Welcome back to my Great Years of Cinema series!
Last time, we discussed 1989...and yes, I will eventually get to 1999 because the legend is real...but I want to talk about yet another year that I find to be stacked that just so happens to end in '9': 1979.
I have said many times on here that I hold the 1970s in high regard and consider it to be the finest decade for filmmaking...especially from an American standpoint as Hollywood struggled to match most of the output from the rest of the world for decades prior.
1979 is that last gasp before we see a dip happening throughout the 1980s when some of the best efforts either went unnoticed or paled next to the best films from decades prior.
Unlike the last list where I chose to single out 20 films, I am only going to select 10 to discuss here instead. Perhaps this will vary as I go along with a given year, but I would say this is a good number to stick with for the sake of time.
I do want to quickly single out a film that won't be on the list particularly because of its critical/audience reception at the time, and the hold it has had from a pop culture standpoint:
Woody Allen's Manhattan
This film is mostly known today for being a B&W NYC lovefest with a score of Gershwin tunes arranged by then conductor of the NY Philharmonic Zubin Mehta along with that iconic shot of the 59th Street Bridge at dawn which (guilty) is one of my favorite shots in a film ever.
But yes, it is also the film where Woody Allen has a romantic relationship with a 17-year-old girl named Tracey, played by Mariel Hemingway...which...yeah that did not age well at all.
I also find it interesting that Allen himself disowned this film and yet it still remains one of his most successful films in terms of box office revenue and relative critical acclaim.
Allen has had a reputation for glamourizing NYC to a point that other fellow NY based filmmakers like Martin Scorsese referred to his work as "extremely foreign"...but I suppose Allen's work played a crucial role in shaping my fascination for the city, so that is why I wanted to quickly mention it.
Beyond that, I am looking forward to diving into these films.
But you know what, I do want to acknowledge a few films really quickly that I do like from this year but did not make the cut:
NORMA RAE - which is a little rough around the edges but is saved by a luminous and passionate performance by Sally Field.
THE CHINA SYNDROME - a very entertaining and gripping thriller that manages to sort of fall under a 70s Disaster movie trope but also manages to be far better than the Disaster films that received Best Picture nominations earlier in the decade.
THE MUPPET MOVIE - A truly subversive and bizarre film at times, but that is why I love it. The Muppets are so beloved, and this was Jim Henson and crew at their peak.
BREAKING AWAY - the pesky concept that is "coming of age" mixed with "underdogs in sports" - two concepts that can be failures when done wrong. Thankfully, that wasn't the case here.
KRAMER VS. KRAMER - We shouldn't ignore the heinous manipulation and abuse that Dustin Hoffman bestowed upon Meryl Streep for this film...but if we are strictly judging what is onscreen, the acting is what really carries the film. Hoffman is great, Streep steals the movie (shocker), young Justin Henry is such a natural, Jane Alexander was such a warm presence in whatever she did.
AND NOW - THE TOP 10:
#10 - NOSEFERATU THE VAMPYRE
Written & Directed by Werner Herzog
Known more these days for his documentaries, there was a time when German filmmaker Werner Herzog was leading the charge of the New German Cinema movement; a movement that is actually featured with more offerings on the list ahead.
This is Herzog's stylized remake of the famed 1922 F.W. Murnau film Nosferatu, which was in turn an adaptation of the legendary Bram Stoker novel Dracula...and that predated the Bela Lugosi version, which came out in 1931.
So yes, this is basically a remake...and considering I am writing this in late May 2024, we have the Robert Eggers' remake set to come out later this year. Remakes are certainly a very controversial topic when it comes to cinema, but I will gladly state that I found Herzog's take on this one to be a worthwhile endeavor.
There is a truly gothic poetic quality to this version and as should come as no surprise to anyone, Klaus Kinski and Isabelle Adjani are quite remarkable. No other film within the Dracula canon has quite the surreal dreamlike vision of this one...so much so that I actually consider it to be the best of the modern-day vampire films.
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#9 - CAMERA BUFF
Written & Directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski
Co-written by Jerzy Stuhr
In my 1989 post, I sang the praises of the late Polish filmmaker Kryzsztof Kieslowski and said that I considered him to be "one of the greatest filmmakers to have ever lived".
By saying that, I would place him on a top 10 canon list to be sure. I have not seen many of his short films, but his full-length features are first rate to say the least. Even my least favorite among them, 1987's Blind Chance, would likely get a 4 out of 5 star-ranking from me.
