1971 in film. • Page 2

can’t think of a director the apatow crowd has ripped off more than ashby

 

Klute is on another level for me, but I still can’t decide between Carnal Knowledge, Harold and Maude, and The Last Picture show to round out my top three. All have been favorites for such a huge part of my life and I revisit them often.

For the comfort level and amount I’ve watched them I could also easily make an argument for Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, and Fiddler on the Roof. Huge year for musicals.

There are lots of others that are classics and wonderful but not necessarily the absolute top of the year for me now, like A Clockwork Orange and McCabe & Mrs. Miller. I have been meaning to rewatch McCabe & Mrs. Miller since it’s been a super long time for me and my view may have changed.

A New Leaf is one that I couldn’t find for a while, but I absolutely fell in love with it this year when Criterion put it on. I’m a massive fan of Elaine May and that is some of her best work. Definitely recommend that before it leaves the channel this month.

Cold Turkey is an interesting satire with Dick Van Dyke about a town trying to quit smoking to win a prize from the tobacco company. At first it seems like it’s just mostly slapstick and light comedy, but they get into some pretty heavy territory as well and the story takes a few surprising turns.

Little Murders is another satire, but this one is absolutely pitch black and unfortunately has left the realm of comedy or what if and is super relevant to modern culture and everyday violence. Really blew me away when I watched it not that long ago, and one that seems to be underrated in Elliott Gould’s career.

Two-Lane Blacktop is definitely a hot mess in a lot of ways, but even as someone who doesn’t care about cars it clearly is special in the history of road movies and depictions of that subculture. For me it’s worth a watch to see James Taylor and Dennis Wilson working completely outside of what they’re known for.

The year for Ken Russell is kind of hilarious to think about. You have The Devils which is maybe his most famous/heaviest and certainly his most infamous, and then The Boy Friend which is completely bizarre and relatively unknown in comparison and one of his lightest and silliest. They’d make for quite a double feature, especially since enough are adaptations of plays (although there are other sources for The Devils as well). The Boy Friend is a simple Broadway musical that because he’s Ken Russell he decided to turn into a gonzo psychedelic Busby Berkeley/Alice in Wonderland/Willy Wonka hyper stylized epic. The story has way too many levels and doesn’t really make any sense, but the visuals and numbers are so incredible and weird that it’s still super fun to go on the ride. And The Devils is The Devils. Not an easy one to recommend for everyone, but still shocking and scathing and visceral with a lot of incredible visuals. The documentary Hell on Earth about the making of and then censorship and continued problems releasing the full film is great too.

This is another year we’ve gotten to that is a contender for top five years of all time for me. I can already think of a handful of other favorites that I haven’t written about, and I could probably go on and on without ever listing all of them. Such a special era really getting into its groove of wonderful output.

 

Albert Brooks

 

It makes me happier than it should to see someone else praise Bedknobs and Broomsticks. Been a favorite of mine for as long as I can remember (though definitely not in the sloppily restored roadshow version). Massively underrated in my eyes

 

fair

 

That's funny because I was thinking James L. Brooks

 

Fiddler on the Roof will always be tattooed onto my brain by having to watch parts of it over and over in chorus class. That and Newsies were the teachers' favorites.

 

Harold and Maude wins it with 12 votes. The Last Picture was close with 10 votes. Harold and Maude will move on to the bracket.

 

When I watch the last picture show i always think of dawson leery

i love the last picture show

 

somehow completely missed this year.

1. A Clockwork Orange
2. The Devils
3. Walkabout

 

I am watching The French Connection for the first time

 

Are you eating Popeye's at the same time?

 

That was good. The el/car chase scene is easily the highlight. The Popeyes connection was discovered earlier in the day, coincidentally

 

The Devils is fuckin wild, huh

edit:
I guess the Criterion is still the censored version

 

Honestly I’ll take it. Considering it’s just wholesale unavailable in any form 99.999999% of the time

 

I found a copy online that had the cut part in and even then that scene was in poor quality. Fantastic film either way though.