1967--The Year in Review

1967 is famously a watershed year for movies--ground zero for a ridiculously rich Golden Age that would swirl through American and world cinema for arguably 15 years to come. With that, here it comes down to a fierce battle between US and French film; initially, I was ready to anoint Jacques Tati's bank-breaking marvel Playtime. But then I reconsidered: Playtime is best seen on the hugest screen possible, and this really hamstrings it in terms of others being able to fully grasp its appeal (even the people who already love it find Tati's complex comedic staging lacks definition in miniature). So, in the end, I had to go with the American movie that I think had the biggest impact on the culture, as it ushered in wry takes on mature themes, innovative uses of modern source music, and the rise of the "normal" movie star--in this case, an odd-duck struggling actor named Dustin Hoffman, who overcame being rather over-the-hill to play the 22-year-old Benjamin Braddock, and in doing so, delivered the performance of the year (it's a brilliant piece of casting by director Mike Nichols, who thought Hoffman's non-WASPy countenance would perfectly place him as an outsider in this white-bread world). Its fellow US competitors were difficult to overcome, though, with the groundbreaking violence of Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde (itself influenced by French film, as its subject was suggested to its screenwriters by Francois Truffaut), Richard Brooks' stunning adaptation of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, UK director John Boorman's dizzying noir film Point Blank, and Stuart Rosenberg's immensely popular, anti-establishment-flavored prison tale Cool Hand Luke. It was a terrific period for UK film, with Hammer's sci-fi thriller Quatermass and the Pit, John Schlesinger's elegant Far From the Madding Crowd, Joseph Losey's Accident and US director Stanley Donen’s twin late-period humdingers Bedazzled and Two For the Road (both of which tagged Donen as the one classic-era director who wholly embraced this new age).

As for the French, in addition to Tati, we got another superb film from Robert Bresson called Mouchette, Bunuel's sensual Belle De Jour, three films from Godard (spearheaded by the anti-car satire Weekend) and Melville's exciting Le Samourai. In a bejeweled race for the acting categories, at last I had to give Audrey Hepburn her due (she was Oscar-nominated this year for her  terrorized blind woman in Wait Until Dark, but I went instead for her luminous take as a wife struggling to make her marriage work in Two For the Road), while the Supporting Actor race was filled with delightfully venal villains--and the one I picked is easily the most becoming (and the Supporting Actress race was, for me, an easy choice). Also, this is the first year in a long while that I, like the Academy, reduced the technical categories into a combination of black-and-white and color competitors (given that black-and-white was clearly--and sadly--on its way out). The Documentary Feature category finally gets some major fire behind it, with Frederick Wiseman's debut Titicut Follies--about a scarily lax New England mental hospital--emerging as the first bonafide masterpiece from this new era of reality on film. Finally, on the short film front, experimental cinema makes a huge jump forward with Michael Snow's mystifying 42-minute zoom-in, while in the animated category, Canada's National Film Board takes hold of short-form animation and rarely lets go for a couple of decades hence. 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: THE GRADUATE (US, Mike Nichols)
(2nd: Playtime (France, Jacques Tati), followed by:
Bonnie and Clyde (US, Arthur Penn)
Weekend (France, Jean-Luc Godard)
In Cold Blood (US, Richard Brooks)
Mouchette (France, Robert Bresson)
Titicut Follies (US, Frederick Wiseman)
Belle de Jour (France, Luis Buñuel)
Point Blank (US, John Boorman)
Bedazzled (UK, Stanley Donen)
Cool Hand Luke (US, Stuart Rosenberg)
Quatermass and the Pit (aka Five Million Years to Earth) (UK, Roy Ward Baker)
Don’t Look Back (US, D.A. Pennebaker)
Le Samourai (France, Jean-Pierre Melville)
Two For The Road (UK, Stanley Donen)
The Fireman’s Ball (Czechoslovakia, Milos Forman)
Far from the Madding Crowd (UK, John Schlesinger)
In the Heat of the Night (US, Norman Jewison)
The Dirty Dozen (US, Robert Aldrich)
The Jungle Book (US, Wolfgang Reitherman)
Festival (US, Murray Lerner)
The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade (aka Marat/Sade) (UK, Peter Brook)
The Red and the White (Hungary, Miklós Jancsó)
Accident (UK, Joseph Losey)
The Whisperers (UK, Bryan Forbes)
2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (France, Jean-Luc Godard)
La Collectioneuse (France, Eric Rohmer)
Ulysses (UK, Joseph Strick)
David Holzman's Diary (US, Jim McBride)
Markéta Lazarová (Czechoslovakia, Frantisek Vlácil)
The Anderson Platoon (US, Pierre Schoendoerffer)
Elvira Madigan (Sweden, Bo Widerberg)
Grand Slam (Italy, Giuliano Montaldo)
The Fearless Vampire Killers, or: Pardon Me, But Your Teeth Are in My Neck (UK/US, Roman Polanski)
The Incident (US, Larry Peerce)
Hell’s Angels on Wheels (US, Richard Rush)
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (US, David Swift)
Beach Red (US, Cornel Wilde)
Our Mother’s House (UK, Jack Clayton)
Portrait of Jason (US, Shirley Clarke)
I am Curious…Yellow (Sweden, Vilgot Sjöman)
The Young Girls of Rochefort (France, Jacques Demy)
La Chinoise (France, Jean-Luc Godard)
Warning Shot (US, Buzz Kulik)
Privilege (UK, Peter Watkins)
Hombre (US, Martin Ritt)
To Sir With Love (UK, James Clavell)
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (US, Stanley Kramer)
Wait Until Dark (US, Terence Young)
You Only Live Twice (UK, Lewis Gilbert)
The Trip (US, Roger Corman)
I’ll Never Forget What's 'is Name (UK, Michael Winner)
In Like Flint (US, Gordon Douglas)
Mad Monster Party? (US, Jules Bass)
Poor Cow (UK, Ken Loach)
Countdown (US, Robert Altman)
The Night of the Generals (US, Anatole Litvak)
The President's Analyst (US, Theodore J. Flicker)
How I Won the War (UK, Richard Lester)
Camelot (US, Joshua Logan)
The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre (US, Roger Corman)
Reflections in a Golden Eye (US, John Huston)
Spider Baby (US, Jack Hill))



