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I figured I should probably get around to briefly writing up some of the best films I've seen so far for this project:

Berlin Horse / Threshold (Malcolm Le Grice) (available here)
More lovely manipulation of simple film loops from Le Grice, the first hypnotically scored by Brian Eno, the second presumably by aliens.

La cabina (Antonio Mercero) (no DVD, but on YouTube)
A great film about waiting for the other shoe to drop, this short was nothing like what I expected from a man-trapped-in-phone-booth scenario, my only previous frame of reference being that one Colin Farrell movie.

Daughters of Darkness (Harry Kümel)
A textbook example of how any material can be elevated by the way that it's put together, this could-have-been sleazy vampire flick is transformed into some kind of gothic horror masterpiece by a great score and an incredibly convincing performance by Delphine Seyrig as the classy, creepy, and vampire-old Countess Bathory.

Du côté d'Orouët (Jacques Rozier) (available here)
Unlike every other human on the planet, I've never been particularly fond of summer, the beach, or summer at the beach. Though I suppose I am not immune to the pleasures of watching adorable women act adorably. So you might say this movie was something of a wash. However, little moments from it keep burrowing through my mind, triggering previously unknown pleasure centers of my brain, and pleading for me to revisit them. Which honestly might not be so bad. In fact, I could see this becoming a recurring event for me around this time every year, wherein I board myself up inside my house and watch this movie.

Frenzy (Alfred Hitchcock)
I understood this to be sort of inessential Hitchcock and so avoided it until now, but I must confess that I found it to be rather deliciously clever. The "wrong man" case against the film's lead gradually builds to implausible Book of Job levels, but Hitchcock winks you through it all the way.

The Maids (Christopher Miles)
Great choice for a spotlight title, knives! The film is, by necessity, somewhat stagey, but Jackson and York are more than up to the task of carrying what is essentially 90 minutes of extremely incriminating nanny-cam footage of what the maids do while the master is away. Great score too. NB: The Kino DVD cover is pretty unrepresentative of the content, if not the spirit, of the film, in case your wife asks you about this after picking it up for you from the library.

Starting Over (Alan Pakula)
And Pakula's best film of the decade is...a romantic comedy? OK, that's probably going too far, but I didn't see this film's greatness coming at all. (I saw it a couple weeks ago, before domino's recent write-up.) It's a pretty simple set-up (recently divorced Burt Reynolds without his moustache has lost his bearings, and is torn between the sweet school teacher he subsequently meets and putting his marriage back together) that hits all the expected beats, but does so in unexpected, hilarious, and, above all, honest ways. The DVD is supposedly OOP but you can currently get a new copy from Amazon for under $5.

Wanda Gościmińska / The Primer / Foreman on a Farm (Wojciech Wiszniewski) (available here)
You are eventually going to need this set for the documentary list, even if admittedly these films resemble documentaries about as much as The Cremator does a cooking show. Either way though, they're amazing. zedz has already discussed them at length here, to which I can add little more than my own drool.

swo17 wrote:Daughters of Darkness (Harry Kümel)
A textbook example of how any material can be elevated by the way that it's put together, this could-have-been sleazy vampire flick is transformed into some kind of gothic horror masterpiece by a great score and an incredibly convincing performance by Delphine Seyrig as the classy, creepy, and vampire-old Countess Bathory.

Might I persuade you to try out my favourite lesbian vampire film of the decade, The Vampire Lovers? While not quite as odd or surreal as its continental European counterparts tended to be, it is highly charged with sensuality and emotion, more so than you'd expect from a Hammer film. It's more rewarding than its trashy premise would suggest.

I'm surprised that you find it so easy to narrow it down to just the one lesbian vampire film in a decade full of them, Mr Sausage!

swo17 wrote:Frenzy (Alfred Hitchcock)
I understood this to be sort of inessential Hitchcock and so avoided it until now, but I must confess that I found it to be rather deliciously clever. The "wrong man" case against the film's lead gradually builds to implausible Book of Job levels, but Hitchcock winks you through it all the way.

