1971 poll

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

Does America still canonize Birth of a Nation? Griffith is still canon, but I get the sense BoaN is out-of-bounds for mainstream affection nowadays? Perhaps that's optimistic of me.

The TIFF poll was 2015, and the Jutra news didn't come out until 2016, so yeah, it'll be interesting to see if there's a sharp fall off in placement by next poll. I would say I expect so, but again that might be optimistic.

Never seen Mon Oncle Antoine, for the record, so I can't comment on any potential cognitive dissonance between loving MOA while wanting to cancel Jutra. As a trans woman, stories of boys childhoods and coming of age are uniquely difficult to watch, so I always had that additional personal reason to avoid it, a subjective reason that's entirely on my end and not something the film's accountable to.

[thoxans]

can't remember if i watched moa before the accusations came out, but either way i wasn't aware of them when i saw it, so i'm in the same boat as curtis

[Angel]

I watched MOA in 2012, before the truth was out, and loved it, so I really don't know on this front

Same here. I did the Spanish translation in 2009 with no rewatches since then.

In any case I don't usually have problems with the (good) films directed by the bad boys (or produced by the bad regimes). I suppose that my cinematic taste is not subject to political correctness.

[sally]

Sorry guys didn't mean for you all to justify your viewings, was just curious.

[...]

From what I've heard, it sounds like Intolerance is more the DW choice now, which makes me feel a little bit sorry for those just going into film studies when a couple of shorts would probably be both enough and just plain better and cover anything else in reading and maybe some clips.

Yeah. I saw mon uncle Antoine before the pederasty claims against Jutra, so I wasn't predisposed towards disliking it for that, though for its roughly defined genre, maybe so, though I viewed it in prep for the first Mubi world cup and was looking for any Canadian edge I could find, and just didn't think it had it, right or wrong.

[liquidnature]

These discussions turn in the same wheelhouse as politics for me, which is why I avoid them or any possibly contrarian view - at least on this forum where I try to remain neutral. But, in regards to Griffith, let's just say I'm wholly against cancel culture and historical revisionism. However I would agree watching films by directors like Allen, Polanski, and Jutra can be awfully difficult to justify or simply enjoy without the underlying implications of immorality.

[flip]

in music (the area where i've given the most thought to aesthetics and other issues), it's a lot easier to divorce the creator from their work, since there's almost never any perceptible relationship - whatever wagner's failings as a human being, i can't identify them in tannhauser, nor would knowing about them change whatever effect that work has or fails to have on me. so i tend to apply that same framework to how i think about film, but that's obviously more problematic, since if jutra (whose films i've never seen) made films about young people, knowing about jutra could colour how i see his films, and could make repulsive what might otherwise seem innocent. in general i'd rather just not know, since knowing about an artist has almost never enhanced my appreciation of their work, but that's obviously unavoidable sometimes.

[Lencho of the Apes]

angriest

I loved the anger of it, the ferocity. I've read some about labor conditions and such in Italy having the country on the edge of revolution during the 70s and 80s, buyt I've never seen that reflected in their movies till now. (Ref: The Working Class Goes To Heaven.)

[rischka]

yeah i thought you'd like it. have you seen any other petri? watch a citizen above suspicion if you haven't. it's, um, quite topical

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

I don't have short movies (<90 mins) on my '71 priorities watchlist anymore, so I think I'll try to watch 'em in parts going forward - only way I'll get through them. Half-way into Ho Meng-Hua's The Lady Hermit. Loving it thus far. Awesome, inspiring lady-led kung fu!

[karl]

Taking Off is terrific.

[Silga]

I watched and absolutely loved Klute. Most likely my choice for #1.

Also watched The Andromeda Strain and it will end up on the final list as well.

[greennui]

Might as well post my final list.

1. Du côté d’Orouët (Jacques Rozier)

Wake in Fright (Ted Kotcheff)
Punishment Park (Peter Watkins)
Woman of Fire (Kim Ki-young)
Four Nights of a Dreamer (Robert Bresson)
Beware of a Holy Whore (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
Family Life (Ken Loach)
Don’t Deliver Us from Evil (Joel Seria)
Requiem for a Vampire (Jean Rollin)
The Music Lovers (Ken Russell)
The Boy Friend (Ken Russell)
Crash! (Harley Cokeliss)
The Velvet Vampire (Stephanie Rothman)
Daughters of Darkness (Harry Kumel)
She Killed in Ecstasy (Jesus Franco)
La Région Centrale (Michael Snow)
Football As Never Before (Hellmuth Costard)
Barn Rushes (Larry Gottheim)
The Third Part of the Night (Andrzej Zulawski)
Bleak Moments (Mike Leigh)

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

Wanted to get to more, esp. Petri's Working Class Goes to Paradise and some Italian horror, but school will command all my time this last week of November, so herein lies my final ballot, ten favs from '71:

1. The Lady Hermit (Ho Meng-Hua, HK)
One Million Unemployed in Winter 1971 (Mike Dunford, UK)
Animal Treasure Island (Hiroshi Ikeda, Japan)
A Journey to Avebury (Derek Jarman, UK)
(nostalgia) (Hollis Frampton, USA)
Hands of the Ripper (Peter Sasdy, UK)
Blood from the Mummy's Tomb (Seth Holt, UK)
Autumn Rush for Kurt Kren and Winter and Spring and Summer (Anna Thew, UK)
Barn Rushes (Larry Gottheim, USA)
Hour Glass (Haile Gerima, USA)