I would say that Camera Buff does not get as much attention or discussion as The Three Colours trilogy or The Double Life of Veronique, but I would argue that Camera Buff is nearly as vital as those if only for the fact that it taps into a different kind of topic: the love of cinema & photography.
When you look at works like 8 1/2, Cinema Paradiso, and Day for Night, you often get the glamour along with the bitterness that comes with having an obsession for visual/cinematic art.
Camera Buff is no exception.
Our protagonist is Filip (Jerzy Stuhr), a nervous young father who begins documenting the first days of his daughter's life while living in Communist Poland.
The harsh environment around him at work when Filip's interest in filming his life around him takes on more of an obsessive effect...which also leads to him neglecting his wife and daughter ironically enough, his first muses if you will.
I suppose you could consider this film a warning on how not to get too obsessed with your work, because one could look at the character of Filip and tell him that life isn't just about his camera...but Jerzy Stuhr's performance feels so natural and honest that you almost want to take on the belief that ignorance is bliss.
When I look at my life working in a corporate office as opposed to acting as of late, sometimes I scoff at...actually strike that...I OFTEN scoff at the majority of the people around me. Many of them don't exactly embrace anything about the arts and probably view that lifestyle as tiresome.
I am not saying I want to cut everyone off like Filip does, but I do miss being around artistic types on a regular basis like I was throughout most of my 20s.
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#8 - TICKET OF NO RETURN
Written & Directed by Ulrike Ottinger
Perhaps one of the more semi-controversial selections for this list, Ticket of No Return has been written off by some as being a plotless and indulgent film that had no real substance.
Obviously, considering its placement here, I don't share that sentiment. However, it is one of those films where I can totally get the criticism and why some don't respond to it. For some reason, I took it and I will try my best to explain way.
Like I mentioned, the film feels a bit breezy in terms of a plot, but the film follows an unnamed woman (Tabea Blumenschein) who barely speaks. Her goal is to arrive in Berlin and drink until she passes out. Meanwhile, a Greek chorus of three women observe her and pass judgement on her behavior.
Aside from the stunning visuals and the grand screen presence of Blumenschein, there is definitely a clear message that the film is trying to make.
This film was written and directed by Ulrike Ottinger, a lesbian and someone with a clear voice and style to her work. She intended the film to be how society is so quick to judge women for their actions compared to men. That is certainly a tale as old as time!
Look at all the classic Hollywood films who used to vilify women of "ill repute" values thanks to the standards of the Hays Code...or even in reality when they kicked actresses like Ingrid Bergman to the curb for having an adulterous affair with Roberto Rossellini.
Ottinger was such a unique voice compared to other colleagues who were considered part of the New German Cinema movement of the 70s and 80s that I brought up before in regard to Werner Herzog. It also contained the likes of Wim Wenders and Werner Rainer Fassbinder. One way I would say that Ottinger differed greatly in comparison to those three men is that she took on a free-thinking avant-garde approach that made the other films seem more accessible by comparison...which is saying something when looking at the catalogues of those 3 men.
It isn't a film for everyone, but I appreciate Ottinger's vision here. It may seem a bit freewheeling, but she definitely has a point...and also, the visuals give the film a lot more flair which gives it a boost, albeit somewhat superficial.
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#7 - BEING THERE
Directed by Hal Ashby
Written by Jerzy Kosinski
When watching The Holdovers, I felt like various films of Hal Ashby were inspiring the cinematic style that Alexander Payne was going for. In my review for that film, I acknowledged Being There as one of them due to how the film had a sort of cold, wintery landscape and even a cool-colored cinematography.
However, there is a lot more to love about something like Being There.
If you were to just sum up Being There to someone, you could describe it as a "fake it till you make it" film that has more of a heart.
Obviously, that sells it short.
Peter Sellars plays Chance, a gardener who has spent all of his life within the confines of a Washington DC townhome owned by an elderly man who passes away. The estate lawyers insist that Chance leave and they force him out onto the streets for the first time with only the knowledge of gardening and frequent television watching to offer.
When he is accidentally struck by a limo chauffeuring Eve Rand (Shirley MacLaine), she brings him back to the huge gothic mansion where she lives with her much older dying husband Ben (Melvyn Douglas) to be examined by his doctor.
