The 1979 Mini-List

[swo17]

ELIGIBLE TITLES FOR 1979

VOTE THROUGH NOVEMBER 30

Please post in this thread if you think anything needs to change about the list of eligible titles.

[therewillbeblus]

Not sure I'll be voting for it, but I don't see Paul Naschy's The Devil Incarnate

[swo17]

Added

[Rayon Vert]

Is it possible to add France tour détour deux enfants (Godard)? First aired in 1979.

Date de diffusion:
Pays-Bas : janvier 1979 (Festival international du film de Rotterdam)
France : 3 mai 1979 (Centre Pompidou) 4 avril 1980 (Antenne 2)

[swo17]

I'm not confident I had the date right anymore, but that was just eligible during the 1977 list, where it ranked as an also-ran

[Rayon Vert]

Is that right? Oh well!

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Requested addition: 苦恼人的笑 [Kunao ren de xiao] [Troubled Laughter], Yang Yanjin & Deng Yimin

The IMDb has this down as a 1981 film (when it screened at Cannes), but it was released in China in 1979, as evidenced by this photo.

[yoshimori]

Please add Haneke's "Lemminge, Teil 1 Arkadien" to the list. I'll certainly put it on my ballot. Thanks.

[swo17]

I've added both, but is there any reason not to seek out the second part of that Haneke mini-series?

[yoshimori]

I've added both, but is there any reason not to seek out the second part of that Haneke mini-series?

Good question. Maybe it makes sense to list them as a single entity for purposes of the poll. Up to you.

I marked them separately in my personal screening log, partly since I'd seen them, each of which is feature length, on separate days, partly because I seem not to have cared for part 2 ("Injuries"). It's been quite a while, however, and the fog of memory has obscured the reasons for my qualms about the latter. Perhaps I'll re-watch before the end of the month.

[swo17]

Well I've made them eligible as both the entire miniseries and as individual segments

[therewillbeblus]

A few recs that'll surely make my top ten and may need more of a plug than, say, Apocalypse Now or Stalker, though I expect they're on many radars/lists already:

Arrebato: If Pedro Almodóvar set out to make a Raul Ruiz film inspired by the core idea around Infinite Jest’s titular subplot, this might be in the vicinity of the product we'd get: one of the most uniquely vibrant, unpredictable, and self-reflexive horror films I've ever seen. Anyways, those are my lazily reposted initial thoughts from a longer writeup/brief discussion here.

Buffet froid: The apotheosis of Blier's worldview of psychosocial perversity, and easily my favorite and the funniest of all his works. I wrote a longer thing in Blier's thread, but it doesn't really make much sense without comparing to his other works. Especially given the seeming resurgence of antisocial, absurdist comedy gaining popularity of late (Lanthimos, Dupieux et al), this feels ripe for commercial re-appraisal.

Sauve Qui Peut (la vie): Speaking of.. How else could Godard return to "commercial" narrative cinema than by concocting a confessional, fragmented anti-narrative that oscillates between bouts of desperate self-focus and aggressive elisions of the self - and back to the sociopolitical consequences of commerce that drove him both into and away from himself in the decade prior! It's an announcement that, even if he and the climate and the context have all changed a bit, they also haven't really, or not 'enough' for a part (certainly enough for another part to feel motivated to transition his approach to engaging with the medium). There's a despondent but lucid surrender in this work that makes sense as a re-entry point because that also signifies a sense of loss. But it's also active and stimulated and interested enough to predict Godard's enthusiasm to continue his artistic ventures. He may get sad and mad and confused, but never bored, and the definition of "excitement" is quite elastic for this cheekily self-conscious seeker of Truth.

Starting Over: I've expressed my love for this one a fair amount, but I don't think I've really mentioned why. So I'll just lazily repost my LB writeup from years ago:

A few decades before Punch-Drunk Love, Pakula and Brooks collaborated on this muted comic riot with a perfect cast, matching their career-best work to create the most beautiful iteration of the authentic eccentricities and universal phases that mesh together clumsily to build relationships. The real ones, the weird ones, the ones of piercing vulnerabilities that bring out the crazy in us. Burt Reynolds downplays himself into a mode that breeds deadpan humor and empathy for a state of numbed emotional apathy, but also emits an energy of what self-actualization really looks like.

The film fires on all cylinders. It's a perfect comedy, deep romance, and a very honest drama that depicts the behavior of the emotionally confused with validation - and allows that to be everyone. The humor finds its way into practically every scene because the glee stems from natural signifiers of social comparison, painful loss, awkwardness, fear, absurdist logic, maladaptive perspectives clashing, and inside jokes that we're graciously allowed to be a part of for a little while.

A movement as subtle as Reynolds' nonchalant step into the shower fully clothed is incredibly sweet, comical, and overwhelmingly inspiring as a reminder of how we can step further outside of our comfort zones to seize life in unique ways, showing our affection for another and showing up for ourselves at once. It's so much easier than we think. For scenes like this (which is every scene), I don't know whether to laugh, weep, or just nod in affirmation.

