griggs's - 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die List
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The Cow (1969)Gaav
'The Cow' has the beauty and simplicity associated with the great films of that movement. In a small village in Iran, Hassan cherishes his cow more than anything in the world. While he is away, the cow mysteriously dies, and the villagers protectively try to convince Hassan the cow has wandered off. Grief stricken, Hassan begins to believe he is his own beloved bovine. 'The Cow' won great acclaim at the Venice Film Festival after being smuggled out of Iran in 1971, and was twice voted the best Iranian film ever made by a survey of Iranian film critics... - Director:
- Dariush Mehrjui
- Cast:
- Ezzatolah Entezami, Mahin Shahabi, Ali Nassirian
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In the Year of the Pig (1968)Vietnam - Grisens år
Filmed at the height of the Vietnam War, director Emile de Antonio's unabashedly subjective documentary blasts American involvement in the conflict, with startling and disturbing images adding emotional intensity to this scathing critique. Through news footage and interviews with military figures, journalists and politicians, the provocative filmmaker traces modern Southeast Asian history and makes an argument for Vietnamese self-determination. - Director:
- Emile de Antonio
- Cast:
- Harry S. Ashmore, Daniel Berrigan, Joseph Buttinger
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Z (1969)Z - Anatomie eines politischen Mordes
In a northern Greek city in the 1960's, a leading opposition politician is attacked on the street while his party is holding a rally and later dies in hospital. The dead man's left of center party was against any type of foreign intervention in national affairs and was seen by the right wing party in power as a threat to national security. The cover-up begins almost immediately with the police claiming that the dead man was struck by a drunk driver. A prosecutor is assigned to the case and he meticulously interviews everyone involved, slowly gathering evidence that shows the extent to which the assassination was potted by senior policemen and right-wing extremists. Getting appropriate actions from the State proves to be something else entirely. - Director:
- Costa-Gavras
- Cast:
- Yves Montand, Francois Chaumette, Irene Papas
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Written by Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda and Terry Southern, Fonda produced the low-budget production whilst Hopper took on Directing duties, receiving an award at Cannes for his first work. Since its release, Easy Rider has been regarded as a symbol of free-spirited reaction against society, and even for those too young to remember its original release, it maintains its status as a classic film which characterises the attitude of a decade. Now, after 30 years, Easy Rider has been remastered and is presented here in High Definition with both clearer picture and sound quality. - Director:
- Dennis Hopper
- Cast:
- Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson
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My Night at Maud's (1969)Ma nuit chez Maud
The film that propelled Rohmer to international acclaim remains one of the finest achievements of his career. The fourth in the 'Moral Tales' series, it tells the story of a chaste and conservative thirty-something (Jean-Louis Trintignant) who sees a woman that he believes will be his perfect match whilst attending church. But when he unwittingly spends the night at the apartment of the worldly and spirited divorcee Maud (Francoise Fabian), he finds the moral certainties of his life are suddenly thrown into question. - Director:
- Eric Rohmer
- Cast:
- Jean-Louis Trintignant, Françoise Fabian, Marie-Christine Barrault
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Dustin Hoffman gives an unforgettable performance as Ratso Rizzo, a scrounging, sleazy small-time con man with big dreams. Jon Voight is magnificent as Joe Buck, the good-looking, naively charming Texan 'cowboy' who is convinced that he is the salvation of many lonely, love starved New York Women. These two characters are drawn together in this powerful and compassionate film. - Director:
- John Schlesinger
- Cast:
- Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight., Sylvia Miles
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The Wild Bunch (1969)La pandilla salvaje
By any standard, director Sam Peckinpah's film The Wild Bunch, a powerful tale of hangdog desperadoes bound by a code of honour, rates as one of the all-time greatest Westerns, perhaps one of the greatest of all films. This original Director's Cut restores it to a complete, pristine condition unseen since its July 1969 theatrical debut. The image is letterboxed, the color renewed, the stereo soundtrack remixed and reintegrated - all to blood-and-thunder effect. Watch William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan and more great stars saddle up for the roles of a lifetime.
