loneliness, the courage and the coping of desperate and disenchanted adults in an age of moral apathy.
The Clowns John E. Fitzgerald
HE year, which began with a whimper, went out with a bang as some of the best and headiest cinematic wine was saved for last. The significance of the year's films - many of which might well have appeared on many a Ten Best list under different circumstances of timing -will be discussed shortly. But for now, and in no special order, let's consider one man's opinion on what were. the top ten films of the year, bearing in mind that the number is an arbitrary one; you may find your favorites mentioned here, or later when we talk more extensively, or not at all.
T
The Boy Friend - There's nothing wrong with fun, especially family fun with a twinkle in its perceptive eye. Here it's the eye and the talent of the exuberant director Ken Russell which dominates the musical proceedings so inventively, extravagantly and s~irically. Twiggy zooms to stardom as a member of a down-at-the-heels British troupe of the '30s doing a musical set in the '20s (actually written by Sandy Wilson in the '50s) while a Hollywood director watches the show, imagining how he might tum its little numbers into colossal Busby Berkeley-l~e extravaganzas. Christopher Gable co-stars and the youngsters and oldsters of the troupe are all delightful.
Camal Knowledge - With · cool detachment and subtle hand-in-glove cooperation director Mike Nichols and scenarist Jules Peiffer work together to present without preaching the. emptiness of sex without love. The story,. one of depersonalization, follows two college chums (Jack Nicholson and Art Garfunkle) from dormitory days across the decades as they age without maturing. Candice Bergen, Ann-Margret, Rita Moreno and others are the women they use up in the process as they pursue their own physical and ego gratifications in this candid adult film.
The Last Picture Show - Another film of growing up, this one limits itself to a year in the lives of two high school boys (Timothy Bottoms and Jeff Bridges) as they approach maturity in the stifling dust and moral decay of a small Texas town in the early 'SOs. Adapted from Larry McMurty's novel (he wrote the original from which Hud was made) by the author and director Peter Bogdanovich, the film is in bleak black-and-white and the performan1Wiill...All..,..., jilUilllA....llllilia (or Ellen Burstyn's name when it comes time for Oscar nomina-
tions; and Cloris Leachman's; and Ben Johnson's among others in what some critics have called the best American-made film of the year.)
A Clockwork Orange - Writer Stanley Kubrick slides an ice-cold scalpel into almost-Orwellian London in the •ll-too-near future. The film is a brilliant nightmare, highly original and harrowing, a morality tale for mature adults, told in almost a fairy tale format, dealing in retribution, rehabilitation and the meaning of free will. We'll talk more of this one later since it had enough quality and complexity to win the New York Film Critics' best picture of the year award (and to come close to winning the same award from the National Society of Film Critics, who, preferring the charming to the chilling, gave theirs to Claire's Knee).
Sunday. Bloody Sunday
- This movie is based on an intelligent, restrained and perceptive screenplay by Penelope Gilliat, the film is about an unusual love triangle. The participants are a career woman (Glendlt Jlldtsnft), a u:cessful English doctor (Peter Finch) and a rootless young man (Murray Head). ------------~-------------=Rte story is not merely that of the breakup of two love affairs - but of modem lives in a permissive society of varying values that conflict with old outlooks and traditions. Director John Schlesinger has done an excellent, perhaps brilliant, job of depicting the
- Joining the ranks of my other two "family film" favorites, Federico Fellini's film is still another illustration that movies suited for families don't have to be limited to cute chimps, coy Volkswagens and lost animals. Fellini's love of the circus and his background which is linked to the big top have given him an insight. Here this compassionate insight pays attention to the role of the clowns - the white-faced harlequins and the baggy-pants tram~whil~ p~y ing homage to thetr contnbut1on to comedy, and to the actual clowns themselves, now aging or gone.
novel of sex and politics and the corruption of their drives. The flavor of the times, as with so many other of this year's best films is captured well. Beautiful and imaginative, it is the story of the memories of a former philosophy student about to perform an assassination for the cause of Mussolini. The film unravels swirlingly in inventive images and ideas. In seeking acceptance, evil is chosen by conformity. Jean-Louis Trintignant, Stefania Sandrelli, Pierre Clementi and Dominique Sanda are excellent.
The French Connection
NOTICE
- Author Robin (''The Green Berets") Moore's book is slammed onto the screen in a fast-paced, pounding, rough and ruthless melodrama about a dedicated police detective (Gene Hackman) who's better on the streets fighting crime than in the station house filling out forms. It's based on a real life story of the tracking down of a shipment of heroin and has enough suspense and action for two Hitchcock thrillers as well as capturing, through the unobtrusive craftsmanship of director William Friedkin, the essence of the real New York.
Two falls: "A Cloekwark Onliae," . . "l'he lat
Fiddler on the Roof
Plctue Sliow," recefyed eondenined nil.p hy tile National CaChollc Fiim Office.
- The story, while a successful Broadway run ("Fiddler" is soon to surpass the longest-running Broadway shows, "Tobacco Road" and "Life with Father") doesn't guarantee a successful transition to the screen, here the move has been accomplished without violating the play's charm or power. Set in the Ukraine during a time of poverty and persecution, it centers on Tevye, the village milkman. And on his problems with his wife, with three marriageable daughters, and with prejudice. Tradition is 'its ~n~al theme and the cost of mamtaming it, and of abandoning it. Topol and .the rest of the cast under Direaor Norman Jewison, do well in bringing the play (based on the Sholem Aleichem stories) to joyous musical life. •
- Director Eric Rohmer in this, the "fifth of his series of Six Moral Tales, has created a charming, literate (thank heaven, since it's, like all his films, quite talky), little tale of love
and self-delusion. It centers on a middle-aged man and three girls of varying age. Filmed on the
lovely Lake of Annency, it's a summer tale in diary form, kooky yet with restraint, wit and humor.
The Conformist - Bitter poetry from Director Bernardo Bertolucci, based on the Alberto Moravia
S.nday, lloocfr Sunclay
, ... ltenclt C'onl*:flon