ACTOR: Dustin Hoffman, THE GRADUATE (2nd: Paul Newman, Cool Hand Luke, followed by: Robert Blake, In Cold Blood; Rod Steiger, In the Heat of the Night; Alain Delon, Le Samourai; Albert Finney, Two for the Road; Warren Beatty, Bonnie and Clyde; Lee Marvin, Point Blank; Dudley Moore, Bedazzled; Spencer Tracy, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner)

ACTRESS: Audrey Hepburn, TWO FOR THE ROAD (2nd: Edith Evans, The Whisperers, followed by: Anne Bancroft, The Graduate; Catherine Deneuve, Belle Du Jour; Faye Dunaway, Bonnie and Clyde; Nadine Nortier, Mouchette; Audrey Hepburn, Wait Until Dark; Barbara Jefford, Ulysses; Julie Christie, Far From the Madding Crowd; Katharine Hepburn, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner) 

SUPPORTING ACTOR: Peter Cook, BEDAZZLED (2nd: Alan Arkin, Wait Until Dark, followed by: Gene Hackman, Bonnie and Clyde; Strother Martin, Cool Hand Luke; Scott Wilson, In Cold Blood; John Cassavetes, The Dirty Dozen; George Kennedy, Cool Hand Luke; Michael J. Pollard, Bonnie and Clyde; Peter Finch, Far from the Madding Crowd; Rudy Vallee, How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Katherine Ross, THE GRADUATE (2nd: Jo Van Fleet, Cool Hand Luke, followed by: Estelle Parsons, Bonnie and Clyde; Lee Grant, In The Heat of the Night; Haydée Politoff, La Collectionneuse; Eleanor Bron, Bedazzled; Genevieve Page, Belle de Jour; Mildred Natwick, Barefoot in the Park; Carol Channing, Thoroughly Modern Millie)

DIRECTOR: Mike Nichols, THE GRADUATE (2nd: Jacques Tati, Playtime, followed by: Jean-Luc Godard, Weekend; Frederick Wiseman, Titicut Follies; Arthur Penn, Bonnie and Clyde; Luis Bunuel, Belle de Jour; John Boorman, Point Blank; Robert Bresson, Mouchette; Stanley Donen, Bedazzled; Stuart Rosenberg, Cool Hand Luke)