This video also features the home video debut of The Wild Bunch: An Album in Montage, the Academy Award nominated 1996 documentary by Paul Seydor and Nick Redman. It includes long-unseen footage of the on-set shooting, and reminiscences by principals connected with the film.- Director:
- Sam Peckinpah
- Cast:
- William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan
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Fellini: Satyricon (1969)Fellini - Satyricon
A truly literate and sophisticated film spectacle by perhaps the greatest of all film artists, this Oscar nominated masterpiece by Federico Fellini, the director of such world-renowned classics, as 'La Dolce Vita', 'La Strada' and '8 ½', is a fabulous trip into a totally decadent civilization delivering a brilliant visual fantasy unlike anything you have seen. Step into the bawdy, erotic and titillating world of Rome during the days of Emperor Nero, Where two completing teachers play tricks on each other while vying for the same lover's charms, Paralleling the self-indulgence of modern society, these Roman citizens pursue their own gratification above all else, resulting in both intense pleasure and enormous despair, displayed in visually seductive scenes that are both shocking, unprecedented and brilliantly stunning. - Director:
- Federico Fellini
- Cast:
- Martin Potter, Hiram Keller, Max Born
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The Sorrow and the Pity (1969)Le chagrin et la pitié
Marcel Ophuls' four-and-a-half hour portrait of the French town of Clermont-Ferrand under German occupation from 1940-44 is one of the greatest documentaries ever made, as important as Claude Lanzmann's 'Shoah' in its value not just as a film but as an essential historical record in its own right - not least since its interviewees are all long dead. Describing the fall of France and the rise of the Resistance, with the aid of newly-shot interviews and eye-opening archive footage including newsreels and propaganda films, Ophuls painstakingly crafts a complex, nuanced picture of what really happened in France over this period. He also demolishes numerous self-serving national myths to such an extent that, although he made the film for French television, they wouldn't show it for over a decade. But, as he demonstrates again and again, the overwhelming majority of French citizens during this period weren't heroes, villains or cowards, but simply ordinary people trying to make the best of an impossible situation. And it's Ophuls' portrayal of these people, their hopes, their fears and their appalling moral quandaries, that remains unmatched in film history. - Director:
- Marcel Ophüls
- Cast:
- Georges Bidault, Matthäus Bleibinger, Charles Braun
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Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)Butch Cassidy
One of the most popular screen Western ever made, this Academy Award-winning classic blends adventur, romance and comedy to tell the true story of the West's most likeable outlaws. No-one is quicker then Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman) when it comes to get rich quick schemes, and his sidekick Sundance (Robert Redford) is a wizard with a gun. When these two bungling bank and train robbers tire of running from the law, they set out for Bolivia with Sundance's girlfriend (Katherine Ross). Though they can barely speak enough Spanish to communicate: "This is a stick-up!", that's only a minor detail to the two nicest "bad-guys" who ever rode the West. - Director:
- George Roy Hill
- Cast:
- Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Katharine Ross
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The Colour of Pomegranates (1969)Sayat Nova / Red Pomegranate
Sergei Paradjanov's celebrated, dreamlike masterpiece paints an astonishing portrait of the 18th century Armenian poet Sayat Nova, the 'King of Song'. Paradjanov's aim was not a conventional biography but a cinematic expression of his work, resulting in an extraordinary visual poem. Key moments in his subject's life are illustrated through a series of exquisitely orchestrated tableaux filled with rich colour and stunning iconography, each scene a celluloid painting alive with stylised movement. One of cinema's most revered and beautiful films, The Colour of Pomegranates is a unique and rewarding experience that haunts the memory long after viewing. - Director:
- Sergei Parajanov
- Cast:
- Sofiko Chiaureli, Melkon Alekyan, Vilen Galstyan
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Kes (1969)A Kestrel for a Knave
British filmmaking showed much of its potential in this marvellous production chronicling the boyhood experiences of Billy (David Bradley), whose expectations lead no further than following his father into the pits when he reaches manhood. Everything changes when he finds Kes, an injured Kestrel, whom he nurses and cherishes back to health. Their relationship becomes symbolic of a doomed attempt to escape the drudgery of the industrial North. - Director:
- Ken Loach
- Cast:
- David Bradley, Brian Glover, Freddie Fletcher
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The Ear (1970)Ucho
Although made in 1970, The Ear (Ucho) was immediately banned by the Czech authorities and remained unseen for twenty years, being finally released only after the Velvet Revolution took place in Czechoslovakia. This landmark film is an extraordinary mix of one of the most direct indictments of life under an oppressive totalitarian system and a not-so-private examination of a disintegrating marital relationship. - Director:
- Karel Kachyna
- Cast:
- Jirina Bohdalová, Radoslav Brzobohatý, Gustav Opocenský
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M.A.S.H. (1970)MASH
Hailed as one of the best comedies ever made and nominated for 5 Academy Awards including Best Picture, the story focuses on army surgeons who develop a lunatic life-style in order to handle every day horrors encountered in Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean war. Though highly skilled and deeply dedicated, this irreverent mob of madcaps is equally adept at making a shambles of army bureaucracy. - Director:
- Robert Altman
- Cast:
- Donald Sutherland, Ted Knight, Elliott Gould
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Patton (1970)Patton: A Salute to a Rebel
A critically acclaimed film that won a total of eight 1970 Academy Awards (including Best Picture), 'Patton' is a riveting portrait of one of the 20th century's greatest military geniuses. One of its Oscars went to George C. Scott for this triumphant portrayal of George Patton, the only Allied general truly feared by the Nazis. Charismatic and flamboyant, Patton designed his own uniforms, sported ivory-handled six-shooters, and believed he was a warrior in past lives. He outmaneuvered Rommel in Africa, and after D-Day led his troops in an unstoppable campaign across Europe. But he was as rebellious as well as brilliant, and as 'Patton' shows with insight and poignancy, his own volatile personality was one enemy he could never defeat. - Director:
- Franklin J. Schaffner
- Cast:
- Paul Frees, George C. Scott, Karl Malden
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