)
Zombie (Italy, Lucio Fulci)
Moonraker (UK, Lewis Gilbert)
Driller Killer (US, Abel Ferrara)
The Black Hole (US, Gary Nelson)
Baby Snakes (US, Frank Zappa)
Caligula (US/Italy, Tinto Brass))



ACTOR: Roy Schieder, ALL THAT JAZZ (2nd: Peter Sellers, Being There, followed by: Dustin Hoffman, Kramer vs. Kramer; Ben Gazzara, Saint Jack; David Bennett, The Tin Drum; Martin Sheen, Apocalypse Now;  George Burns, Going in Style; Burt Reynolds, Starting Over; Jack Lemmon, The China Syndrome; Brad Dourif, Wise Blood)

ACTRESS: Sally Field, NORMA RAE (2nd: Jill Clayburgh, Starting Over, followed by: Diane Lane, A Little Romance; Jane Fonda, The China Syndrome; Judy Davis, My Brilliant Career; Nastassja Kinski, Tess; Hannah Schygulla, The Marriage of Maria Braun; Bette Midler, The Rose; Amy Irving, Voices; Conchata Ferrell, Heartland)

SUPPORTING ACTOR: Paul Dooley, BREAKING AWAY (2nd: Ian Holm, Alien, followed by: James Woods, The Onion Field; Robert Duvall, Apocalypse Now; Justin Henry, Kramer Vs. Kramer; Art Carney, Going in Style; Lee Strasberg, Going in Style; Melvin Douglas, Being There; Wilford Brimley, The China Syndrome; Frederic Forrest, Apocalypse Now)



SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Meryl Streep, KRAMER VS. KRAMER (2nd: Barbara Barrie, Breaking Away, followed by: Cheryl Barnes, Hair; Sigourney Weaver, Alien; Season Hubley, Hardcore; Candice Bergen, Starting Over; Mariel Hemingway, Manhattan; Mary Nell Santacroce, Wise Blood; Mary Steenburgen, Time After Time)



DIRECTOR: Bob Fosse, ALL THAT JAZZ (2nd: Woody Allen, Manhattan, followed by: Francis Ford Coppola, Apocalypse Now; Ira Wohl, Best Boy; Volker Schlondorff, The Tin Drum; Roman Polanski, Tess; Robert Benton, Kramer Vs. Kramer; Ridley Scott, Alien; Peter Yates, Breaking Away; George Roy Hill, A Little Romance)



NON-ENGLISH LANGUAGE FILM: THE TIN DRUM (West Germany, Volker Schlöndorff) (2nd: Oblomov (USSR, Nikita Mikhalkov), followed by: Woyzeck (West Germany, Werner Herzog); Stalker (USSR, Andrei Tarkovsky); The Marriage of Maria Braun (West Germany, Rainer Werner Fassbinder); Vengeance is Mine (Japan, Shohei Imamura); Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears (USSR, Vladimir Menshov) (won in 1980); Nosferatu, the Vampyre (West Germany, Werner Herzog); Love on the Run (France, Francois Truffaut))



DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: BEST BOY (US, Ira Wohl) (2nd: Richard Pryor: Live in Concert (US, Jeff Margolis), followed by: The Kids Are Alright (US, Jeff Stein))



ANIMATED SHORT: EVERY CHILD (Canada, Eugene Fedorenko) (2nd: Harpya (Belgium, Raoul Servais), followed by: Tale of Tales (USSR, Yuri Norshteyn); It’s So Nice To Have A Wolf Around The House (US, Paul Fierlinger); Asparagus (US, Suzan Pitt))

LIVE ACTION SHORT: A SHORT FILM ON SOLAR ENERGY (US, Saul Bass and Elaine Bass) (2nd: Solly’s Diner (US, Larry Hankin), followed by: Canned Laughter (UK, Geoffrey Sax); The Plank (UK, Eric Sykes))



ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Steve Tesich, BREAKING AWAY (2nd: Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman, Manhattan, followed by: Bob Fosse and Robert Alan Aurthur, All That Jazz; Edward Cannon and Martin Brest, Going in Style; Charles S. Haas and Tim Hunter, Over the Edge; Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank Jr., Norma Rae)



ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Allen Burns, A LITTLE ROMANCE (2nd: Jean Claude Carriere, Volker Schlondorff, Franz Seitz and Gunter Grass, The Tin Drum, followed by: Francis Ford Coppola, John Milius and Michael Herr, Apocalypse Now; Robert Benton, Kramer Vs. Kramer; Joseph Wambaugh, The Onion Field; Aleksandr Adabashyan and Nikita Mikhalov, Oblomov)

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Vittorio Storaro, APOCALYPSE NOW (2nd: Gordon Willis, MANHATTAN, followed by: Caleb Deschanel, The Black Stallion; Geoffrey Unsworth and Ghislain Cloquet, Tess (won in 1980); Giuseppe Rotunno, All That Jazz; Nestor Alamendros, Kramer Vs. Kramer)

ART DIRECTION: ALIEN, Apocalypse Now, Tess (won in 1980), All That Jazz, The China Syndrome, 1941

COSTUME DESIGN: ALL THAT JAZZ, Tess (won in 1980), Hair, The Europeans, Quadrophenia, Murder by Decree

EDITING: ALL THAT JAZZ, Apocalypse Now, Alien, The Black Stallion, Breaking Away, Kramer Vs. Kramer



SOUND: APOCALYPSE NOW, The Black Stallion, Alien, All That Jazz, The China Syndrome, 1941



ORIGINAL SCORE: Georges Delarue, A LITTLE ROMANCE (2nd: Carmine Coppola, The Black Stallion, followed by: Phillippe Sarde, Tess; Miklos Rosza, Time After Time; John Williams, 1941; Sol Kaplan, Over The Edge)



SCORING FOR A MUSICAL/ADAPTATION SCORING: Ralph Burns, ALL THAT JAZZ (2nd: Galt McDermott and Tom Pierson, Hair, followed by: Paul Williams and Kenny Ascher, The Muppet Movie)



ORIGINAL SONG: “It Goes Like It Goes” from NORMA RAE (Music by David Shire, lyrics by Norman Gimbel) (2nd: "Take Off With Us" from All That Jazz (Music by Stanley Lebowsky, lyrics by Fred Tobias), followed by: “The Rainbow Connection” from The Muppet Movie (Music and lyrics by Paul Williams and Kenny Ascher); “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” from Monty Python’s Life of Brian (Music and lyrics by Eric Idle); “Moondust” from Meatballs (Music by Elmer Bernstein, lyrics by Norman Gimbel); “Rock and Roll High School” from Rock and Roll High School (Music and lyrics by Joey Ramone, Johnny Ramone, and Dee Dee Ramone); “I Will Always Wait for You” from Voices (Music and lyrics by Jimmy Webb); "Children's Song" from Voices (Music and lyrics by Jimmy Webb); “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend” from Rock and Roll High School (Music and lyrics by Tommy Ramone); "The Rose" from The Rose (Music and lyrics by Amanda McBroom))



SPECIAL EFFECTS: ALIEN, 1941, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, The China Syndrome, The Black Hole  

MAKEUP: ALIEN, Nosferatu The Vampire, All That Jazz

Master List #30: The 101 Greatest Films About Childhood

In determining this list for the upcoming overview of The Cinema of Childhood on the estimable website Wonders in the Dark, I had to juggle a few things. First of all, how did the idea of childhood (and often the transition from such a stage into adulthood) most figure into the story. Sometimes, childhood (or, more often, the teen years) ventured too closely into maturity, and so I had to negate such titles (which made it difficult for films like West Side Story, The Last Picture Show, Dazed and Confused, and American Graffiti to make the cut, and made it impossible for the inclusion of films like Breaking Away or Ghost World, which are really films about newly minted adulthood). Sometimes I had to figure out whether a film was about a specific child performance (as in, say, Tatum O'Neal's turn in Paper Moon, which made the list, versus Justin Henry's turn in Kramer Vs. Kramer, which didn't) versus whether it had something to impart about childhood in general. I had to balance how some of these films had as much or more to say about adulthood as they did about being a kid (so, for instance, Anna Paquin's performance in The Piano didn't help Campion's film onto the list). As always on this sort of list, I was forced into determining what films reminded me of my own childhood (which is why, for instance, I really wanted to include one TV series, Freaks and Geeks, into the mix but ultimately only mentioned it in the final caveat). I really wanted to balance out the number of female-oriented films with the male ones, and the films that dealt with radically different childhoods than I had experienced (and in considering that, I had to think about those films that were more about the experience the child in question was feeling, rather than childhood itself--thus, something like Come and See is negated, because it's more about wartime). And, of course, I had to consider simply what were the best films of them all...so, with all this in mind, here are my choices:

1) The 400 Blows (Francois Truffaut, 59, US)
2) To Kill A Mockingbird (Robert Mulligan, 62, US) 
3) Seven Up and Seven Plus Seven (Paul Almond / Michael Apted, 64-71, UK)  
5) A Little Romance (George Roy Hill, 79, US/France)
6) Fanny and Alexander (Ingmar Bergman, 83, Sweden)
7) The Last Picture Show (Peter Bogdanovich, 71, US) 
4) ET The Extraterrestrial (Steven Spielberg, 82, US) 
8) The Fallen Idol (Carol Reed, 48, UK) 
9) Zero for Conduct (Jean Vigo, 33, France) 
10) Ponette (Jacques Doillon, 96, France)
11) The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick, 2011, US)
12) The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 55, US)
13) Small Change (Francois Truffaut, 76, France)
14) Inside Out (Pete Docter and Ronnie Del Carmen, 2015, US)
15) Hope and Glory (John Boorman, 87, UK)
16) Lady Bird (2007, Great Gerwig, US) 
17) Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014, US) 
18) Donnie Darko (Richard Kelly, 2001, US)
19) American Graffiti (George Lucas, 73, US)
20) The Spirit of the Beehive (Victor Erice, 73, Spain) 
21) Toy Story (John Lasseter, 95, US)
22) The Bad News Bears (Michael Richie, 76, US)
23) Rebel Without a Cause (Nicholas Ray, 55, US)
24) Pather Panchali (Satyajit Ray, 55, India) 
25) Over The Edge (Jonathan Kaplan, 79, US)
26) Los Olvidados (Luis Bunuel, 50, Mexico)
27) A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries (James Ivory, 98, US/France) 
28) The Tin Drum (Volker Schlondorff, 79, Germany)
29) Kes (Ken Loach, 69, UK)
30) Moonbird (John and Faith Hubley, 59, US)
31) The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T (Roy Rowland, 53, US)
32) Paper Moon (Peter Bogdanovich, 74, US)
33) Forbidden Games (Rene Clement, 52, France)
34) Margaret (Kenneth Lonergan, 2011, US)
35) Elephant (Gus Van Sant, 2003, US)
36) Mouchette (Robert Bresson, 67, France) 
37) Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (Mel Stuart, 71, US)
38) The Long Day Closes (Terrence Davies, 92, UK) 
39) The Innocents (Jack Clayton, 61, UK)  
40) Gregory's Girl (Bill Forsyth, 81, Scotland)
41) Pollyanna (David Swift, 60, US)
42) George Washington (David Gordon Green, 2001, US)
43) West Side Story (Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, 61, US)
44) Germany Year Zero (Roberto Rossellini, 48, Italy) 
45) Picnic at Hanging Rock (Peter Weir, 75, Australia)
46) Pixote (Hector Babenco, 81, Brazil)
47) Splendor in the Grass (Elia Kazan, 61, US) 
48) The Black Stallion (Carroll Ballard, 79, US)
49) Sundays and Cybele (Serge Bourguignon, 62, France)
50) Au Revoir Les Enfants (Louis Malle, 87, France)
51) Let The Right One In (Tomas Alfredson, 2008, Sweden) 
52) The Florida Project (Sean Baker, 2017, US) 
53) Little Women (Gillian Armstrong, 94, US) 
54) We Are the Best! (Lukas Moodysson, 2013, Sweden)
55) Streetwise (Martin Bell and Mary Ellen Mark, 82, US)
56) Bugsy Malone (Alan Parker, 76, UK)
57) Meet Me in St. Louis (Vincente Minnelli, 44, US)
58) To Be and To Have (Nicolas Philibert, 2002, France)
59) Oliver! (Carol Reed, 68, UK) 
60) The Diary of Anne Frank (George Stevens, 59, US)
61) A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Steven Spielberg, 2001, US) 
62) Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio De Sica, 48, Italy)  
63) Nobody Knows (Hirokazu Kore-eda, 2005, Japan) 
64) King of the Hill (Steven Soderburgh, 93, US) 
65) Walkabout (Nicolas Roeg, 71, Australia) 
66) My Life as a Dog (Lasse Hallstrom, 85, Sweden) 
67) Europa Europa (Agnieszka Holland, 90, France/Poland) 
68) The Window (Ted Tetzlaff, 49, US) 
69) Invaders from Mars (William Cameron Menzies, 53, US) 
70) The Selfish Giant (Clio Barnard, 2013, UK) 
71) Shoeshine (Vittorio De Sice, 46, Italy) 
72) This is England (Shane Meadows, 2006, UK) 
73) The World of Henry Orient (George Roy Hill, 64, US) 
74) Ordinary People (Robert Redford, 80, US) 
75) Election (Alexander Payne, 99, US) 
76) The Fall (Tarsem Singh, 2008, US/France) 
77) Kikujiro (Takeshi Kitano, 99, Japan)
78) The Man in the Moon (Robert Mulligan, 91, US)
79) Dazed and Confused (Richard Linklater, 93, US)
80) C'est La Vie (Diane Kurys, 90, France) 
81) Clueless (Amy Heckerling, 95, US) 
82) Marvin and Tige (Eric Weston, 83, US)
83) Rushmore (Wes Anderson, 99, US)
84) The Grand Highway (Jean-Loup Hubert, 87, France) 
85) The Other (Robert Mulligan, 72, US)
86) Lord of the Flies (Peter Brook, 63, UK)
87) Eve's Bayou (Kasi Lemmons, 97, US) 
88) Empire of the Sun (Steven Spielberg, 87, US) 
89) Fast Times at Ridgemont High (Amy Heckerling, 82, US)
90) Whistle Down the Wind (Bryan Forbes, 61, UK)  
91) The Kid with a Bike (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, 2011, Belgium) 
92) The Yearling (Clarence Brown, 46, US) 
93) What Maisie Knew (Scott McGehee and David Siegel, 2012, US) 
94) The Reflecting Skin (Philip Ridley, 90, Canada) 
95) Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold, 2009, UK) 
96) Phantasm (Don Coscarelli, 79, US) 
97) The Red Balloon (Albert Lamorisse, 56, France)
98) Fresh (Boaz Yakin, 94, US) 
99) The Cowboys (Mark Rydell, 72, US) 
100) My Bodyguard (Tony Bill, 80, US) 
101) The Member of the Wedding (Fred Zinnemann, 52, US)

