The 1966 Mini-List

An ongoing project to survey the best films of individual decades, genres, and filmmakers.
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knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: The 1966 Mini-List

#51 Post by knives » Wed Sep 21, 2022 5:08 pm

Time to Die
Come for the Ripstein and stay for the Fuentes (I suppose Garcia Marquez was also involved). This debut is a truly outstanding masterwork, but the script really does steal the show playing out like Fuentes’ version of a Juan Rulfo story. It’s a simple and mysterious western all about giving the audience time to wonder. Wonder who these people are and what made them. Mysteriously a simple looking man walks into town with a few ear markers making me think of Boetticher. Where this becomes a Fuentes film through and through is how the sense of enigma is used to unnerve he audience and some characters. Time, beautifully etched in the title, is the cause of this emotional distress. It’s rendered all of the actions small and yet people can’t help themselves in treating the past as relevant.

Where the film as a film lives up to this is how it uses time. There’s a lot of waiting as we see characters thinking or more often decompressing and yet none of this feels wasteful or self indulgent. He film is always communicating with the audience and uses its pauses for engagement like an anti-Brecht.

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the preacher
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Re: The 1966 Mini-List

#52 Post by the preacher » Sat Sep 24, 2022 11:07 am

Please add the following titles:
An American Dream / Robert Gist
Gohiki no shinshi [Cash Calls Hell] / Hideo Gosha
Harper / Jack Smight
One Million Years B.C. / Don Chaffey
Nevada Smith / Henry Hathaway
El precio de un hombre [The Bounty Killer] / Eugenio Martín
El sonido de la muerte [Sound of Horror] / José Antonio Nieves Conde
They're a Weird Mob / Michael Powell

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swo17
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Re: The 1966 Mini-List

#53 Post by swo17 » Sat Sep 24, 2022 1:12 pm

Added. So are any of these any good? :wink:

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DarkImbecile
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Re: The 1966 Mini-List

#54 Post by DarkImbecile » Sat Sep 24, 2022 1:35 pm

I’d be interested to hear a defense of Harper

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therewillbeblus
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Re: The 1966 Mini-List

#55 Post by therewillbeblus » Sat Sep 24, 2022 1:39 pm

Same, considering a) it’s the only film to get discussion in this thread so far, and b) a cold recommendation came directly following two eviscerations!

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domino harvey
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Re: The 1966 Mini-List

#56 Post by domino harvey » Sat Sep 24, 2022 6:02 pm

Nevada Smith is okay, and you don’t need to see the film it’s spun off from, but it belongs nowhere near a best list. An American Dream is on my (tooooo long) watchlist, but not a top priority

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swo17
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Re: The 1966 Mini-List

#57 Post by swo17 » Sat Sep 24, 2022 6:34 pm

domino harvey wrote:
Sat Sep 24, 2022 6:02 pm
An American Dream is on my (tooooo long) watchlist, but not a top priority
Based on a Norman Mailer novel, I see

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dustybooks
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Re: The 1966 Mini-List

#58 Post by dustybooks » Sat Sep 24, 2022 7:42 pm

I started out '66 with The Round-Up (Jancso) which I think I need to see again to process. Having seen Lumet's The Hill just beforehand it was interesting to see a similar story of suspicion and mistrust being sowed among prisoners in a completely different period and context, though in a film that's just as singular visually. The movie does illustrate the issues with watching completely blind as I typically do, because I actually suspect I might have appreciated its arc and complexity more had I known a bit more about it going in.

The opposite is true of Fighting Elegy, only the second Suzuki I've seen and one I found completely arresting and surprising. I wasn't surprised by the frenetic and violent style so much as seeing it applied to what is essentially a Zero de Conduite-like narrative, and an exuberant and funny one at that. I was surprised to find myself reminded of Rushmore, of all things (and a little bit of A Clockwork Orange, though I'm sure that's by way of If...). Initially at the ending
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I was somewhat disappointed to have the fun disrupted by the change in tone, but in retrospect the somber finale is baked in throughout and is a good representation of the way an event like the war is born into regular life as such an act of sheer interruption.
And of course, as trite as it sounds, those closing scenes are strikingly beautiful. I watched the movie on the Channel, where it looks excellent, and was disappointed to learn it hasn't received a Blu-ray upgrade yet.

