Without a question the 70's is one of the greatest decades for cinema and really it comes down to the middle three years (74, 74, 76) where for me most of the great cinema is generated. 76 is a seminal year I think because it contains some of the greatest cinema and probably the closest race I've seen for my personal taste in cinema because there were so many films I've seen that hold a great place in my heart. At the academy awards the underdog came from behind and won. Sure Rocky is a great film any other period in cinema when stacked up against the endless list of films from especially this year it's a questionable choice for me. Just look at the competition Rocky was up against All the President's Men, Bound for Glory, Network and Taxi Driver. 3 of the other nominees are considered amoengst the greatest films to ever be made. Bound for Glory is a great example of 70's cinema and especially the ease in which Hal Ashby just follows people who may not live the most interesting of lives but is able to make their lives so interesting. So really it was an impressive lineup with a slightly overrated winner.
So I've gone on for some time in this post going gaga over the impressive films from this year and really there's no question this film are great. Network still stands high above just about every film which is why it's unquestionable my choice for the year. Paddy Chayefsky is one of the greatest screenwriters to have ever worked in the film industry and with Network he outdid himself. Chayefsky accomplished what most creatives haven't which is he created a work of it's time but also timeless for how much the culture has grown to basically be all this film predicted. It's quite scary how close a film made 40 years ago was able to so accurately predict what was to come next in the cinema landscape. Another positive Network has is Lumet and his cast of actors he brought in to the project to really support Chayefsky's work. All the President's Men another stable to this era and of all time is my favourite journalism film that while not in the age of electronic news is just as thrilling as anything relaying of information through text that we would get in today's films. The film like Network starts with a very strong script which I guess is something today's film is without which is strong scripting which is too important to the success of a film for me. Following these two my next best is Taxi Driver. Martin Scorsese had already made a name for himself with Mean Streets but with Taxi he was able to show himself in quite a different league that the film was able to shock and amaze american audiences as it did. De Niro arguable has never been better as he just so invests himself into the role of the devilish Travis Bickel that he has never shed part of this role for me no matter how outlandish his work has been over the following 40 years. Harlan County U.S.A. is easily one of my top documentaries that I've ever seen. It just sits you down with the people it tracks and invests you in their live struggle that is shown in this documentary. It really is a moving piece as we see all these people struggle. My final choice for picture would've been Carrie the Brian De Palma classic that made the ignored girl the scary star. Sissy Spacek in Carrie stars straight into your sole and De Palma a man of many films really knocked it out of the park with Carrie for me. Unlike the shitty remake this film was so wide and ranging that every element of this film works.
29 is the amount of films I was able to see from this year and for the most part I was impressed by about every single one of these films. It's really a completely different time for cinema then what we have nowadays because all the films are just too good to count. Below is my winners and nominees.
OUTSTANDING PICTURE:
1. Network (Produced by Howard Gottfried)
2. All the President's Men (Produced by Walter Coblenz)
3. Taxi Driver (Produced by Julia Phillips & Michael Phillips)
4. Harlan County, U.S.A. (Produced by Barbara Kopple)
5. Carrie (Produced by Paul Monash)
6. Solaris
7. The Spirit of the Beehive
8. Face to Face
9. The Outlaw Josey Wales
10. Seven Beauties
OUTSTANDING DIRECTOR:
Brian De Palma for Carrie
Sidney Lumet for Network
Alan J. Pakula, All the President's Men
Martin Scorsese for Taxi Driver
Andrei Tarkovsky for Solaris
OUTSTANDING LEADING ACTOR:
Robert De Niro as Travis Bickle in "TAXI DRIVER"
Peter Finch as Howard Beale in "NETWORK"
William Holden as Max Schumacher in "NETWORK"
Dustin Hoffman as Thomas Babington "Babe" Levy in "MARATHON MAN"
Robert Redford as Bob Woodward in "ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN"
OUTSTANDING LEADING ACTRESS:
Marie-Christine Barrault as Marthe in "COUSIN COUSINE"
Faye Dunaway as Diana Christensen in "NETWORK"
Glenda Jackson as Sarah Bernhardt in "THE INCREDIBLE SARAH"
Sissy Spacek as Carrie White in "CARRIE"
Liv Ullmann as Dr. Jenny Isaksson in "FACE TO FACE"
OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR:
Ned Beatty as Arthur Jensen in "NETWORK"
Robert Duvall as Frank Hackett in "NETWORK"
Hal Holbrook as "Deep Throat" in "ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN"
Burgess Meredith as Mickey Goldmill in "ROCKY"
Laurence Olivier as Dr. Christian Szell in "MARATHON MAN"
OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
Jodie Foster as Iris "Easy" Steensma in "TAXI DRIVER"
Piper Laurie as Margaret White in "CARRIE"
Alexis Smith as Mrs. Hallet in "THE LITTLE GIRL WHO LIVES DOWN THE LANE"
Beatrice Straight as Louise Schumacher in "NETWORK"