The movies I'm sad I had to leave off: 

Little Men (2016), Out of the Blue, National Velvet, Shane, Yi Yi, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Valarie and Her Week of Wonders, Somers Town, Lady Bird, Dope, God Bless the Child, Heaven Help Us, Beautiful Thing, Ratcatcher, Little Fugitive, Old Enough, After Lucia, The Miracle Worker (62), Mon Oncle, The White Balloon, Rosetta, The Piano, Careful He Might Hear You, Ghost World, Breaking Away, Freaks and Geeks (US TV series), A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, The Kid (21), Jeremy, Foxes, City of God, Fame, Heavenly Creatures, Come and See, Leave It to Beaver (US TV series), Pelle the Conqueror, Cooley High, Goodbye First Love, Conrack, Puberty Blues, Play, Bambi, The Parent Trap (62), Pinocchio, Kipperbang, The Iron Giant, Sixteen Candles, A Nos Amour, Peppermint Soda, Big, Vagabond, Never Let Me Go, Monsters Inc., The Ice Storm, 20th Century Women, A Little Princess, These Three, Radio Days, Shadow of a Doubt, Spellbound (2002), Mad Hot Ballroom, Dogs is Dogs, Easy A, Our Mother's House, The Grand Highway, Peter Pan (Disney), Mary Poppins, How Green Was My Valley, The Tribe, Lassie Come Home, The City of Lost Children, The Squid and the Whale, Alice in the Cities, Leon, La Petit Amour, The Little Colonel, Tex, The Outsiders, Moonlight, The Witch, Village of the Damned, A Christmas Story, Miracle on 34th Street (46), Paperhouse, The Chalk Garden, A Boy Named Charlie Brown, Tiger Bay, The Search, The Night of the Shooting Stars, David Copperfield (35), Oliver Twist (48), I Wanna Hold Your Hand, Thirteen, Smooth Talk, The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Searching for Bobby Fischer, Killer of Sheep

My Answers to the Good Professor.