Tonight I'm planning to watch one of my all-time favorites, Fahrenheit 451, for the first time in quite a few years and I'm really excited.

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therewillbeblus
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Re: The 1966 Mini-List

#59 Post by therewillbeblus » Sat Sep 24, 2022 10:18 pm

I revisited Fighting Elegy recently as well, and it played much better this time. Absolutely loved the balance between absurdist behavioral comic tonal shifts and the stark fatalistic edge of its White Ribbon approach to unveiling the historical undercurrent of psychosocial/sexual suppression in pre-WWII Japan. I can see the Rushmore comparison for so many reasons, but perhaps most of all the high batting average of success in managing to capture dark humor and earnest pathos around the same themes- the former coming from our relatability to delusion and avoidance and compensation for what our heart lacks, and the latter from the sobriety to that lacking.

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the preacher
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Re: The 1966 Mini-List

#60 Post by the preacher » Sun Sep 25, 2022 8:04 am

Regarding Harper I think it is one of the best films of its type.

By the mid 1960s, after countless James Bond spin-offs, the film industry was suffering from spy movie fatigue. Going back to the tried and true private eye detective story was a sound decision. William Goldman penned a well-paced, sharply-written script, based on Ross MacDonald’s Chandleresque novel, ‘The Moving Target’. Director Jack Smight does a surprisingly smart job here, balancing moments of violence with dialogue, of humor with skepticism that matches Conrad Hall’s bubbly technicolor setting (when you compare this one with its sequel, ‘The Drowning Pool’ takes itself too seriously, plodding along while Harper's pacing has a lot more momentum). And Lew Harper is a memorable character: He is unkempt, sarcastic because he is disillusioned, on the verge of divorce. He has a disastrous private life and a tiring professional life, asking dangerous questions and getting knocked about, but with plenty of realistic insights into human conduct. In the end he does not accept any compromise, he would die for the idea.

Not everything works fine, though: The 1949 novel was updated with a cool swinging 1960s sensibility, which makes the movie too colorful and plush. And Newman (in peak movie star mode) is too fresh, too ruggedly good looking to be consistent as the sort of beat-up slob that his shady detective is intended to be. Fortunately he is surrounded by a terrific supporting cast!
therewillbeblus wrote:
Wed Sep 21, 2022 3:15 pm
DarkImbecile wrote:
Wed Sep 21, 2022 12:45 pm
To avoid being totally negative: the one character moment I liked quite a bit was Harper's brief reunification with his estranged wife: his sad, bedraggled appearance at her door developing quickly into a kind of wounded, desperate sexuality made more clear why this woman would have fallen for him in the first place — and his cold abandonment of her the next morning similarly clarifies why she's so desperate to be rid of him. Leigh is consistently good throughout (which I can't say for nearly any other actor) but especially here; I would have been much more interested in a movie centered around her character's determined efforts to get away from her husband.
Well said, I'm in total agreement. While their earlier conflicts were tiring, that was entirely on Newman and the writer's ends, whereas Leigh showed up as fully committed to her role and amusing whenever the camera cut to her end of the phone calls, if only to see her stretch the range of appropriate tonal responses born from justified resentment. My tirade excluded that reunification, which was a pretty effective island of spark amidst the ocean of mismanaged atmosphere around it
Curiously, if I remember well, the character of the wife does not appear in MacDonald's novel and is indeed a highlight.