Admirably, the representations of our slippages into dysfunctional behaviors are just as tenderly received as the moments of blundering joy; and in a mature stance, even after people fuck up and break promises, imperfections are permissible. This is as close as I've seen the medium get to using the power of the movies to reflect real life's idiosyncrasies, and it still won't settle for anything but the best. "I need terrific, I need wonderful, I need love!"

West Indies: I was bowled over by this historical musical, noted in response to DI's less enthused reaction here

[domino harvey]

I believe only the scenario short for Sauve Qui Peut (la vie) is eligible for this year

[swo17]

That is correct

[therewillbeblus]

Okay that makes more sense. I’ll put it back where it belongs.

[knives]

I guess this year is for those who thought last year’s offering were a bit weak. I’m flabbergasted at the spread of quality. Any year with following alone could be counted as among the best: Real Life, Vengeance is Mine, Being There, The Jerk, or Raining in the Mountains (got to see Hu’s other work from the year).

Some under the radar stuff I’d like to spotlight is From the Clouds to the Resistance which is a powerful and quiet road showing the connection between the stories we tell ourselves and the world we police with our ideas.

Tarasov’s Shooting Range is one of the best films from Kino’s red animation set as it shows even communism as a rat race ready to kill.

A Little Romance is probably my favorite film by Hill and it just gets you with its gentile nature and willingness to treat children dead serious.

More American Graffiti is the disillusioned and experimental follow up you never knew you needed.

Hunter in the Dark is easily my favorite of the nonsensical based around feeling Japanese Aesthetic delights that are always popular.

And just to give myself a stopping point as I could go on for another thirty films I’d like to shout out Lester’s Sundance prequel which I love significantly over the original. Lester creates a speedier film with lots of memorable characters such as Christopher Lloyd’s slinking villain.

[knives]

My first two shots at the year went well.

It’d be understandable if you thought a film called Killer Fish was a Jaws rip-off, but Antonio Margheriti has no interest in that. Instead this odd duck is a disaster film besting Irwin Allen several times over disguised as a heist adventure. It’s a pretty great structure that solves the problem of how boring disaster films can be until the disaster actually arrives. It’s also such a deranged road to the disaster that I was pleasantly flabbergasted by it.

Serie Noire was built up for me due to the mordant air surrounding its history, but what makes it so great isn’t the darkness. Rather it’s the hideous laughter that everyone is in tune with. It’s a hilarious movie with harder and more laughs than actual comedies. That creepiness and disconnect with the material forced me to engage with the film intellectually and with how I was relating to the protagonist more so than other similar films like Taxi Driver. I hadn’t taken Corneau very seriously before, but if he can do this I’ll have to look into his films more seriously.

[brundlefly]

If last month’s Ruiz hasn’t left you too dizzy to take a long stare at brushwork, Leslie Megahey’s Schalcken the Painter – an adaptation of Le Fanu’s fiction about a real Dutch painter, slotted as a UK TV Xmas ghost story – has its creepy rewards. It’s fond of restraint. Uses darkness and silence with determination. And though at first its compositions lean too easily on doorframes-within-frames, that turns out to be smart emphasis on a single door closing and misdirection in a piece where profound entrances are made from the shadows.

Satyajit Ray’s Joi Baba Felunath (The Elephant God) seems to be missing from the list. As is Mrinal Sen’s Parashuram (The Man with the Axe), cited as both 1978 and 1979, not that it or the other Sen film from this year seems readily available.

[swo17]

All added now

[the preacher]

To be added:
Goran Markovic's Nacionalna klasa (National Class Category Up to 785ccm)
Veljko Bulajic's Covjek koga treba ubiti (The Man to Kill)
Tony Maylam's The Riddle of the Sands
Alfredo Gurrola's Llámenme Mike (Call Me Mike)

[swo17]

Added, thanks

[knives]

I can’t resist a good animated film and Shanghai Studio’s Nezha Conquers the Dragon King is that in spades. I’m unfamiliar with the source text, but even without that this short feature packs a punch with its beauty and great sense of drama. It’s not entirely clear to me why Nezha’s actions are considered beyond the pale, but even with that confusion the film creates a familiar conflict that intuitively works.

I also had a great time with Ruiz’s Of Great Events and Ordinary People which is such a sassy look at the intellectual failures of the whole concept of documentary as was being developed under direct cinema.

[knives]

Got this year’s cheat sheet done. It’s really impressive just how diverse regionally and stylistically the big hitters are this year.

For a sense of that even Duras failed to impress me with Le Navire Night despite featuring some powerful images. There’s some moments of absolute beauty here and what I can work with I do amazingly, but I just don’t find the pull of the narration which strikes me as kind of silly.

One of those power houses was The Wanderers which comes close to my favorite Kaufman. It plays a bit like the producers wanted the next Grease and got the next American Graffiti instead. The movie has an intimacy and immediacy I don’t normally associate with Kaufman who usually tends toward the significant even when telling a love story. This is just a series of small moments told as small moments to be half remembered like a song you don’t know the words to.

[swo17]

One of those power houses was The Wanderers which comes close to my favorite Kaufman

Do you recommend one cut over the other?

[knives]

I didn’t know there was multiple cuts. I just watched whatever was on Kanopy.