From here, Chance the Gardener...or as Eve misinterprets it, Chauncey Gardiner...begins something of a whimsical odyssey where he manages to coast his way up the ladder of a society all by...well...chance.
Being There is one of the best films you can watch that would fall under a satirical category because despite that whole "fake it till you make it" idea or the concept that sometimes people just get lucky, there is such a bittersweet heart to Being There.
Peter Sellars is absolutely brilliant in this, and it is easily the finest work of his career...and Chance is such an amazing character to watch...and it is a great message of sorts: "No matter what our facades, we are all children".
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#6 - MONTY PYTHON'S THE LIFE OF BRIAN
Directed by Terry Jones
Written by Monty Python
Years ago, I was watching an interview with John Cleese where he stated that he noticed a bit of a divide in both British and American audiences when it came to selecting their favorite Monty Python film. Americans tend to prefer Holy Grail while the Brits prefer Life of Brian.
In this case, I definitely side with the Brits.
The fact that Life of Brian had the volatile reputation amongst the religious community is not surprising in the slightest, and it is even less surprising when you realize how wrong they were.
While the men from Monty Python are not religious people, they were wise enough to know that the inherent idea of Jesus Christ as a figure was nothing that they could make fun of directly. His preachings are simply about treating others with kindness; that may be putting in the most simplistic way possible, but I think most of us understanding what Jesus and Christianity as a whole is supposed to stand for.
Instead, Life of Brian doesn't make fun of Jesus Christ: it makes fun of organized religion and the people who blindly follow...and let's just say I am always here for that kind of thing.
I grew up the denomination known as Apostolic, which you could just link to keywords like Pentecostal or Evangelical...and it is a lot of those people (even if the denomination may vary) who have been leading the charge of the Religious Right in the Republican Party....something that has become worse over the last 50 years.
In the States, it is obvious that people don't give a flying fuck about the term "Separation of Church & State"....and yet, that kind of mentality is destroying so many constitutional rights in this country.
A film like Life of Brian SHOULD infuriate these people not because it makes fun of Jesus Christ, but because it makes fun of themselves.
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#5 - STALKER
Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky
Written by Arkady & Boris Strugsatsky
The most well-known film in the Tarkovsky canon would be Solaris...and it is likely his most widely seen or it happens to be known more being the basis of a truly horrible 2002 American remake by Steven Soderbergh.
While I absolutely love Tarkovsky's Solaris, I would argue that his best work was with 1975's Mirror or the film I am now about to discuss: Stalker. Let's just say that most of Tarkovsky's work is not going to be what the general audience wants to flock to...and perhaps you could say he is one of those filmmakers that seems pretentious to love.
I feel like I had to grow into loving Tarkovsky's works...but that isn't a surprise. I can't say I truly understood a lot of what he was trying to do as a teenager. Everything seemed dark and brooding in a way that I would've expected to respond to considering how I took to the likes of David Lynch...but I have to admit that Tarkovsky has a lot more depth than a lot of Lynch's work.
This isn't to say I fully understand Stalker right now...I would never claim to be that intelligent...but it is clearly a film that requires repeated viewings to even begin to interpret all of its themes.
If I were to entice you to check out the film based on a brief synopsis, I can give you as follows:
A writer (Anatoly Solonitsyn) and a professor (Nikolai Grinko) are both looking for inspiration to try to move on with various projects/aspects within their lives. This leads them to a man known as the Stalker (Alexander Kaidanovsky), who can guide them through a hazardous wasteland to access a space called "the Zone", where all of your innermost desires can be granted.
Of all the films on my list, this is the one where I feel like I can't exactly do it justice to describe beyond that...which probably makes sense for those of you who have seen it.
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#4 - ALIEN
Directed by Ridley Scott
Written by Dan O'Bannon/Story by O'Bannon & Ronald Shusett
This is bound to piss some of you off, but so be it.
Ridley Scott recently made a comment that he feels rather good about the fact he is able to churn out films so quickly...but if I may be honest, the man hasn't made a truly good film in over 20 years...and his best work is over 40 years behind him.
Alien was the film that put him on the map, and to me, it is still his best work. There was a time where I said that I preferred James Cameron's Aliens, but I don't feel as such anymore. Also, they are both tonally very different.
The slow burn horror/suspense of Alien has aged remarkably well, and I think the decision to cast Ripley as a woman (as the script was written so that all the roles could be any gender and then adjusted after casting) was a masterstroke and it ignited the film career of the legendary Sigourney Weaver.
