by Allan Fish
Best Picture The Deer Hunter, US (5 votes)
Best Director Terrence Malick, Days of Heaven (8 votes)
Best Actor Robert de Niro, The Deer Hunter (5 votes)
Best Actress Ingrid Bergman, Autumn Sonata (8 votes)
Best Supp Actor Christopher Walken, The Deer Hunter (9 votes)
Best Supp Actress Linda Manz Days of Heaven, Maureen Stapleton, Interiors & Meryl Streep, The Deer Hunter (3 votes each, TIE)
Best Cinematography Nestor Almendros & Haskell Wexler, Days of Heaven (12 votes)
Best Score John Carpenter, Halloween (5 votes)
Best Short The Metamorphosis of Dr Samsa, Caroline Leaf (5 votes)
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1979
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Best Picture/Director
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Alien: the director’s cut (US (2003)…Ridley Scott)
All That Jazz (US…Bob Fosse)
And Quiet Rolls the Dawn (India…Mrinal Sen)
Apocalypse Now Redux (US (2001)…Francis Ford Coppola)
Being There (US…Hal Ashby)
Beneath the Valley of the Ultravixens (US…Russ Meyer)
Best Boy (US…Ira Wohl)
The Black Stallion (US…Carroll Ballard)
Blue Remembered Hills (UK…Brian Gibson)
Breaking Away (US…Peter Yates)
The Butterfly Murders (Hong Kong…Tsui Hark)
Bye Bye Brazil (Brazil…Carlos Diegues)
Caligula (US/Italy…Tinto Brass)
Charles et Lucie (France…Nelly Kaplan)
Charmed Particles (US…Andrew Noren)
The China Syndrome (US…James Bridges)
Christ Stopped at Eboli (TV version) (Italy…Francesco Rosi)
David (West Germany…Peter Lilienthal)
Demon Pond (Japan…Masahiro Shinoda)
La Dérobade (France…Daniel Duval)
Desire (France…Dominique Delouche)
Don Giovanni (Italy/West Germany/UK…Joseph Losey)
L’Enfant Secret (France…Philippe Garrel)
Escape from Alcatraz (US…Don Siegel)
Escape Route to Marseilles (West Germany…Ingerno Engström, Gerhard Theuring)
The Europeans (UK…James Ivory)
Family Nest (Hungary…Béla Tarr)
Fascination (France…Jean Rollin)
Going in Style (US…Martin Brest)
The Great Rock ’n’ Roll Swindle (UK…Julian Temple)
Hair (US…Milos Forman)
Hardcore (US…Paul Schrader)
The Hypothesis of the Stolen Painting (France…Raoul Ruiz)
Immoral Women (France…Walerian Borowczyk)
The Jerk (US…Carl Reiner)
Kitty – Return to Auschwitz (UK…Peter Morley)
Kramer vs Kramer (US…Robert Benton)
The Lady in Red (US…Lewis Teague)
A Little Romance (US…George Roy Hill)
Long Shot (UK…Maurice Hatton)
La Luna (Italy…Bernardo Bertolucci)
Mad Max (Austrailia…George Miller)
The Man Who Stole the Sun (Japan…Kasuhiko Hasegawa)
Manhattan (US…Woody Allen)
The Marriage of Maria Braun (West Germany…Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
Monty Python’s Life of Brian (UK…Terry Jones)
Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears (USSR…Vladimir Menshov)
My Brilliant Career (Australia…Gillian Armstrong)
Norma Rae (US…Martin Ritt)
North Dallas Forty (US…Ted Koecheff)
Nosferatu, the Vampyre (West Germany…Werner Herzog)
Oblomov (USSR…Nikita Mikhalkov)
The Odd Angry Shot (Australia…Don Jeffrey)
The Onion Field (US…Harold Becker)
Over the Edge (US…Jonathan Kaplan)
Passe ton bac d’abord (France…Maurice Pialat)
The Patriot (West Germany…Alexander Kluge)
Portrait of Teresa (Cuba…Pastor Vega)
Quadrophenia (UK…Franc Roddam)
Radio On (UK…Christopher Petit)
Raining in the Mountains (Hong Kong…King Hu)
Real Life (US…Albert Brooks)
Rock ‘n’ Roll High School (US…Allan Arkush)
The Scar (Thailand…Cherd Songsri)
Scum (UK…Alan Clarke)
The Secret (Hong Kong…Ann Hui)
Siberiade (USSR…Andrei Mikhalkov-Konchalovsky)
Stalker (USSR…Andrei Tarkovsky)
Star of David: Beautiful Girl Hunting (Japan…Norifumi Suzuki)
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (director’s cut) (US (2002)…Robert Wise)
Stations of the Elevated (US…Manny Kirschheimer)
Tapage Nocturne (France…Catherine Breillat)
Tess (UK…Roman Polanski)
Testament of Youth (UK…Moira Armstrong)
The Theme (USSR…Gleb Panfilov)
Ticket of No Return (West Germany…Ulrike Ottinger)
Time After Time (US…Nicholas Meyer)
The Tin Drum: director’s cut (West Germany (2010)…Volker Schlöndorff)
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (UK …John Irvin)
To be Sixteen (Canada…Jean-Pierre Lefebvre)
Uncle Marin the Billionaire (Romania…Sergiu Nicolaescu)
The Unknown Soldier’s Patent Leather Shoes (Bulgaria…Rangel Vulchanov)
The Valley (Hungary…Tamás Rányi)
Vengeance is Mine (Japan…Shohei Imamura)
The Warriors (US…Walter Hill)
