Tuesday, March 21, 2017

5 Off My Head: Siri Says 1968

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I was pretty pleased this morning when my telephone answered the question, "Pick a number between 1 and 100" with an answer of "68" because besides containing my single favorite movie of all-time (which - spoiler-alert - is the subject of this week's banner up top) The Movies of 1968 contain several of my favorite movies of ever even besides. This was a great year for the movies! Weirdly there are a ton that I've always meant to see that I never have, which you'll also see below - I ought to have myself a 1968 marathon in their honor. Until then I give you...

My 5 Favorite Movies of 1968

(dir. Roman Polanski)
-- released on June 12th, 1968 --

(dir. Peter Bogdanovich)
-- released on August 15th, 1968 --

(dir. Roger Vadim)
-- released on October 10th, 1968 --

(dir. George A. Romero)
-- released on December 4th, 1968 --

(dir. Stanley Kubrick)
-- released on May 12th, 1968 --

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Runners-up: The Swimmer (dir. Perry / Pollack), The Witchfinder General (dir. Reeves), Pretty Poison (dir. Noel Black), Hour of the Wolf (dir. Bergman), Destroy All Monsters (dir. Ishiro Honda)...

... Spirits of the Dead (dir. Fellini & Malle & Vadim), The Devil Rides Out (dir. Terence Fisher), Danger: Diabolik (dir. Bava), Planet of the Apes (dir. Schaffner), The Party (dir. Blake Edwards)

Special Mention for Exclamation Points:
Boom! (dir. Joseph Losey)
Beserk! (dir. Jim O'Connolly)

Never Seen: Bullitt (dir. Yates), The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (dir. Miller), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (dir. Hughes), The Bride Wore Black (dir. Truffaut), Faces (dir. Cassavetes), If... (dir. Anderson), Teorema (dir. Pasolini), The Thomas Crown Affair (dir. Jewison)

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What are your favorite movies of 1968?
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8 comments:

JB said...

Rosemary's Baby, and I'll always love Oliver!
Boom, obviously ;)
Never seen 2001, for some reason it just seems like such a chore.

Carlos said...

Well, this is easy. Rosemary is hands down the best movie of that list. Absolute masterpiece. Planet of the Apes is very importat too in the sense that it is maybe the first blockbuster.

NATHANIEL R said...

wait. you haven't seen TEORAMA? this just doesn't seem right Jason. It seems like so your type of movie and Terence Stamp is an absolute sex god in it.

Jason Adams said...

It's not right! I know! I made sure to include it on my "Never Seen" list specifically so somebody, like you, would yell at me for not having seen it yet. I've been meaning to for so long it's OBSCENE I haven't yet. Thank you for properly yelling at me, Nat :)

Pierce said...

Space Odyssey, frankly, makes more sense if you're stoned. Love Boom! I'd like to direct the play. Jason, you must see The Bride Wore Black. It is, along with The Last Metro, my favorite Truffaut. I just read the book of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and it isn’t anything like the movie. Love If…, Bullitt isn’t bad.

My pics?
2001: A Space Odyssey; Zefferelli’s Romeo and Juliet (beautiful); Funny Girl (probably seen it 20 times); The Lion in Winter O'Toole and Hepburn burn up the screen; Yellow Submarine Terrific animation; Targets, Bogdanovich's first important film; The Bride Wore Black, Truffaut's ultimate tribute to Hitchcock; Isadora (Vanessa Redgrave!); No Way to Treat a Lady (Rod Steiger's best performance); The Subject Was Roses for the return of Patricia Neal, and The Night They Raided Minsky’s, an utterly delightful movie.

MTMSLG said...

The Swimmer is so underrated! Lancaster was a god (and watch for Joan Rivers in a dramatic role)

joel65913 said...

Some terrific choices though none would make my top 5.

Pretty Poison is such a twisted film with a pitch perfect Tuesday Weld. The Swimmer is another odd number anchored by a great performance from Burt Lancaster. Boom! & Berserk! are train wrecks (though compared to Crawford’s Trog Berserk! is almost decent) but fun in that terrible movie way.

I have many films I love from this year but picking the top 5 really wasn’t that tough, though it’s hard to say which my number 1 is.

Top 5:
The Lion in Winter
Funny Girl
No Way to Treat a Lady
Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell
Bullitt

LOTS of runner-ups-The Bride Wore Black, A Dandy in Aspic, The Detective, Don’t Just Stand There, Faces, The Fixer, House of Cards (with the divine Inger Stevens), How to Save a Marriage and Ruin Your Life, A Minute to Pray-A Second to Die, Once Upon a Time in the West, P.J., Planet of the Apes, Rosemary’s Baby, The Swimmer, The Thomas Crown Affair, The Wrecking Crew, The Young Girls of Rochefort, What’s So Bad About Feeling Good?, Yours, Mine and Ours (I haven’t watched this in years but I loved it when I was a kid).

I also have two entries in the exclamation point sweepstakes for this year-Star! with Julie Andrews & Oliver!

Anonymous said...

The Thomas Crown Affair is so great. Really fun, stylish and sexy. Come to think of it, the remake was surprisingly enjoyable as well.