If you want to see more of Jon Finch, the lead in Frenzy, I highly recommend his roles in Polanski's Macbeth and through BBC Shakespeare plays Richard II and Henry IV Part One and Two. Finch also was apparently all set to play the role in Alien eventually taken by John Hurt before he dropped out of the production through illness.

(He also turns up in The Vampire Lovers too! )

I agree on Polanski's Macbeth, as it'll definitely make my list somewhere. While I also agree that Frenzy is much better than its reputation, it's not going to make the cut, though my wife and I have a running joke of yelling "Lovely!" every once in a while in Finch's crazed voice. I also have Daughters of Darkness in my Netflix queue, so I'm glad to hear that others here like it.

Shouldn't Rollin's [insert name here] be the lesbian vampire film du jour?

Yes, though don't forget Jess Franco's Vampyros Lesbos and (quite literally) seminal Female Vampire!

The hilarious thing, to me, is that I probably won't be voting for any of his films featuring lesbians or vampires. Instead I will always think the top of his game is The Iron Rose which if nothing else proves that all you need to do to create something absolutely disturbing is a body and some religious imagery.

colinr0380 wrote:I'm surprised that you find it so easy to narrow it down to just the one lesbian vampire film in a decade full of them, Mr Sausage!

Ingrid Pitt, Peter Cushing, and Roy Ward Baker is a hard combo to beat.

Am I wrong, or was it the success of the The Vampire Lovers that lead to the odd early 70's boom in Euro lesbian vampire films?

It's a possibility, but The Rape of the Vampire came first as a (not as popular) lesbopire.

Your recommendation of the Vampire Lovers came one day too late, M Sausage-- where we you when I was compiling absurd shopping carts on ImportCDs?

Recent classy viewings:

Virgin Witch (Ray Austin 1972) Almost ashamed to admit how much I enjoyed this, especially considering it's merely another coven-centric Euro flick with ample skin provided by real life sexy sisters (one of which apparently went on to star in a popular UK TV show-- whoops), neither of whom, you'll forgive me for saying, behave virginal. The gratuitous yet innocent nudity on display undoubtedly benefits the film, which would barely exist without it. If there's any worry that the witches' ritual doesn't involve rubbing oil into the bare chest of a nubile young woman, let me allay that fear!

Sister Street Fighter (Kazuhiko Yamaguchi 1974) This is the first grindhouse film I've seen that lives up to its promise: a free-associative, endlessly novel barrage of creative and well-choreographed fight sequences accompany the titular character as she seeks to find and later avenge her brother. The plot is but a means of hanging the action sequences in a certain order, but this film barrels so rapidly towards its finish that it hardly matters-- there are enough ideas and characters in the film for a half-dozen other films, and the movie exhausts its elements at a rapid, seemingly unsustainable rate. At one juncture there were by my count at least six different factions working against the heroine, each identified by their fighting style by a freeze-frame super on the screen, and that doesn't even begin to cover the assorted henchmen and unlucky gophers who get in the way. This was solid, surprising fun from beginning to end, and it could very well make my list.

Sister Street Fighter: Hanging by a Thread (Kazuhiko Yamaguchi 1974) For the sequel, featuring many of the same principals (most in different roles), the approach shifts in a weirder direction-- the movie concerns prostitutes being trafficked not for sex but for diamonds sewn into their buttocks-- and the film is gorier and somewhat mean-spirited, with the action harder to follow thanks to the freewheeling camera. That said, I still enjoyed this one, but it's not as entertaining as the first trip to the well.

Return of Sister Street Fighter (Kazuhiko Yamaguchi 1975) And here the law of diminished returns is alive and well. Shifting the narrative towards a more conventional plot and significantly smaller cast of characters, this one fully shows the increasing lack of enthusiasm put into the series. And by this point you'd think characters would quit recruiting Etsuko Shihomi to find their missing loved ones, as her recovery record stands at 0-3!