Winter Woman (South Korea…Kang Dae-jin)
Wise Blood (US…John Huston)
The Whole Shootin’ Match (US…Eagle Pennell)
A Woman Called Eva (Netherlands…Nouchka van Brakel)
The Woman With Red Hair (Japan…Tatsumi Kumashiro)
Woyzeck (West Germany…Werner Herzog)
Young Ladies of Wilko (Poland…Andrzej Wajda)
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Best Actor
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Alan Alda The Seduction of Joe Tynan
Alan Arkin The In-Laws
Woody Allen Manhattan
David Bennent The Tin Drum
Albert Brooks Real Life
George Burns Going in Style
Dennis Christopher Breaking Away
Phil Daniels Quadrophenia
Brad Dourif Wise Blood
Peter Falk The In-Laws
Ben Gazzara Saint Jack
Alec Guinness Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy TV
Dustin Hoffman Kramer Vs. Kramer
Alexander Kaidanovsky Stalker
Klaus Kinski Woyzeck
Ron Liebman Norma Rae
Jack Lemmon The China Syndrome
Nick Nolte North Dallas Forty
Ken Ogata Vengeance is Mine
Al Pacino And Justice For All
Amza Pellea Uncle Marin the Billionaire
Christopher Plummer Murder by Decree
Richard Pryor Richard Pryor Live in Concert
Burt Reynolds Starting Over
Roy Scheider All That Jazz
George C.Scott Hardcore
Peter Sellers Being There
Martin Sheen Apocalypse Now
Oleg Tabakov Oblomov
Rip Torn Heartland
Gian Maria Volonte Christ Stopped at Eboli TV
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Best Actress
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Cheryl Campbell Testament of Youth TV
Jill Clayburgh Starting Over
Judy Davis My Brilliant Career
Samantha Eggar The Brood
Conchata Farrell Heartland
Sally Field Norma Rae
Jane Fonda The China Syndrome
Amy Irving Voices
Marta Heflin A Perfect Couple
Nastassja Kinski Tess
Diane Lane A Little Romance
Bette Midler The Rose
Jinko Miyashita The Woman With Red Hair
Hanna Schygulla The Marriage of Maria Braun
Sigourney Weaver Alien
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Best Supp Actor
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Mario Adorf The Tin Drum
Charles Aznavour The Tin Drum
Ian Bannen Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy TV
Peter Boyle Hardcore
Wilford Brimley The China Syndrome
Jean Carmet Buffet Froid
Art Carney Going in Style
Matt Dillon Over The Edge
Paul Dooley Breaking Away
Melvyn Douglas Being There
Robert Duvall Apocalypse Now
Peter Firth Tess
Frederic Forrest The Rose
Justin Henry Kramer Vs. Kramer
Bernard Hepton Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy TV
Ian Holm Alien
James Mason Murder by Decree
Rentaro Mikuni Vengeance is Mine
Michael Murphy Manhattan
Lawrence Olivier A Little Romance
Ian Richardson Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy TV
Mickey Rooney The Black Stallion
Ricky Schroder The Champ
Anatoli Solinitsin Stalker
Lee Strasberg Going in Style
Ben Vereen All That Jazz
David Warner Time After Time
James Woods The Onion Field
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Best Supp Actress
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Jane Alexander Kramer Vs Kramer
Cheryl Barnes Hair
Barbara Barrie Breaking Away
Candice Bergen Starting Over
Mariel Hemingway Manhattan
Season Hubley Hardcore
Jessica Lange All That Jazz
Piper Laurie Tim
Eva Mattes Woyzeck
Rachel Roberts Yanks
Mary Nell Santacroce Wise Blood
Mary Steenburgen Time After Time
Meryl Streep Kramer Vs Kramer
Katharina Thalbach The Tin Drum
Alfre Woodard Health
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Best Cinematography
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Nestor Alamendros Kramer vs. Kramer
Pasqualino de Santis Christ Stopped at Eboli (TV version)
Caleb Deschanel The Black Stallion
Gerry Fisher, Carlo Poletti Don Giovanni
Aleksandr Kynazhinsky Stalker
Igor Luther The Tin Drum
Levab Paatashvili Siberiade
Miroslav Ondricek Hair
Giuseppe Rotunno All That Jazz
Vittorio Storaro Apocalypse Now (Redux)
Derek van Lint, Denis Ayling Alien
Geoffrey Unsworth, Ghislain Cloquet Tess
Gordon Willis Manhattan
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Best Score
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Eduard Artemyev Siberiade
Eduard Artemyev Stalker
Carmine Coppola The Black Stallion
Georges Delerue A Little Romance
Jerry Goldsmith Alien
Jerry Goldsmith Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Brian May Mad Max
Bruno Nicolai Caligula