When I first saw Alien way back in 2000, I acknowledged it was a good movie but I was definitely trying to form myself as something of a film elitist snob who didn't really consider a film like that to be "best of the year" material or awards worthy. I am willing to admit that about myself, but it is truly obvious now that so many great films/performances have gotten the shaft due to negative genre bias.
Alien has stood the test of time. It is kind of hard to elaborate much on that, as everything just feels so succinct and clear in its presentation. From the moment of the absolutely unnerving opening credits to the tense finale, it is pure cinematic gold.
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#3 - APOCALYPSE NOW
Written & Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
Co-written by John Milius
There are certain films from over the years where I have considered them something of a "journey" for me...but what exactly do I mean by that?
For various reasons, watching a film for the first time could mean that you will end up not liking it...which may seem like an obvious potential outcome...but what is fascinating to me is how over time you can grow to reevaluate a film and respect it a lot more.
Frankly, the 70s filmography from Francis Ford Coppola fits this to a tee.
I had made the claim in my teen years that I wasn't as wowed by the first two films of The Godfather trilogy or Apocalypse Now. It was my way of really flaunting one of those "hot take" opinions that made me feel like I had some kind of edge. To further add to that, I would always say my favorite Coppola film was The Conversation...which, for the record, I do still love, and think is a masterpiece.
I have come to accept that I was completely wrong about those other three films...and now, I will go into why I think Apocalypse Now deserves this placement.
Or rather...do I REALLY need to? I feel like most people have seen this film and the amount of effort and tenacity that was put into every frame is kind of hard to miss.
Sure, the legend behind the film is that Coppola took everything on at a maniacal level and when the film was first released, it polarized a lot of critics and people in the general audience.
For every Roger Ebert calling it "the best film of 1979" and would later dub it "the greatest Vietnam War film ever made", you get Frank Rich calling it "emotionally obtuse" or Vincent Canby saying it was nothing but "delusions of grandeur".
Maybe I don't necessarily respond to the film on a deep emotional level, but there is still something so unsettling and operatic about the scope of this film.
I would argue that it holds up remarkably well under a modern lens. Something like the iconic Ride of the Valkyries is shot and edited with such flare that I can only imagine how that would've played to a 1979 audience member.
For what Coppola was able to achieve here, I can't deny him anything less than a little bit of worship as if I am a villager bowing at Martin Sheen's Willard.
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#2 - ALL THAT JAZZ
Directed by Bob Fosse
Written by Robert Alan Aurthur & Bob Fosse
Maybe there are other films I am forgetting, but if I were to name a film that manages to be equally compelling while being overly self-indulgent in the best ways, you can't really look further than All That Jazz; a film in which Bob Fosse essentially puts himself on the screen and glorifies and attacks his life all at once. Fosse obviously made a name for himself in film (hence this and his Oscar winning work on Cabaret, among others), but his legend is so closely tied to the theatre. He had such a distinct style to his work that I would certainly be willing to accept the claim that he is the most iconic in terms of staging/choreography.
In order to capture that kind of energy, he needed to find the right actor to play his alter-ego and I would say that it is an absolute shame that Roy Scheider never got the roles/acclaim he deserved after the 1970s.
Most people remember him from Jaws, and understandably so. He was something of a strong, silent type as Chief Brody...but here, he completely oozes charisma in such a way that you truly witness one of the greatest unsung character actors in cinema.
The alter-ego is Joe Gideon...and he is living a life of excess: drugs, alcohol, chain-smoking, womanizing...and visits from an angel of death named Angelique (Jessica Lange, in her first role post-King Kong that made critics go "ummmm....okay yeah, she might actually be brilliant...").
I mentioned that the film could be viewed as self-indulgent, but honestly, I think it took big, brass balls for Fosse to make this...and it is even more effective now when you take into account that Fosse predicted his own death about 6 years before it happened.
It's a musical that isn't quite a musical; instead, it is a dark music-infused biopic made by a man who deep down saw all of his own flaws, and yet was still unrepentant despite his regrets.
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#1 - THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN
Written & Directed by Werner Rainer Fassbinder
Co-written by Peter Marthesheimer & Pea Frohlich
I have only seen The Marriage of Maria Braun twice. I first saw it back around 2008 when I began digging a little deeper into foreign cinema thanks to some very strong recommendations from fellow online film fanatics at the time. I thought highly of the film, but for some reason, just sort of forgot about it. It wasn't until a few years later that I saw people bringing up the film again via the magnificent performance of Hanna Schygulla as one of the truly great unsung performances of cinema that I felt compelled to seek out the film again.