Sister Street Fighter - Fifth Level Fist (Shigehiro Ozawa 1976) Sequel in name only, other than starring Etsuko Shihomi, this film has no relation to the other three pics, in that this apparently takes place in something resembling our world. And who wants that? Shihomi infiltrates a Samurai movie studio to get revenge for assorted socially conscious ills. The approach here is somewhat hammy (but not particularly funny) and I wouldn't mind so much that this film doesn't resemble the others if it did so in a good way. Even the weaker last entry spread its fights around and attempted some variation, but this thing just pummels a couple brawls long past their natural end-point. Also, there's no end to the film-- I'm not speaking figuratively!

I understand there are a lot of PD versions of these films floating around, but I picked up the OOP BCI boxed set for a ridiculous price from Amazon (EDIT: It still is stupid-cheap: $7 + shipping for a New copy?!) and can report that the transfers and audio options are great, and the whole thing comes in a handsome digipak case. My copy wasn't even a remainder, but who knows if that can be said for all copies on sale. At that price it's an easy boxed set to recommend for even the mildly curious.

bamwc2 wrote:Newman's other collaboration with Altman this decade, Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson, was nowhere as bad Quintet, but is still ultimately a failure. Presenting Buffalo Bill as an egomaniac who uses Sitting Bull for profit, the film never progresses beyond its desire to show Bill as a buffoon and leaves you wondering why it exists at all. Images stars the recently deceased Susannah York as a schizophrenic housewife whose fear over her own hallucinations leads her to violence. While York does a marvelous job here, Altman relies so much on the "is it real or only in her head" cliche through the film that by the end I no longer cared.

I haven't seen every Altman from this decade and I run colder on him than most (though Nashville's in my Top 10 for this decade), but I agree with you 100% on these two being disappointments. The existence of Buffalo Bill and the Indians is utterly inexplicable. I'll do you one worse: I don't think it works as a character piece, even in one dimension. Susannah York does her best but Images is far more trite than its defenders wish for the same reason you mention.

I'm sure though that you're opinion is more typical then mine (I can't stand sacred cows MASH nor McCabe and Mrs. Miller)

knives wrote:I'm sure though that you're opinion is more typical then mine (I can't stand sacred cows MASH nor McCabe and Mrs. Miller)

I'm under the impression that M*A*S*H* had long ago lost its sacred cow status.

I don't like Nashville. Some brilliant moments, but I never bought it as this great snapshot of America circa '75. McCabe and Mrs. Miller and The Long Goodbye are the only two that stand making my list, although he has quite a few good ones beyond it.

dominoharvey: Do I take it you skipped the preceding Street Fighter films? I hope you're exploration of the martial-arts film doesn't stop here; as our resident "musical" lover, I'm glad you see the value of these films. You'll definitely get plenty of recommendations from me before this project is over with.

Cold Bishop wrote:dominoharvey: Do I take it you skipped the preceding Street Fighter films? I hope you're exploration of the martial-arts film doesn't stop here; as our resident "musical" lover, I'm glad you see the value of these films. You'll definitely get plenty of recommendations from me before this project is over with.

I have not seen those films, no. This is a blind spot subgenre for me for sure. I recently watched Come Drink With Me and Five Fingers of Death and thought both were okay but I didn't like either as much as I'd hoped. In my possession I have a boxed set of four more Dragon Dynasty titles and the Lady Snowblood films, beyond that I'm at the mercy of the board

I'm not sure if the German editions are still easy to get, but you definitely should check out the other Hu films from the decade particularly Raining in the Mountain which is easily the best of the few martial arts films I've seen. Though it's definitely focused in more on the philosophical side of the genre than the action extravaganza side.