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DarkImbecile
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Re: The 1966 Mini-List

#61 Post by DarkImbecile » Sun Sep 25, 2022 8:59 am

That reminds me, I did mean to call out the legendary Conrad Hall as another highlight, as he gets to show off in kind of an impressive smorgasbord of conditions

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domino harvey
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Re: The 1966 Mini-List

#62 Post by domino harvey » Sun Sep 25, 2022 5:02 pm

Walkower was my biggest discovery of the 1965 list and now it looks like Jerzy Skolimowski's Bariera will be my biggest discovery for this year as well (and if I somehow see a new-to-me film better than this in my remaining viewings, I will be blessed indeed), as I liked it even more. How joyous it is to watch a film where I could not possibly predict what would happen from one moment to the next and not have it feel "totes rando" but instead wonderfully unexpected and freeflowing and above all exhilerating. The film tethers all of the stylistic excesses of Walkower (with fewer long shots, granted, but clearly more money to be ambitious elsewhere) to a quirky romantic comedy structure, and it achieves what so many films of so many various "new waves" could only dream of. How is restoring and releasing this masterpiece not at the top of some boutique label's list?

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diamonds
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Re: The 1966 Mini-List

#63 Post by diamonds » Sun Sep 25, 2022 5:11 pm

Just wait until you get to 1967's Le départ!

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swo17
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Re: The 1966 Mini-List

#64 Post by swo17 » Sun Sep 25, 2022 6:07 pm

Second Run actually announced it at one point but there are obstacles preventing its release

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swo17
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Re: The 1966 Mini-List

#65 Post by swo17 » Tue Sep 27, 2022 3:40 pm

As a reminder, you all have until end of the day Friday to suggest additions to the list of eligible titles in the first post

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domino harvey
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Re: The 1966 Mini-List

#66 Post by domino harvey » Tue Sep 27, 2022 4:52 pm

Note to self: stop pretending you’re going to get through a 50 film watch list in a couple weeks!!

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swo17
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Re: The 1966 Mini-List

#67 Post by swo17 » Fri Sep 30, 2022 8:27 pm

swo17 wrote:
Tue Sep 27, 2022 3:40 pm
As a reminder, you all have until end of the day Friday to suggest additions to the list of eligible titles in the first post

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domino harvey
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Re: The 1966 Mini-List

#68 Post by domino harvey » Fri Sep 30, 2022 8:52 pm

Here’s my list of all the films I’m going to watch that I need added
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SIKE! I gave up and have been rewatching already eligible 1966 movies instead because my first time viewing list was literally 50 films long and I only watched three, none of which I’m voting for

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swo17
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Re: The 1966 Mini-List

#69 Post by swo17 » Sun Oct 02, 2022 2:16 am


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swo17
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Re: The 1966 Mini-List

#70 Post by swo17 » Sun Oct 02, 2022 8:41 pm

A few lesser-known films I hope people check out...

Castro Street
Tung (Bruce Baillie)

I know senseabove is all about All My Life, which has its own hypnotic pleasures, but these two have more of the eye-catching imagery that I get out of bed for. The first of these is on Flicker Alley's big avant-garde Blu-ray set--I'd already seen it and forgotten, but don't take that to mean it's forgettable!

Lights (Marie Menken)
And where Tung finds beauty and whimsy in the shadows, Lights takes the opposite approach. Matt recently complained about Menken being over-represented but I hope that doesn't apply to this lovely little trinket of a film, which I believe is only available on a DVD from Austria.

Word Movie (Paul Sharits)
There are several cool entries from the Flux Film Anthology eligible this year (I wonder if twbb might've seen Blink, which is another flicker film) but I think this one is the strongest. Similar in spirit to Zorns Lemma, you're barraged with words following some sort of abstract ordering mechanism (both visually at lightning pace and aurally like a seesaw) and each viewing you can try to focus on some different element to gain a better sense of what went into the film's construction. For instance: 1. The two alternating voices are each making coherent statements if you block the other out. 2. The letters that stay on screen the longest (because they are shared with adjacent words in the series, and because the words are always lined up so that the shared letters remain at a focal point in the center of the screen) themselves spell out coherent words, just without any clarifying spaces or punctuation. Probably not in any way useful for teaching language, but a cool exercise regardless!

