1970 in film.

Top ten box-office films of 1970:

1. Love Story
2. Airport
3. M*A*S*H
4. Patton
5. Woodstock
6. Little Big Man
7. Tora! Tora! Tora!
8. Ryan's Daughter
9. Catch-22
10. The Owl and the Pussycat

What are your top three films for 1970? We will keep a running tally and eventually have some sort of bracket. For me it would be:

1. Husbands
2. The Conformist
3. Five Easy Pieces

What are some of the forgotten gems from the year? What is overrated? What did you discover at a young age and what did you discover later?

YEARS IN FILM • forum.chorus.fm

 

When I pulled up my Letterboxd I was surprised to find that I only had one film from 1970 listed. I found a few more by combing through it, but they were films I did not log because it has been so long since I saw them that I don't really count it as having been seen. It definitely feels like a weaker year than others.

 

1. MASH
2. Gimme Shelter
3. Five Easy Pieces

if you like the stones at all and haven’t seen gimme shelter, idk what to tell you

 

1. This Transient Life
2. Dodes'ka-den
3. Le Vent d'est

This Transient Life was a relatively recent watch but it struck me in a way that I haven't felt in a while. A melodramtic melange of sex, politics, and religion where the camera's off-kilter framing and movements perhaps generate even more dramatic emotion than the narrative and performances. If I was asked to make an all-time top 10 right now, this would likely figure into it.

In what is likely one of my least popular opinions, Dodes'ka-den might actually be my favourite Kurosawa film. A social realist narrative with an aesthetic design that trends towards artifice. At times, the use of sets and colours reminds of what Nobuhiko Obayashi would go on to do across his career.

Third pick was a toss up between this Godard work and Oshima's The Man Who Left His Will on Film. Ultimately went with the Godard, which, along with Tout va bien, is my favourite work from his 70s period.

From this year, I'm also a huge fan of: British Sounds (Godard), Live Today, Die Tomorrow (Shindo), Solo (a vaguely surreal crime drama with a B-movie bent by the wildly prolific Jean-Pierre Mocky), Zabrieskie Point (Antonioni), Hi, Mom! (De Palma), Wanda (Loden). I was hoping to get in Yoshida's Heroic Purgatory before this but just couldn't find the right time. Some real heavy hitters this year.

 

Agreed that I think this is in general a weaker year in general, I've seen and liked less here than the previous or subsequent years.

1. Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion
2. Heroic Purgatory
3. Performance

Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion is a great Italian film about a megalomaniac police officer who commits a murder and tries to ensure he gets caught, but his status and corruption protects him. Darkly comic, and it also features one of the first computers I can recall in cinema (outside of Sci-fi HAL like computers in 2001 etc).

Heroic Purgatory is another beautiful looking Yoshishige Yoshida film, full of brutalist sets and lighting. Narrative wise it's a bit tricky, with a very non-linear structure, and if I knew more about Japan in the 60s/70s, I'm sure there's a lot of political allegory here. Astoundingly good imagery here though.

Performance is Nicolas Roeg's puzzling film about a gangster hiding out in Mick Jagger's debauched flat, and how the two of them begin to merge into one, blurring gender and sexuality on the way. An odd, intoxicating film, that always used to on late night British TV when I was like 16, so I've seen it plenty of times.

Honorary mention to the fantastically titled Stray Cat Rock: Delinquent Girl Boss, which is a chaotic and adrenaline filled sleazy and stylish Japanese film. Very French New Wave-esque, and a great time if you can track it down.

 

1. Husbands
2. El Topo
3. Wanda

 

1970 is on the thinner end for sure. But there's stuff worth finding even in thin years.


1. M*A*S*H
2. Gimme Shelter
3. Cotton Comes to Harlem

Movies I really like:
Five Easy Pieces
Woodstock
Love Story
Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion
Zabriskie Point
Patton
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage

Good ones:
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis
The Aristocats
The Landlord
Watermelon Man
Chisum
Deep End
The Phantom Tollbooth
Tristana
Wanda
Scrooge
The Great White Hope

Flawed but worth the watch:
Rio Lobo
El Topo
Where's Poppa?

Not a fan:
Tora! Tora! Tora!
I Never Sang for My Father
When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth
Little Big Man
Airport

 

El Topoooo

 

the vampire lovers!!!

i'm a sucker for hammer horror and it's hella queer

 

1. Catch-22
2. Woodstock
3. 7 Plus Seven (part of the Up series)

 

1. Husbands
2. El Topo
3. Five Easy Pieces

 

1. El Topo
2. Deep End
3. Multiple Maniacs

Surprised how little there was this year that I really loved but El Topo alone is enough to make it a great year for me.

 

El Topo wins it with 10 votes. Husbands was really close with 9 votes. El Topo will move on to the bracket.

 

I am pleased.

 

Wish I liked Jodorowsky more. El Topo was solid but I couldn’t stand The Holy Mountain. After that one I’ve hesitated to explore more.

 

What did you dislike about it? He's definitely a filmmaker that's not for everyone, haha. I'd still recommend giving Santa Sangre a go at least at some point.

 

Hard to say at this point as it's been a few years but I remember just finding it largely unpleasant and tedious to sit through. Which is not generally a problem because I watch quite a bit of long and/or slow cinema. It could have just been a matter of watching it at the wrong time/place. I'll make a note of Santa Sangre if I ever feel like diving in again haha.

 

Missed the thread in time for voting, but that’s ok. Mine would have been a little different from a lot of these lists but I’m not sure if it would have put Husbands over the edge. I just can’t engage with anything Jodorowsky does again after reading those horrific comments from years ago, it’s the only thing I think about when I hear his name.

MASH and Five Easy Pieces are quite easily my top two. Been meaning to watch Five Easy Pieces again since it’s been a few years. Everyone in that movie is perfect and Lois Smith is a treasure. The scene where Jack talks to his dad outside is one of my favorite scenes he’s ever done.

Catch-22 is another favorite that I’ve enjoyed more each time I watch it. Not my absolute top from Mike Nichols but certainly in a top five or so. So hilarious but so brutal and heartbreaking.

I watched Darling Lili for the first time last year after thinking for a long time that it would be terrible, and I was pleasantly surprised. It’s a little long, but some of the songs are wonderful and it’s a lot funnier than I expected. Knowing that the real life meddling from executives inspired SOB a decade later made it fun (and infuriating) to watch on a meta level.

Scrooge is hard to rank since it’s so tied to one time of the year, but it is one of my favorite adaptations of A Christmas Carol despite the truly bizarre descent into hell sequence. The Thank You Very Much sequence alone is worth watching the whole movie, and Albert Finney had an interesting take on Scrooge.

There’s a lot of others that I love or like to some degree, but it’s not as huge a year for me as the next few.