Geez, I just haven't been able to sleep all night. Not after reading PROFESSOR DAVID HUXLEY’S LABORIOUS, LICENTIOUS SPOTTED-LEOPARD LABOR DAY FILM QUIZ on Dennis Cozzalio's consistently terrific Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule. The questions were just too surprising, thought-squeezing, and weird to get out of my head. So I had to reply to them here. You can read the rules over at SLATIFR, and leave any contributions you may have there, or here. I hafta say: This was a helluva lotta fun!


1) Classic film you most want to experience that has so far eluded you.
Jerzy Skolimowski's Deep End or Paul Williams' Out of It.



2) Greatest Criterion DVD/Blu-Ray release ever
I would have to say Fanny and Alexander, just because it's my second favorite movie of all time and I waited two decades to see it in its full version. But their dazzling collection of Brakhage films comes real close to besting it, for much the same reason. Seeing each of these on Blu-Ray might blow my eyes out.

3) The Big Sleep or The Maltese Falcon?
The Maltese Falcon, of course. Much more precisely directed, obviously more intelligible, and the supporting cast--Mary Astor, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, and Elisha Cook Jr.--seals the deal.

4) Jason Bateman or Paul Rudd?
Paul Rudd, definitely, if only for that one amazing scene in Wet Hot American Summer where, at Janeane Garafalo's insistence, he phony-laboriously cleans up the plate of food he just sent sailing onto the cafeteria floor. Brilliant stuff.



5) Best mother/child (male or female) movie star combo
It's hard to argue with Ingrid Bergman and Isabella Rossellini, now, isn't it?

6) Who are the Robert Mitchums and Ida Lupinos among working movie actors? Do modern parallels to such masculine and no-nonsense feminine stars even exist? If not, why not?
There could be some modern Robert Mitchums and Ida Lupinos out there, but present-day ideals of what's considered "movie star" good-looking have changed from that period. For instance, most male stars these days were initially cast in breakthrough roles because of their boyish good looks. Problem is, they STILL look like boys (Cruise, DiCaprio, and the like). They don't look like they could stick someone in the gut with a bayonett like Mitchum and, say, Lee Marvin (really) did. And, likewise, most female stars look like little girls and are shunted away from great parts once they STOP looking like girls (and, anyway, screenwriters are not crafting tough parts for women like they did in the 40s and 50s). The most dangerous-looking, square-jawed men out there are Jon Hamm, Jason Statham, and Tom Hardy, I think. And it seems like Charlize Theron, Rose McGowan or January Jones could do a tough moll like Lupino, but they don't have her quirky mouth.

7) Favorite Preston Sturges movie
For the movie itself, I'd say Sullivan's Travels. But for pure laughs, I'd go with The Palm Beach Story.

8) Odette Yustman or Mary Elizabeth Winstead?
Odette Yustman? Wait, lemme IMDB her...okay. Odette is a little bit prettier but, man, she's been in a lotta movies I refuse to see. At least I've seen Grindhouse and Live Free or Die Hard (both of which I enjoyed). And I plan on seeing Final Destination 3 and Scott Pilgrim, so I give Winstead the win.



9) Is there a movie that if you found out a partner or love interest loved (or didn't love) would qualify as a Relationship Deal Breaker
I once broke up with a woman after I took her to see A.I Artificial Intelligence. She hated it, because she was a school teacher and couldn't brook all the cruelty being heaped on the boy. I kept telling her "But he wasn't a boy...he was a robot." I thought this was an essential starting point to a deeper conversation. No go. Her refusal to even discuss the movie made me see red, so I stopped calling her. I was no more beset with viable female alternatives then than I am now (which is to say: none). So, these days, the deal-breaker movie would have to point to some larger issues underneath by which I could not abide. Say, for instance, if she cheered at Michael Moore Hates America. Get my drift?