Well, it's not one "static" genre. The Kung-Fu film is different from the Japanese Karate films, which are different from the Pulp Samurai films, which are very different from the late 60s "wuxias", which are very different from the late 70s "wuxias", and so and so on...

I'm writing several "guides", but I'll come out and recommend Heroes of the East (Lau Kar-Leung, 1978), which is a very rare film in which bloodshed is downplayed, the enriching aspects of martial arts (and their choreographic possibilities) are played up, and the film is structured less around "revenge" than the romantic comedy, of all things.

domino harvey wrote:Your recommendation of the Vampire Lovers came one day too late, M Sausage-- where we you when I was compiling absurd shopping carts on ImportCDs?

Well, I did recommend it at least twice in the Horror genre list thread.

I haven't seen the Sister Streetfighter films, but I did see the original Street Fighter, and I remember it mostly for the odd fact that its hero is plainly the worst person in the entire film, villains included, as well as for the incredible level of violence it ascends to. That and for some reason Zatoichi shows up at one point.

Since I just realized that 5 Element Ninjas is from the eighties, I'll recommend Crippled Avengers instead as another wacky and consistently inventive 'grindhouse' martial arts film. Its conceit is that its five heroes are all crippled in some way and have to devise ways around their impediments. It's pretty nutty.

Mr Sausage wrote:mostly for the odd fact that its hero is plainly the worst person in the entire film, villains included, as well as for the incredible level of violence it ascends to.

He sells a woman into sex slavery. In the first reel. And he's the hero.

THAT's how you know you're in "grindhouse" territory!

I'm actually a bigger fan of his Mas Oyama films (and his Kinji Fukasaku collaborations).

Cold Bishop wrote:

Mr Sausage wrote:mostly for the odd fact that its hero is plainly the worst person in the entire film, villains included, as well as for the incredible level of violence it ascends to.

He sells a woman into sex slavery. In the first reel. And he's the hero.

THAT's how you know you're in "grindhouse" territory!

And wasn't that right after he'd finished throwing her boyfriend out a window to his death?

I think it's also the first film to show an x-ray of one of the hero's blows landing so we can better appreciate the damage.

Made(1972 - John McKenzie)

I mention this film here, because it's where I first heard Roy Harper's music, and I've been a fan
ever since. Starring the late and lovely Carol White as a working class girl who gets involved with
a pop singer, I still find it more touching than the film for which she's more famous, "Cathy Come Home". Try and make time for it if you can, I'd like to know if anybody else likes it.

There are no official DVDs but you can watch the whole thing on YouTube, or there is a nice lady
selling boots on e-bay for cheap.

Toss up between Macbeth and The Tenant for the Polanski spot in my list. I'll probably plump for the latter to be honest, it has such a sense on unease running through it.

bamwc2 wrote:I agree on Polanski's Macbeth, as it'll definitely make my list somewhere.

Viewing Log:

Everyday Life in a Syrian Village (Omar Amiralay, 1976): Amiralay's film begins with one of the most beautiful sequences that I have ever seen in a documentary: a group of children in the desert playing with the dessicated remains of an animal. You really need to behold it to appreciate the creative camera angles that he employs to show how the peasant children make use of their surroundings. The film details both the high minded aspirations of the Syrian government and the reality of the poor villagers who never seem to fit in with the officials's modernist aspirations. There are moments of creative brilliance throughout the rest of the film, but none that equal the opening shots. There are some truly unforgettable sequences in here, which are mostly remarkable for the utter despair and desolation that await the poor at the hands of the Syrian upper class--a fate of which they seem mostly unaware.

Five Deadly Venoms (Cheh Chang, 1978): The master of the venom martial arts style is dying and sends his final student to check on his five previous students: the centipede, the snake, the scorpion, the lizard, and the toad. The student, who is trained in all of these styles, but has mastered none, must discern their identities to see who is on the side of his master and who uses their training for evil. The film is pure popcorn fun, with no deep meaning, but a lot of action that never gets boring. This a fun movie that deserves its reputation of superior martial arts entertainment.