NON-ENGLISH-LANGUAGE FILM: PLAYTIME (France, Jacques Tati) (2nd: Weekend (France, Jean-Luc Godard), followed by: Mouchette (France, Robert Bresson); Belle de Jour (France, Luis Buñuel); Le Samourai (France, Jean-Pierre Melville); The Fireman’s Ball (Czechoslovakia, Milos Forman); The Red and the White (Hungary, Miklós Jancsó); 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (France, Jean-Luc Godard); La Collectioneuse (France, Eric Rohmer); Markéta Lazarová (Czechoslovakia, Frantisek Vlácil); Elvira Madigan (Sweden, Bo Widerberg); I am Curious…Yellow (Sweden, Vilgot Sjöman); La Chinoise (France, Jean-Luc Godard))

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: TITICUT FOLLIES (US, Frederick Wiseman) (2nd: Don’t Look Back (US, D.A. Pennebaker), followed by: Festival (US, Murray Lerner); The Anderson Platoon (US, Pierre Schoendoerffer); Portrait of Jason (US, Shirley Clarke))

ANIMATED FEATURE: THE JUNGLE BOOK (US, Wolfgang Reitherman) (2nd: Mad Monster Party? (US, Jules Bass))



ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: David Newman and Robert Benton, BONNIE AND CLYDE (2nd: Frederic Raphael, Two for the Road, followed by: Nigel Kneale, Quatermass and the Pit (aka Five Million Years to Earth); Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, Bedazzled; Sterling Silliphant, In The Heat of the Night)



ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Buck Henry and Calder Willingham, THE GRADUATE (2nd: Richard Brooks, In Cold Blood, followed by: Luis Bunuel and Jean-Claude Carriere, Belle Du Jour; Alexander Jacobs, David Newhouse, and Rafe Newhouse, Point Blank; Donn Pierce and Frank Pierson, Cool Hand Luke)



LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM: WAVELENGTH (Canada, Michael Snow) (2nd: Report (US, Bruce Conner), followed by: Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB (US, George Lucas); A Place to Stand (Canada, Christopher Chapman); The Perfect Human (Denmark, Jorgen Leth); Rail (UK, Geoffrey Jones))



ANIMATED SHORT FILM: WHAT ON EARTH! (Canada, Les Drew and Kaj Pindal) (2nd: The House That Jack Built (Canada, Ron Tunis), followed by: Samadhi (US, Jordan Belson); Historia Naturae, Suita (Czechoslovakia, Jan Svankmajer); Everything is a Number (Poland, Stefan Schabenbeck); Marvin Digs (US, Ralph Bakshi))

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Robert Surtees, THE GRADUATE (2nd: Conrad Hall, In Cold Blood, followed by: Jean Badal and Andreas Winding, Playtime; Burnett Guffey, Bonnie and Clyde; Nicolas Roeg, Far from the Madding Crowd)

ART DIRECTION: PLAYTIME, The Graduate, You Only Live Twice, Point Blank, Camelot

COSTUME DESIGN: BONNIE AND CLYDE, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Camelot, The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade, Far From the Madding Crowd

FILM EDITING: BONNIE AND CLYDE, The Graduate, In Cold Blood, Point Blank, In the Heat of the Night 

SOUND: THE DIRTY DOZEN, In the Heat of the Night, Point Blank, Cool Hand Luke, Don't Look Back


ORIGINAL SCORE: Lalo Schifrin, COOL HAND LUKE (2nd: Quincy Jones, In Cold Blood, followed by: Richard Rodney Bennett, Far from the Madding Crowd; Elmer Bernstein, Thoroughly Modern Millie; John Barry, You Only Live Twice)  



ADAPTED OR MUSICAL SCORE: Michel Legrand, THE YOUNG GIRLS OF ROCHEFORT (2nd: Richard Peaslee, The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade, followed by: Dudley Moore, Bedazzled; Charles Strouse, Bonnie and Clyde; Alfred Newman and Ken Darby, Camelot)

 

ORIGINAL SONG: “The Look of Love” from CASINO ROYALE (Music by Burt Bacharach, lyrics by Hal David) (2nd: “You Only Live Twice” from You Only Live Twice (Music by John Barry, lyrics by Leslie Bricusse), followed by: "To Sir With Love" from To Sir With Love (Music by Mark London, lyrics by Don Black); "In The Heat of the Night" from In the Heat of the Night (Music by Quincy Jones, lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman); "The Bare Necessities" from The Jungle Book (Music and lyrics by Terry Gilkyson); "Theme from Valley of the Dolls" from Valley of the Dolls (Music by Andre Previn, lyrics by Dore Previn); "I Wanna Be Like You (The Monkey Song)" from The Jungle Book (Music and lyrics by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman); "Trust in Me" from The Jungle Book (Music and lyrics by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman); "Bedazzled" from Bedazzled (Music and lyrics by Dudley Moore); "Fowl Owl on the Prowl" from In the Heat of the Night (Music by Quincy Jones, lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman); "Talk to the Animals" from Doctor Doolittle (Music and lyrics by Leslie Bricusse); "It's The Little Things" from Good Times (Music and lyrics by Sonny Bono))