10) Favorite DVD commentary
I have to list three: (1) the hysterical fake commentary delivered by "Kenneth Loring," artistic director of "Forever Young Films," on the 2001 DVD release of Blood Simple; (2) Martin Scorsese's adoring remarks on the 2004 DVD release of Robert Wise's The Set-Up, and (3) Ronald Neame's honest and complete accounting of the making of The Poseidon Adventure on the special 2-disc edition.

11) Movies most recently seen on DVD, Blu-Ray and theatrically
DVD: Player Hating, Maggie Hadleigh-West's deeply moving bio-doc of Brooklyn hip-hop artist Half-Mil. Theatrically: The Kids Are All Right, Winter's Bone and Inception--on the same day, in the same theater. VHS: The Great Santini. Never seen a Blu-Ray.

12) Dirk Bogarde or Alan Bates?
Hmmm...this requires a refresher course. With Alan Bates, I've seen and liked Whistle Down The Wind, Georgy Girl, Zorba The Greek, Far From The Madding Crowd, The Fixer, Women in Love, The Go-Between, An Unmarried Woman, The Shout, The Rose, Britannia Hospital and Gosford Park. With Dirk Bogarde, I've seen and liked Victim, The Servant, Darling, Accident, The Fixer, Oh! What A Lovely War, Death in Venice, The Night Porter, A Bridge Too Far and The Patricia Neal Story. Though I think Bogarde's performance in The Servant is the best out of the two bunches, I'll give the edge to Alan Bates for his slightly more powerhouse resume.

13) Favorite DVD extra
The 70 minute audio-only interview with Stanley Kubrick on the 2001: A Space Odyssey two-disc special edition DVD/Blu-Ray. I waited my whole life to hear the man speak at length; until this disc's release, he was a visage without a voice. Hearing his dignified Bronx accent was, at last, a mystery revealed.

(What an incredible photo here, by the way: Kubrick, on NYC's 42nd Street, with the words "THE MIRACLE" on his left and "BELIEVE IT OR NOT" on his right!)

14) Brian De Palma’s Scarface—yes or no?
I'm embarrassed to say that, when I first saw Scarface in the winter of 1983, my 17-year-old self considered it the movie of the year. I went back two weeks later and wondered what the hell I was thinking. Never before or maybe since had a movie fallen from my good graces so quickly. It's a cultural touchstone, yes, and it should be seen. But, although Pacino is often amusing in it, it's a shithole movie.

15) Best comic moment from a horror film that is not a horror comedy (Young Frankenstein, Love At First Bite, et al.)
"We're gonna need a bigger boat." Jaws. The audiences in 1976 invariably screamed with laughter, because it was the perfect line to hear after jumping out of our skins upon seeing Bruce for the first time.

16) Jane Birkin or Edwige Fenech?
I haven't seen one Edwige Fenech movie; her corner of the filmmaking world is not my deal. Jane Birkin, then, if only for Blow-Up, Evil Under the Sun, A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries, and Charlotte Gainsbourg.

17) Favorite Wong Kar-wai movie
In The Mood for Love.

18) Best horrific moment from a comedy that is not a horror comedy
Malcolm McDowell pulls a sheet back and discovers what sort of medical experiments he's submitted himself for in Lindsay Anderson's O Lucky Man!


19) From 2010, a specific example of what movies are doing right…
Looking at Mad Men, Louie, and Breaking Bad (and certainly the upcoming Boardwalk Empire), the real talent is shifting over to long-form storytelling on TV. It seems like a great move, too, because TV is bravely telling the tales we long to get from movies, and in finer points. Only the much-contested Inception has astonished me in cinemas this year. I'm certain that will change next week when I begin reporting on the New York Film Festival's offerings.

20) Ryan Reynolds or Chris Evans?
Ugh. What a choice. I guess Ryan Reynolds, though I still hate looking at his meatball mug. He was okay in Adventureland, though, and I'm hoping Buried will be good. (POST NOTE: Buried WAS good. Reynolds has a bonafide notch on his belt.)