Shelley Winters as Faye Lapinsky in "NEXT STOP, GREENWICH VILLAGE"
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:
Ingmar Bergman for Face to Face
Paddy Chayefsky for Network
Paul Mazursky for Next Stop, Greenwich Village
Lina Wertmüller for Seven Beauties
Paul Scharader for Taxi Driver
OUTSTANDING ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:
Screenplay by William Goldman; Based on All the President's Men by Carl Bernstein & Bob Woodward, All the President's Men
Screenplay by Robert Getchell; Based on Bound for Glory by Woody Guthrie, Bound for Glory
Screenplay by Lawrence D. Cohen; Based on Carrie by Stephen King, Carrie
Screenplay by William Goldman; Based on Marathon Man by William Goldman, Marathon Man
Screenplay by Philip Kaufman & Sonia Chernus; Based on Gone to Texas by Forrest Carter, The Outlaw Josey Wales
OUTSTANDING ART DIRECTION:
Production Design by George Jenkins; Set Design by George Gaines for All the President's Men
Production Design by Geoffrey Kirkland; Set Design by Harry Cordwell for Bugsy Malone
Art Direction by Jack Fisk & William Kenney; Set Design by Robert Gould for Carrie
Production Design by Elliot Scott; Art Direction by Norman Reynolds for The Incredible Sarah
Production Design by Philip Rosenberg; Set Design by Edward Stewart for Network
OUTSTANDING BREAKTHROUGH/DEBUT:
Betty Buckley (Carrie)
Melinda Dilon (Bound For Glory)
Jodie Foster (Taxi Driver)
Amy Irving (Carrie)
Jessica Lange (King Kong)
OUTSTANDING CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Gordon Willis for All the President's Men
Haskell Wexler for Bound for Glory
Mario Tosi for Carrie
Owen Roizman for Network
Michael Chapman for Taxi Driver
OUTSTANDING COSTUME DESIGN:
William Theiss for Bound for Glory
Monica Howe for Bugsy Malone
Rosanna Norton for Carrie
Anthony Mendleson for The Incredible Sarah
Ruth Morley for Taxi Driver
OUTSTANDING DOCUMENTARY:
Harlan County, U.S.A. (Directed by Barbara Kopple)
OUTSTANDING ENSEMBLE OF THE YEAR:
All the President's Men (Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford, Jack Warden, Martin Balsam, Hal Holbrook, Jason Robards, Jane Alexander, Meredith Baxter, Ned Beatty, Stephen Collins, Penny Fuller, Penny Peyser, Lindsay Crouse, Robert Walden, F. Murray Abraham, David Arkin)
Carrie (Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, Amy Irving, William Katt, Betty Buckley, Nancy Allen, John Travolta, P. J. Soles, Sydney Lassick, Stefan Gierasch, Priscilla Pointer, Harry Gold, Doug Cox, Noelle North, Michael Talbott, Edie McClurg)
Network (Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch, Robert Duvall, Wesley Addy, Ned Beatty, Beatrice Straight, Jordan Charney, William Prince, Lane Smith, Marlene Warfield, Conchata Ferrell, Carolyn Krigbaum, Arthur Burghardt, Cindy Grover, Darryl Hickman, Lee Richardson)
Rocky (Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, Burgess Meredith, Thayer David, Joe Spinell, Tony Burton, Pedro Lovell)
Taxi Driver (Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Harvey Keitel, Cybill Shepherd, Albert Brooks, Leonard Harris, Peter Boyle, Harry Northup)
OUTSTANDING FILM EDITING:
Robert L. Wolfe for All the President's Men
Paul Hirsch for Carrie
Alan Heim for Network
Richard Halsey & Scott Conrad for Rocky
Tom Rolf & Melvin Shapiro for Taxi Driver
OUTSTANDING FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM:
Face to Face (Directed by Ingmar Bergman)
Seven Beauties (Directed by Lina Wertmüller)
Solaris (Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky)
The Spirit of the Beehive (Directed by Víctor Erice)
Vincent, François, Paul and the Others (Directed by Claude Sautet)
OUTSTANDING MAKEUP:
Robert A. Westmoreland, Bob Stein & William Turner for Bound for Glory
Wesley Dawn & Ron Snyder for Carrie
Ben Nye & Brad Wilder for Marathon Man
Irving Buchman for Taxi Driver
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL/ADAPTATION SCORE:
Pino Donaggio for Carrie
Jerry Goldsmith for The Omen
Bill Conti for Rocky
Roger Kellaway for A Star is Born
Bernard Herrmann for Taxi Driver
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SONG:
Bugsy Malone, "Bugsy Malone" (Music and Lyrics by Paul Williams)
Carrie, "I Never Dreamed Someone Like You Could Love Someone Like Me" (Music by Pino Donaggio; Lyrics by Merrit Malloy)
The Omen, "Ave Satani" (Music & Lyrics by Jerry Goldsmith)
Rocky, "Gonna Fly Now" (Music by Bill Conti; Lyrics by Carol Connors & Ayn Robbins)
A Star is Born, "Evegreen (Love Theme from A Star is Born)" (Music by Barbra Streisand Lyrics by Paul Williams)
OUTSTANDING PERFORMER OF THE YEAR:
Robert De Niro (The Last Tycoon, Taxi Driver)
Faye Dunaway (Network, Voyage of the Damned)
Jodie Foster (Bugsy Malone, Echoes of a Summer, Freaky Friday, The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane, Taxi Driver)
Dustin Hoffman (All the President's Men, Marathon Man)
OUTSTANDING SOUND MIXING:
Bertil Hallberg for Carrie
Harry W. Tetrick, William McCaughey, Aaron Rochin & Jack Solomon for King Kong
David Ronne & John K. Wilkinson for Marathon Man
Harry Warren Tetrick, William McCaughey, Lyle J. Burbridge & Bud Alper for Rocky
Dick Alexander, Les Lazarowitz & Vern Poore for Taxi Driver
OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS:
Gregory M. Auer & Kenneth Pepiot for Carrie
Carlo Rambaldi, Glen Robinson & Frank Van der Veer for King Kong
Tony Parmelee for Taxi Driver
The next year I will be covering in 10 days time is 1969 the year when the X rated Midnight Cowboy won best picture.
No comments:
Post a Comment