SPECIAL EFFECTS: YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE, Doctor Doolittle

MAKEUP: THE PERSECUTION AND ASSASSINATION OF JEAN-PAUL MARAT AS PERFORMED BY THE INMATES OF THE ASYLUM OF CHARENTON UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE MARQUIS DE SADE, You Only Live Twice, Quatermass and the Pit (aka Five Million Years to Earth)

The Encyclopedia of Cinematography (G-H)

Just as a reminder: in the spirit and thrust of this series, the names beside the titles are of the PHOTOGRAPHER of the film, and not of the director.  

Gallipoli (Russell Boyd, 81) 
The sandy dunes of WWI Turkey, set opposite the vast spread of Australia, with only dupes as its players.

Giant (William C. Mellor, 56)
This, amongst many in George Stevens' film, is one of the king images in all of American cinema. Taking this single shot in, it's impossible to think of anything other than America's hugest possibilities, and its bitter downfalls. Giant is filled with such luminous work. 

Gimme Shelter (Albert Maysles, David Maysles, and Gary Weis, 70)
The blood red of it all; the last of an era; the perfect shot.  The ultimate in documentary cinematography. 

Glory (Freddie Francis, 89)  
This particular image...it's like a stupefying painting--as are many in this landmark, underrated film, shot by an unconditional master of the art form.

The Godfather (Gordon Willis, 72)
This says it all. I mean...it changed the look of movies forever.  Still, to this day, in movies, darkness is treasured over brightness because of this one title.  Willis was a true maverick and, while he profited from his willingness to go there, he suffered, too. 

The Godfather, Part II (Gordon Willis, 74)
This says it all, too.  In both sections of this massive mob tale, Gordon Willis made history, and set a deeply felt visual tone for decades of subsequent filmmaking.  And this is an understatement. 
 

Gone with the Wind (Ernest Haller [and Lee Garmes], 39) 
Though it's really a product of special effects, this combination of live action and matte painting somehow illustrates everything one needs to know about this landmark film. 

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (Tonino Delli Colli, 66) 
A threesome, at each other's throats, and out for blood.  One stupendous film, in one single shot. 

The Gospel According to St. Matthew (Tonino Delli Colli, 64)
A rebel, amongst a band of followers.  And a movie that stands as an inspiration, with its astounding photography as one of its greatest attributes. Still, Delli Colli might be the least talked-about genius of motion picture photography.
 

The Graduate (Robert Surtees, 67)
With this, the veteran Surtees never matched his mastery of bright and dark.  His athletic playfulness here with lighting and focus is something of wonder, even for a photographer as well-versed as he.  

Gravity (Emmanuel Lubezki, 2013) 
A absolutely unbeleiveable melding of so many diverse filmmaking crafts, all with the immaculate look of the film as the ultimate goal.  The greatest 3D movie ever made; it makes you feel as if you've never really experienced the whole of the process before. And the attention to cinema detail is just incredible, in all moments.  
  

Great Expectations (Guy Green, 46)
The blending of lights and darks, of art direction and costuming--it's all the evocation of impressive, deeply felt emotion towards and adoration of Dickens' story well told. 

The Greatest Story Ever Told (William C. Mellor and Loyal Griggs, 65)
Widescreen at its most inconceivably brilliant (even if the film is extremely difficult to get through). 

The Green Ray (Sophie Maintigneux, 86) 
A woman's crippling loneliness, seen at its dazzling pinnacle, and then at its brilliant relief.  In my opinion, director Eric Rohmer's most seriously affecting achievement.
 

The Grey Fox (Frank Tidy, 82)
An old cowboy, in a new land. Every wrinkle in our lead's face tells a tale. 

Gun Crazy (Russell Harlan, 50)
One of the great early indie movies, and one that still resonates more than 60 years later as an influence on modern photography.   Its famous single shot of a bank robbery (taken outside the bank) remains a marvel.  