21) Speculate about the future of online film writing. What’s next?
I concur with Tony Dayoub's answer to this question. I have a hard time writing for no money, and can easily see myself reducing my input on this blog down greatly once work comes my way. That said, and again, speaking for myself, when that day comes, I might just settle down to do a weekly podcast rather than spending hours on writing. I could then transmit just as much passion for the subject in a fraction of the time, though admittedly not as eloquently. (Or am I fooling myself? Is my writing as good as I hope it is? I can't tell...no one leaves comments on my site. I often feel I'm writing for no one but myself.)

22) Roger Livesey or David Farrar?
Roger Livesay. His performance in A Matter of Life or Death is astonishing.

23) Best father/child (male or female) movie star combo
Ryan O'Neal and Tatum O'Neal, forever together in Paper Moon.

24) Favorite Freddie Francis movie (as a director)
As director, I'll easily go with his version of EC's Tales From The Crypt (though I was one of the few who liked his adaptation of Dylan Thomas' The Doctor and the Devils). But he's really had more impact on cinema as a photographer. There, the contest is close, but I'll go with his work on Jack Clayton's The Innocents over his also-perfect lensing of David Lynch's The Elephant Man.


25) Bringing Up Baby or The Awful Truth?
The Awful Truth. Not even a second thought about that.

26) Tina Fey or Kristen Wiig?
Tina Fey. She seems smarter, and I like that little scar on her mouth (she still has that, right?)

27) Name a stylistically important director and the best film that would have never been made without his/her influence.
How could Bob Fosse have made All That Jazz without Federico Fellini showing him the way?

28) Movie you’d most enjoy seeing remade and transplanted to a different culture (i.e. Yimou Zhang’s A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop.)
How about a Bollywood version of Pennies From Heaven?

29) Link to a picture/frame grab of a movie image that for you best illustrates bliss. Elaborate.
If I may cannibalize a previous blog entry, for my Cinema Gallery collection:

First love's pure bliss in A Little Romance. (George Roy Hill, 79; PHOTOG: Pierre-William Glenn). The absolute soaring of my heart--really, it was beating out of my chest--upon first experiencing this moment when I was 12 years old will never, ever, ever leave me. The feeling returns every time I see the film again.

30) With a tip of that hat to Glenn Kenny, think of a just-slightly-inadequate alternate title for a famous movie. (Examples from GK: Fan Fiction; Boudu Relieved From Cramping; The Mild Imprecation of the Cat People)
I have been chomping at the bit to contribute to this always-hilarious meme (thanks, Glenn), so I'll give it a try with five titles:
A Few Prefer It Rather Warm
Das Sub
To Mock A Killingbird
The Gospel According to St. Ides
Outhouse Five

Did I pass?

My Movie Poster Collection: L

Remember that you can always click on the images themselves to see them (hopefully) larger:

L.A. CONFIDENTIAL (Curtis Hanson, 97) Rolled, D
The best of all the many one-sheets for this magnificent modern noir.

LASERBLAST (Michael Rae, 78). Folded, VGOne of my favorite bad movies also has a killer poster. Sure, I like the little-seen Dave Allen-created aliens up at the top. And the fact that the layout and tagline typeface apes the look of that famous Star Wars poster. But my favorite part of this great bit of B-movie art? The ray/logo turning a sorry human into a flaming skeleton. Skeletons are one of funniest things on earth, don't you think?

THE LAST DAYS OF DISCO (Whit Stillman, 98) Rolled, G
Boring movie, but having Kate Beckinsale AND Chloe Sevigny getting down on my wall? Yep, I'll take it. 

THE LAST MOVIE (Dennis Hopper, 71). Folded, VG. 


THE LAST WALTZ (Martin Scorsese, 78). Folded, D.
My copy of this has a tiny tear in its middle, but it doesn't mar it overall. What a lineup this concert had. A truly landmark film. I met Levon Helm once at his home/studio, and he told me Robbie Robertson's mike was cut off the whole time they were filming.

LET'S SCARE JESSICA TO DEATH (John Hancock, 71). Folded, G
A brilliantly colored poster, with a truly horrifying image. An unjustly forgotten movie, too.