YUL 871 (Jacques Godbout)
Another gem from the "Other French New Wave" set, with a memorable mood and score. It's not an experimental film though, so I don't know anything else to say

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therewillbeblus
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Re: The 1966 Mini-List

#71 Post by therewillbeblus » Sun Oct 02, 2022 9:49 pm

Blink is solid, though I’d rather just rewatch The Flicker and have my life changed yet again with thirty minutes of fixed attention. Some of these flicker films are different enough to avoid a comparison but I’m not sure what this one is doing that Conrad’s isn’t, times a million euphoria units

I also liked YUL 871, not as much as Le Chat dans le sac but more than the second film in the set. I don’t really have anything to say about it either though. It’s a fun little movie, that manages to use its basic narrative structure to go to some unpredictable places but never striving for ambitions that would shock or surprise. I kinda want to call it ‘quaint’ but that’s not right

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Red Screamer
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Re: The 1966 Mini-List

#72 Post by Red Screamer » Mon Oct 03, 2022 3:34 pm

I just submitted a half-baked list partially to back swo up on Castro Street and Word Movie. For shorts, I also love Kyiv Frescos, a sumptuous ballet of stillness in 14 minutes.

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Re: The 1967 Mini-List

#73 Post by yoshimori » Tue Oct 04, 2022 12:25 pm

knives wrote:
Mon Oct 03, 2022 2:36 pm
Conner’s Breakaway ... It’s probably the most perfect of his found footage films.
Not sure what counts for you as "found footage", but he shot the movie himself.

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swo17
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Re: The 1966 Mini-List

#74 Post by swo17 » Sun Oct 09, 2022 4:01 pm

swo17 wrote:
Sun Oct 02, 2022 2:16 am
VOTE HERE UNTIL OCTOBER 16
One more week!

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dustybooks
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Re: The 1966 Mini-List

#75 Post by dustybooks » Mon Oct 10, 2022 12:59 pm

Georgy Girl doesn't seem to be a big forum favorite but it unexpectedly resonated with me, partly as a handy capper on the whole run of British films I've been seeing or revisiting from the several years beforehand. It seems to me a very cogent synthesis of the realistic and fanciful branches of the British New Wave, and I was throttled by Lynn Redgrave's performance which was as complete and convincing an embodiment of a person as I can name. Perhaps it's trite, but I've known Georgy and the many dimensions of the person I knew who was analogous all played out impeccably. And that's on top of the aspects of the film that are more specific to the region and period, which I also richly enjoyed. I appreciate as well that the story never swung in a direction I expected, at least not for long, and I after an initial apprehension I also liked
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the bitter irony of the conclusion.
I revisited Francis Coppola's UCLA thesis film You're a Big Boy Now, which is also very much a movie informed by other conspicuous "New Wave" movements in various parts of the world, integrating a lot of Lester and Godard and Schlesinger. Coming-of-age films influenced by those major figures in the '60s are a dime a dozen but I do think this one is above par. The performances are embodying stereotypes but are all quite a joy to behold (Rip Torn and Elizabeth Hartman are especially fun). I think one of the best things about this project has been the windows into daily life that a lot of movies from the '60s provide, which is something I see a lot less of in earlier films -- especially American films -- and certainly here the sense of NYC as a living, breathing place is no less potent than the experience of occupying Swinging London as a mere observer is in Georgy Girl. It's all pretty immature, of course, but its core of honest yearning and romanticism is pretty touching. (And being a librarian I can't help but get a kick out of any romantic comedy whose action is mostly set in and around the main branch of NYPL.)

Not that anyone here needs to hear this, but also, I saw Persona for the second time in my life, and I have big news: it's a masterpiece.

Going to try to get to some of your other suggestions, swo. I still have a lot of catching up to do before Sunday but luckily most of the films have a shorter running time. It's taken me a lot longer to reach a top ten this month than it did the last couple, for whatever reason.

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