La Haine (Pierre Aim, 95) 
Street thugs in France, in snappily framed black-and-white. Extra exciting! 

 Hair (Miroslav Ondriecek, 79) 
All sides of the late 60s, seen with a dreamy, dynamic feel.

Harakiri (Yoshiro Miyajima, 62) 
The ultimate in samurai epics, transmitted with suitably breathtaking imagery.
 

Hard Boiled (Wing-Hung Wong, 92)
Action cinematography at its very best. Pure chaos. 
 

The Haunting (Davis Boulton, 63)
Indescribable terror.  In each and every shot, Boulton's lighting works in tandem with the expertly insane art direction to convey an overwhelming sense of unrest. 

 Heat (Dante Spinotti, 95)
Law and order battle it out, with a light-dappled L.A. as background.  
 

Heaven’s Gate (Vilmos Zsigmond, 80)
All the way through, even with the negative buzz, one has to marvel at its look!

The Heiress (Leo Tover, 49) 
Absolutely unforgettable in its dark portrayal of a stolen life. 
 

The Hill (Oswald Morris, 65)
Stark and driven, with a perfect use of wide lenses and a stunning sense of of lighting.  

Holy Mountain (Rafael Korkidi, 73)  
Scene after scene, this is one movie that offers the sort of bizarre images that we can barely even dream of.  
 

The Honeymoon Killers (Oliver Wood, 69)
An indie masterpiece, perhaps chiefly because of Wood's grainy, stupendously lit tableaus. 

Hope and Glory (Phillippe Rousselot, 87) 
Britain in WWII splendor, with an appropriately dialed-down color palette.  
 

Hour of the Wolf (Sven Nykvist, 68)
Nykvist pulls out all of his tricks, in service of an insurmountable horror show. 
 

The House of Mirth (Remi Adefarasin, 2000)
This is a trip back in time, all the way through.

Howards End (Tony Pierce-Roberts, 92) 
A painting in movement. 

How Green Was My Valley (Arthur Miller, 41)  
How gorgeous is this? And the entire movie reaches this peak.

Hud (James Wong Howe, 63) 
Oh my god...Howe's work here is beyond reproach, all the way through...absolutely one of the best black-and-white movies ever filmed. 

Hugo (Robert Richardson, 2011) 
Turn-of-the-20th-Century, in Paris, regal and in sumptuous 3D

The Hurt Locker (Barry Ackroyd, 2008) 
The perfect blend of shaky-cam documentary-style and a more grounded narrative-aimed photography. 

The Hustler (Eugene Shuftan, 61) 
A man minus pluck, arriving to shoot against his most respected rival.  Shuftan's expressive widescreen black-and-white photography here is without equal. 

CINEMA GALLERY: September 2011

Another unusual set of frame grabs for my ongoing CINEMA GALLERY (which you can visit in full here--by now there must be at least 400 entries!). As always, click on the frame you want to see writ large. As always (at least these days), see if you can guess the movies from which these frames hail. The answers, corresponding to the numbered photos, are at the end of the post.

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1. Foxy Brown (Jack Hill, 74)
2. An American in Paris (Vincente Minnelli, 51)
3. Frankenstein (James Whale, 31)
4. Hunger (Steve McQueen, 2008)
5. The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (John Cassavetes, 76)
6. The Graduate (Mike Nichols, 67)
7. Storytime (Terry Gilliam, 68)
8. The Lives of Others (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, 2006)
9. The Train (John Frankenheimer, 64)
10. Downfall (Oliver Hirschbiegel, 2004)
11. The Family Jewels (Jerry Lewis, 65)
12. Assault on Precinct 13 (John Carpenter, 76)
13. Timepiece (Jim Henson, 65)
14. The Trip (Roger Corman, 67)
15. In A Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray, 50)
16. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (Milos Forman, 75)
17. Harlan County USA (Barbara Kopple, 76)
18. Duets (Bruce Paltrow, 2000)
19. The Gate (Tibor Takács, 87)
20. In The Bedroom (Todd Fields, 2001)
21. Long Haired Hare (Chuck Jones, 49)
22. The Plague of the Zombies (John Gilling, 66)
23. Outland (Peter Hyams, 81)
24. Deranged (Jeff Gillen and Alan Ormsby, 74)
25. Umberto D. (Vittorio De Sica, 52)