13. 3 Women (1977)
Directed by Robert Altman
Featuring Shelley Duvall and Sissy Spacek
“Filmmaking is a chance to live many lifetimes.” (Robert Altman)
Altman’s 3 Women (1977) was inspired by Bergman’s masterpiece Persona (1966) and together with it influenced Lynch’s landmark Mulholland Dr. (2001). The film and Altman’s work in general can not be overstated in magnitude but sadly, his importance still seems to be widely underestimated. He dreamt up the script of this lost pearl and like all of his works, it tends to be full of layers, recommending repeated viewing. Altman’s pictures can be compared with Bruegel’s paintings, every time you watch them, you discover something else. He usually puts the spectator in the middle of situations and conversations to turn away from them as soon as the camera gets distracted. This way, we look upon people as in real life, without any sense of direction, meaning very disorganized. Pieces like MASH (1970), McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971), The Long Goodbye (1973), California Split (1974) and Nashville (1975) all deserve to be on this list for demonstrating the forgotten geniality of Robert Altman. The influence of The Player (1992) and Short Cuts (1993), in particular on Paul Thomas Anderson, only confirmed his cinematic gifts.
12. Bob & Ted & Carol & Alice (1969)
Directed by Paul Mazursky
Featuring Elliott Gould, Natalie Wood, Robert Culp and Dyan Cannon
“I don’t think I have it in me to make a movie in which all the situations and relationships are black and white. I get into the gray areas.” (Paul Mazursky)
Mazursky, one of the most underrated directors ever, made this wonderful film as a metaphor for the regrettable but inevitable failure of sixties hippie-culture. It represents a bunch of open minded thirty-somethings who just want to express popular contemporary life essences like honesty and free love. The couples see partner swapping as an enrichment and expansion of their moral ideas. The controversial film was a critical and commercial success, it even got four Academy Awards nominations, notwithstanding today it seems a forgotten masterpiece. Critically acclaimed for his screenplays, Mazursky’s best movies have a sort of Woody Allen feel to them, especially An Unmarried Woman (1978). Although quite unknown, some of his other films are really worth seeing, for instance Blume in Love (1973), Harry and Tonto (1974) and the lovely rewarding jewel Next Stop, Greenwich Village (1976) with the ever surprising Christopher Walken.
11. Lenny (1974)
Directed by Bob Fosse
Featuring Dustin Hoffman
“Take away the right to say ‘fuck’ and you take away the right to say ‘fuck the government.” (Lenny Bruce)
Lenny Bruce was one of the best American comedians of all time and a very interesting figure. His battle in court over his foul language and political satire questioned freedom of speech in the States. Now still relevant, the film embodies an emotion of anger and injustice against the conservative Establishment. As much as Dustin Hoffman proves (again) to be one of seventies’ best actors, Bob Fosse succeeds in delivering not only great musicals but also a realistic grim and bleak biopic of high quality.
Later on, he mixes the two styles in the self-referential All That Jazz (1979) about his addictions and sickness, with Otto e mezzo (Fellini, 1963) in mind. If you think you do not like musicals, the time has come to change your mind. And while you’re at it, also see the best one, Singin’ in the Rain (Stanley Donen, 1952)!
10. Fat City (1972)
Directed by John Huston
Featuring Stacy Keach, Jeff Bridges and Susan Tyrell
“[Huston] treats [the story] with a level, unsentimental honesty and makes it into one of his best films…[and] the movie’s edges are filled with small, perfect character performances.” (Ebert, R. (1972, January 1). Chicago Sun-Times.)
John Huston delivered quite a prolific film repertoire including film noir archetypes as The Maltese Falcon (1941) (his debut!), Key Largo (1948) and The Asphalt Jungle (1950) and adventurous benchmarks like The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) and The African Queen (1951). In the sixties he did not stand still and made excellent psychological dramas as The Misfits (1961) and The Night of the Iguana (1964). Ten years later he would make a striking appearance in Polanski’s Chinatown (1974). Later, he would offer something daring like Wise Blood (1979). All and all, it is clear that as an over-busy artist, Huston nevertheless kept reinventing himself.