It wasn't until 2020, when I was stuck home in COVID quarantine, that I finally saw the film again and it not only hit me more on that second watch, but it made me want to revisit the filmography of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, a very crucial and important Queer filmmaker whose life was cut short following an overdose in 1982 at the age of 37.
I haven't discussed him much on my blog, which is a shame...but frankly, this is why I love doing posts like these so I have more of a wide net to cast when discussing various filmmakers who might get overlooked for one reason or another.
I did bring up his film In a Year of 13 Moons on my *1978* list, but I still think that The Marriage of Maria Braun might be my favorite of his works.
Fassbinder deserves his flowers, and while it may be a bit of a surprise, I decided to select this as my #1 film even though...and this is no joke...all of my top 5 were in this spot briefly. With that in mind, just consider the fact that if I were to have posted this list tomorrow, you might see Apocalypse Now or All That Jazz here.
For a quick synopsis of the film for those who may not be familiar, the film begins during an Allied bombing in 1943, where young Maria (Hanna Schygulla) marries Hermann (Klaus Lowitch). Shortly thereafter, Hermann returns to the Eastern front and quickly vanishes. It is assumed that he perished in battle, which leads Maria to have to turn to prostitution to help care for her mother and grandfather.
Maria ends up taking a liking to Bill (George Byrd), an African-American soldier. She won't marry him out of respect of Hermann's memory, but the two have a very tender and loving relationship...until Hermann returns, after having been a Russian prisoner.
As I write this, Sean Baker JUST won the Palme d'Or at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival for his film Anora which tells the story of an exotic dancer who often does sex work. Baker stated in his acceptance speech that he dedicated the film to sex workers "past, present, and future".
While Maria's journey with it comes out of tragedy, Fassbinder had enough sense to show us that this was still a valuable asset and nothing to be demeaned. It was able to get Maria back on her feet, more or less...sort of how Akerman explored that element in Jeanne Dielman.
Maria is able to use the anguish of post-WWII Germany for her own personal gain...and we admire her for it in many ways. She certainly has her brutal and ruthless moments, and we may question a lot of her choices at times...but she simply a gray character; she is complex. A lot of that is in the text and the direction, but the truth is that the performance by Schygulla is one of my favorites ever.
It thrilled me to see Schygulla as Martha in Poor Things, because while it wasn't the biggest role, she was a key factor in pushing Emma Stone's Bella Baxter towards mental/emotional autonomy. As Maria, she is pretty much a seductive bulldozer; a woman who knows what she needs to do to get what she wants to help herself first, and then those she chooses to help later.
A truly stunning achievement not just for Fassbinder, Schygulla, and the New German Cinema movement, but easily one of the greatest achievements of film from what was the brilliance of the 1970s.
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FINAL THOUGHTS:
I may not have written as in-depth about as many films this time around, but frankly, I kind of feel better about that fact now that I am drafting my final thoughts.
I think the crazy thing about 1979 was that it was seen by some critics at the time as either a last gasp or the beginning of the end of cinema. That may sound a bit extreme, but by the middle of 1980, the negative tides seemed to be changing.
The infamous but beloved New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael wrote a piece that was called "The Current Cinema: Why Are Movies So Bad?", which opens with the following line:
"The movies have been so rank the last couple of years that when I see people lining up to buy tickets, I sometimes think that the movies aren't drawing an audience - they are inheriting an audience".
Now, I could see perhaps why she may have felt a bit concerned about the slimmer output in 1980, which even mainstream Hollywood publications like Variety commented on going into awards season in 1981...but I feel like hindsight for the latter years of the 1970s has been more luminous.
Maybe it wasn't as overflowing with an absurdly high amount of stellar films like 1974 or 1975, but I still think this representation of 1979 films can be considered far better than many other years of cinema.
As I mentioned in the intro, I do intend on tackling 1999, but frankly I don't know if it will be next up or not. I still feel like I would rather focus on other years that don't get as much attention or maybe aren't as recent.
I basically just revealed I think very highly of 1974 and 1975 so you will be seeing me tackle those years for sure. In the meantime, I hope that if you haven't seen some of these films, you will be encouraged to check them out.
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