THE LIBERTINE (Pasquale Festa Campanile, 68). Folded, NM
Got this only because it had Radley Metzger's name on it. I'd much rather have a Lickerish Quartet poster, but this will have to do for now. 

LICENSE TO KILL (John Glen, 89). Rolled, pre-release, F
One of my favorite Bond films. Dalton was a badass!

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF XAVIERA HOLLANDER (Larry G. Spangler, 74). Folded, VG
A strange entry in my collection. Very 70s graphics. Anyone ever seen this? 

LIFE IS SWEET (Mike Leigh, 1990). Rolled, M. NOTE: Signed by Mike Leigh, Timothy Spall, and Dick Pope. 

LIMBO (John Sayles, 1999). Rolled, VG
My only John Sayles movie poster. I really want a copy of the Matewan one-sheet (or even The Brother From Another Planet or Lianna). But I love this poster, and the movie, too!

LITTLE BUDDHA (Bernardo Bertolucci, 93). Folded, G
A gorgeous image for a dazzling Bertolucci epic.

LITTLE CHILDREN (Todd Fields, 2006). Rolled, NM
Another striking use of negative space, this time for Todd Fields' sobering look at suburban life. Bonus for having a sweaty Kate Winslet peeking at us from behind Patrick Wilson.

THE LITTLE GIRL WHO LIVED DOWN THE LANE (Nicolas Gessner, 76). Folded, VG
Creepy movie, with an evil Martin Sheen unfortunately missing from the one-sheet. Still, a good effort graphics-wise. 

A LITTLE ROMANCE (George Roy Hill, 79). Folded, VG
I traded a Once Upon a Time in the West and a rare Road Warrior poster for this (at Jerry Ohlinger's Movie Material Store), and still think I got a good deal, though many wouldn't agree. The most obscure movie on my top ten of all time is also the best movie about romance out there. The Seurat-influenced image is absolutely perfect.

LOLLY MADONNA XXX (Richard C. Sarafian, 73). Folded, Style B, GA shocking one-sheet, somehow, with an early-career Season Hubley as its center. Never seen this movie, but oh how I want to!
LONELY ARE THE BRAVE (David Miller, 62). Folded, VG
Absolutely brilliant one-sheet for one of the strangest westerns out there! We even have a young Gena Rowlands represented here! How can you lose? 

THE LONG RIDERS (Walter Hill, 81). Folded, VG
What a movie! And a smashing image to advertise it. What with all the acting brothers' names on it, I have to say, I adore this piece!

THE LONGEST YARD (Robert Aldrich, 74). Folded, VG
Boy, the studio was REALLY trying to get the ladies to see this, given Burt's hairy chest taking center stage here. Not a hint of football action, even though it's the best football movie ever made. I would've preferred another image, but I can't deny: the film is top stuff for both Reynolds and Aldrich. So here it is in my collection.

THE LOSERS (Jack Starrett, 70). Folded, VG
The poster is about a billion times better than the movie. I love a good Impossible Shot one-sheet.

THE LOSS OF SEXUAL INNOCENCE (Mike Figgis, 99). Rolled, NM
Never seen this film, but the poster is astounding. 

LOST IN AMERICA (Albert Brooks, 84). Folded, G
Yet another great use of negative space, this time the yellow desert, with our two main characters hilariously headless. Brooks' second best film (after Modern Romance, which doesn't have such a great ad campaign), but his best one-sheet. 

LOST HIGHWAY (David Lynch, 97). Rolled, NM
Incredible. Weird. Disturbing. Perfect Lynch graphics. Left to me by my late friend Patrick Flynn, who counted this as his favorite film from that director.

LOVERS AND OTHER STRANGERS (Cy Howard, 70). Folded, G
A largely ugly poster, for a fun movie with an amazing cast. I like the bottom half of the one-sheet, though. Some nice photos down there.

LUDWIG (Luchino Visconti, 72). Folded, VG
Another great, largely-white poster. I guess you're seeing a pattern of what kind of layouts I like here...

LUST IN THE DUST (Paul Bartel, 85). Rolled, G
Pretty tacky, as is the film, but I had to have this, because Divine's so prominent. And Henry Silva's thrown in, to boot!