Jeremiah Johnson (Sydney Pollack, 1972): This is another fine pedigreed film with Pollack directing, a screenplay by John Milius and starring Robert Redford. Strangely, both Sam Peckinpah and Clint Eastwood were originally attached to the project, but moved on for various reasons. The concerns the life of the titular mountain man, who continually finds fate thwarting his plans to live a quiet life of isolation. The scenery is stunningly gorgeous, with the entire film taking place in the Utah Rockies. There's also a tonal shift in the film where it changes from drama into more of an action movie in the last 2/3 after

Spoiler

his family is slaughtered.

It works well within the context of the story. I'm actually a bit surprised with how much I liked this one.

Junior Bonner (Sam Peckinpah, 1972): Well, scratch another Peckinpah film off my list (I now have The Deadly Companions, The Glory Guys, Convoy, and The Osterman Weekend left to go). The film tells the story of Junior Bonner, a down on his luck rodeo performer who suffered a career ending injury after being bucked from a bull. His ne'er do well father Ace returns to his life with dreams of purchasing an Australian ranch. Will Bonner return to the circuit to make his father's dream come true and if so can his broken body win the day? Despite starring the wonderful Steve McQueen and Ida Lupino, this is probably my least favorite film by Peckinpah. I wouldn't say that it's a bad movie, but I never found much in it terribly interesting.

My Way Home (Bill Douglas, 1978): Bill Douglas's film trilogy concludes with his protagonist Jamie in a better situation. Despite being sent to a group home, a now noticeably older Jamie comes under the tutelage of a stern, but caring headmaster. He soon winds up in the military and makes friends with his fellow enlistees, who help to keep him the straight and narrow. We also learn that Jamie is a talented painter, who only needs the kindness of healthy and stable relationships to realize his goals. Like the other two films in the trilogy, Douglas tells his story in austere compositions with gorgeous black and white photography. Although this is a great film, it's probably my least favorite of the trilogy. While it is in no way bad, I had a stronger emotional connection with the younger Jamie. When I grow up and get a job I'll definitely pick up the BFI BD set. It's now an essential purchase in my books.

What Do You Say To A Naked Lady? (Allen Funt, 1970): Well, this was a strange experience. We get to see a "too hot for TV" version of Funt's Candid Camera where the occasionally fully nude actor will surprise suckers in public. Other skits are sexual, but feature no nudity, like Funt asking an old biddy whether certain large words sound dirty or not ("Matriculate"- Yes, "Torque"- No). There's not much funny in the film, but it is valuable in Funt's own posturing for a liberated sexuality and the clear delineation of sexual mores between the youngsters and the old fogies (think of the sex education course segment near the end). Some of the material comes off as very dated. Only two years removed from Loving v. Virginia, there's a segment on interracial marriage (featuring Richard Roundtree in his film debut!) that feels more like a hundred years old than its actual age. There's also a tailor who commits sexual assaults on camera for laughs and an offensive ditty about rape that made me very uncomfortable.

thirtyframesasecond wrote:Toss up between Macbeth and The Tenant for the Polanski spot in my list. I'll probably plump for the latter to be honest, it has such a sense on unease running through it.

bamwc2 wrote:I agree on Polanski's Macbeth, as it'll definitely make my list somewhere.

No man born of woman should pick the merely good The Tenant over the the masterpiece Macbeth.

Cold Bishop wrote:I don't like Nashville. Some brilliant moments, but I never bought it as this great snapshot of America circa '75. McCabe and Mrs. Miller and The Long Goodbye are the only two that stand making my list, although he has quite a few good ones beyond it.

No love for 3 Women? Number 1 on my hypothetical list were I not too busy to delve into this project (although I'll be watching this thread like a hawk when I can - definitely a decade I need to explore more).