Likewise, Fat City (1971) illustrates a modest and forgotten picture but a brilliant one and probably his best. Two boxers, both losers, the one ten years older than the other, just live their lives which offer some small but golden situations. John Huston himself had a short and disappointing boxing career, which probably helped portraying the story. Splendid portrayals of alcoholics mostly result in terrific movies (look for instance at that drunk classic Barfly (Schroeder, 1987), written by ‘king of alcoholics’ Bukowski).
9. Badlands (1973)
Directed by Terrence Mallick
Featuring Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek
“Listen, honey. when all this is over, I’m going to sit down and buy you a big, thick steak.” (Kit Carruthers)
Gangster couples were always very popular in cinema: You Only Live Once (1937), They Live by Night (1948), Gun Crazy (1950), Pierrot le Fou (1965), Bonnie and Clyde (1967), The Getaway (1972), Badlands (1973), Thieves Like Us (1974) and Natural Born Killers (1994). Although Kit (Martin Sheen) and Holly (Sissy Spacek) maybe represent the dumbest of them all, their adventures do not make a bad movie, on the contrary! The indifference by which they commit their crimes recalls Albert Camus’ l‘Etranger (1942). The beautiful cinematography Terrence Malick is so famous for, stands out again compared to all the other gangster couple films mentioned above. Malick would produce later on, rather taking his time, consecutively the equally stunning Days of Heaven (1978) and The Thin Red Line (1998). Six years after Badlands, Martin Sheen would give his best performance ever in Apocalypse Now (Coppola, 1978) and literally put blood and tears (and even a heart attack) in that part.
8. Straight Time (1978)
Directed by Ulu Grosbard
Featuring Dustin Hoffman, Gary Busey and Harry Dean Stanton
“No movie featuring either Harry Dean Stanton or M. Emmet Walsh in a supporting role can be altogether bad.” (Roger Ebert’s Stanton-Walsh Rule)
Too bad, one of Dustin Hoffman’s best performances is at the same time one of his most forgotten. Actually, it is kind of fun to know there is a big unknown world of cinema, full of little gems like this film. The seemingly small story reflects about the hard times reentering society of a thief on parole. Outstanding depictions by Hoffman, Stanton, Busey and Russell produce an unforgettable piece of cinema. The film, which Hoffman himself started directing and Grosbard ended, even introduced three fine actors, the crazy looking Gary Busey, Nicolas Roeg’s muse Theresa Russell and Academy Award winner Kathy Bates (who cares anyway? but yes, she won one of those for Misery (1990)).
7. The Last Picture Show (1971)
Directed by Peter Bogdanovich
Featuring Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd and Timothy Bottoms
Bobby: “You a virgin?”
Jacy: “I guess I am.”
Bobby: “Too bad.”
Jacy: “I don’t wanna be, though.”
Bobby: “I don’t blame ya. Come see me when you’re not.”
As a big fan of John Ford and Orson Welles, Bogdanovich tried to assimilate the Old and the New Hollywood in most of his movies. His most successful film, The Last Picture Show (1971), features for example Ben Johnson, who was a regular in Ford’s westerns. A black-and-white coming-of-age story located in a depressed and deserted fifties west Texas town, turns out to be beautiful and highly recognizable. Cybill Shepherd, the beauty on the picture above, drove the main actors and their characters crazy, above all director Peter Bogdanovich. This went so far he left his wife and ruined his career for her as a matter of speaking.
Next to treasures like the ingenious Targets (1968), the creative screwball comedy tribute What’s Up, Doc? (1972) and the sweet Paper Moon (1973), he made some awful pictures, with and without his mistress. Perhaps his comeback will be She’s Funny That Way (2014), produced by Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach.