[thoxans]

school will command all my time this last week of November

don't give up! poll closes dec second. that gives you two whole days to sneak in one more. i can't imagine a better way to celebrate getting through a tough week at school than some bloody good italian horror. i just started night of dark shadows last night, in fact. while it's not italian horror, it does have that splendid cheapo scary movie vibe to it so far

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

That's true! - I'll see if December 1st can be the night Evelyn came out of the grave (1971)

[ofrene]

Narita: Peasants of the Second Fortress
Two English Girls
A Touch of Zen
Demons
Du côté d’Orouët
Woman of Fire
Two-Lane Blacktop
The French Connection
A New Leaf
Minnie and Moskowitz
Harold and Maude
Duck, You Sucker
The Devils
Punishment Park
Throw Away Your Books, Rally in the Streets
Macbeth
Love
Duel
The Last Picture Show
Daughters of Darkness

still so many 1971 stuff left but gonna spend next week for some newish stuff and film noir so...

[sally]

One Million Unemployed in Winter 1971 (Mike Dunford, UK)

i'm so depressed about the upcoming election i can't bring myself to watch this.

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

it's a really good piece of uk-specific anti-capitalist propaganda! but i totally understand needing a distraction from politics. plus ça change.

[Lencho of the Apes]

It's in the (just invented) "lightly lovable" category, but The Policeman, by Kishon, is the first movie that's really knocked me out during this round of play, after what seems like fifty-odd, "well, that was pretty okay..." movies. The comic-everyman vibe here is as strong as in Keaton and Chaplin, and they even get in a Sherlock Jr. quote. (Though that could have been an accident...) Strongest contender yet, for me.

[sally]

yay someone watched it!

[thoxans]

the go-between (joseph losey) the fifteen year old me (read: pompous wannabe film critic extraordinaire) never woulda come within a thousand miles of this sorta thing, but thirty-plus year old me (read: pompous wannabe successful millionaire) has a soft spot for this sorta thing. classy classes being all classy with their classy classiness. then in walks alan bates with his muttonchops. and everyone plays a game of cricket. and folks wear suits in hot af weather cuz it's proper and whatnot. it's all so posh, even if you can see where it's going pretty much from the start. perhaps, not as impactful as it should've been, but i can still listen to the line 'the past is a foreign country: they do things differently there' over and over and over again on replay, so there's always that... a contender for the final list

night of dark shadows (dan curtis) didn't see the first film (house of dark shadows) cuz i didn't know there was a first film. also, never watched the tv show (dark shadows) cuz i didn't know this was based on the tv show. also also, didn't know this film had been butchered by last min studio edits that basically crippled the film into nigh incoherence. with all that being said, i don't know if seeing the first film, watching the tv show, or knowing about the studio interference woulda made me appreciate this anymore. there's a few cool shots here and there, but nothing that'll burn itself into my subconscious. i guess i'd be interested in seeing the dir's cut, if it ever got a release (just for curiosity's sake), but really all i know fo sho is that this ain't makin my final list no way

up next (but after i get a noir in): either death by invitation or duck, you sucker!

[...]

Heh. Yeah, you really should have watched the show and other movie first before seeing Night of Dark Shadows. It might have taken you a while to get caught up though since the show ran for 1,225 episodes over five years. It was a daily soap opera that tried a horror-eque vibe by having its main character a vampire, Barnabas Collins. As soap operas go it was kinda fun, from the little I saw, since it had witches and ghosts and the like, but it was still a soap opera like Days of Our Lives or the Guiding Light in how the dramas played out, which is to say endlessly with lots and lots of talking in tight close up. But it was remembered well enough that they tried to redo the show in the 90s and Tim Burton made a "reboot" movie for it even more recently.

[rischka]

i'm a big losey fan but the go-between doesn't work for me. for some reason. LOL dark shadows haven't heard that in years



wonder that no one is watching silence. beautiful and disturbing and that weird takemitsu score

edit: the ending ruined this for me

[brian d]

final list. very proud of myself for finding time to watch half a dozen films for this year. thanks to evelyn for recommending the lady hermit, that was a fun one.

out 1 (rivette)
appointment in bray (delvaux)
one day before the rainy season (kaul)
my wife and the dog (marzouk)
szindbad (huszárik)
how tasty was my little frenchman (pereira dos santos)
the light at the edge of the world (billington)
a touch of zen (hu)
daughters of darkness (kümel)
cuadecuc vampir (portabella)
punishment park (watkins)
olesya (ivchenko/kulchitskaya)
two-laned blacktop (hellman)
the decameron (pasolini)
mira (rademakers)
radúz and mahalena (weigl)
the lady hermit (ho)*
adrift/desire is called anada (kádar)
emitai (sembène)
w.r. mysteries of the organism (makavejev)

also managed to see:
sikkim (ray)
the new one-armed swordsman (cheh)
inn of evil (kobayashi)
the glass ceiling (de la iglesia)
girl slaves of morgana le fay (gantillon)

[thoxans]

for some reason

i blame this lil bugger

[rischka]

lol could be

still wanna watch the kaul, szindbad and the policeman --

i'll probs throw lady hermit a vote so it can make the list cheng pei pei 4-evah

[nrh]

has anybody liking szindbad read the krudy book? it's one of my favorites and curious how the film compares...

[brian d]

it’s been a while since i read the krudy, but i’m a big fan of both. the stories are a bit less connected than the scenes of the film, so there’s more looping back to specific experiences as i recall, but the film does justice to the book overall.

[Lencho of the Apes]

being all classy

You like that sorta thing, huh? Who knew? Death In Venice is pretty good, as far as poshies poshing. Don't know if you've seen it, since you're so ghostly elsewhere.