Piero Piccioni Christ Stopped at Eboli (TV version)
Miklos Rosza Time After Time
Philippe Sarde Tess
John Williams Dracula
John Williams 1941
Patrick Williams Cuba
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Best Short
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Asparagus (US…Suzan Pitt)
Banjo the Woodpile Cat (US…Don Bluth)
Canned Laughter (UK…Geoffrey Sax)
Gloria! (US…Hollis Frampton)
Harpya (Belgium…Raoul Servais)
Lady and the Lamp (US…John Lasseter)
Nocturna Artificilia (UK…Stephen Quay, Timothy Quay)
The Plank (UK…Eric Sykes)
Shooting Range (USSR…Vladimir Tarasov)
Stalk of the Celery Monster (US…Tim Burton)
Tale of Tales (USSR…Yu. Norshteyn)
Zolushka (USSR…Ivan Aksenchuk)
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Best Picture: Don Giovanni
Best Director: Francis Ford Coppola (Apocalypse Now)
Best Actor: Peter Sellers (Being There)
Best Actress: Hanna Schygulla (The Marriage of Maria Braun)
Best Supporting Actor: Melvyn Douglas (Being There)
Best Supporting Actress: Katharina Thalbach (The Tin Drum)
Best Cinematography: Caleb Deschanel (The Black Stallion)
Best Score: Jerry Goldsmith (Star Trek: The Motion Picture)
I will add the short selection when I look at several I have never seen, and will also be putting up my Best Picture runners-up later tonight.
Short: The Plank
Best Picture: Apocalypse Now
I personally prefer the Redux version though the vast majority of Apocalypse Now fans/viewers consider the theatrical cut as superior. Stalker by Tarkovsky comes as close to first place without me declaring a tie as possible. These two films are far and away the cream of the crop for 1979 IMO.
Top Ten: 1. Apocalypse Now 2. Stalker 3. Alien 4. Nosferatu 5. Don Giovanni 6. Manhattan 7. Monty Python Life Of Brian 8. Woyzeck 9. Bye Bye Brazil 10. Oblomov
The theatrical cut of Alien while similar to the director’s cut is better by simply avoiding that awful cocoon scene. Ridley Scott left that bit out for a reason initially.
Count me in as one that feels the additional material exhibited in APOCALYPSE NOW-Redux really adds to the dimesions of the journey back in time. The French Plantation sequence, the reordering of certain moments and more on the materialistic obsessions of Kilgore allow Coppola to comment, even greater, on the slow psyche that is disintegrating before your eyes as Willard takes the same path to existential discovery that Kurtz had gone through before…
Miles ahead of any other American film of 1979.
I agree 100% with what you say Dennis. Like The Deer Hunter in 1978, Coppola’s film is the best American movie by a wide margin of it’s year. It took Hollywood a while to really broach Vietnam, but when they finally did, they struck gold twice. A difficult decade for the country (I was barely alive but I’ll take everyone’s word for it) lead to probably it’s best stretch of cinema ever. Kind of fitting to wrap up the 70′s with penetrating looks into one of the most divisive moments in US history.
All Criterion Films Streaming Free on Hulu This Weekend (in the US)
+1. Monday I will not be working till 8pm and while I really should be taking care of other business, a Hulu/Criterion marathon is agonizingly tempting…
Whoa thanks for the heads up. I know what I’m doing for the next two evenings now.
Looks like there’s a bunch of Fassbinders on there I haven’t seen. What do people think of Beware of a Holy Whore, Fear of Fear, Mother Kusters….???
I vote “Apocalypse Now” for best picture in 1979.
I vote Francis Ford Coppola for best director (“Apocalypse Now”) in 1979
I vote Dustin Hoffman for best actor in “Kramer vs Kramer” in 1979
I vote Sigourney Weaver for best actress in “Alien” in 1979
I vote Robert Duvall for best supporting actor in “Apocalypse Now” in 1979
I vote Mariel Hemingway for best supporting actress in “Manhattan” in 1979.
I vote “Alien” for best cinematography in 1979
I vote “Dracula” for best score in 1979.
I vote “Away From it All” for best short in 1979 (please add).
About 1978: Linda Manz, “Days of Heaven,” also got 3 votes for best supporting actress. I voted for her, as did Weeping Sam and Frank Gallo. Does this mean a 3-way tie?
Picture: The Tin Drum
Director: Woody Allen, Manhattan
Actor: Peter Sellers, Being There
Actress: Hannah Schygulla, The Marriage of Maria Braun
Sup. Actor: Melvyn Douglas, Being There
Sup. Actress: Meryl Streep, Kramer vs Kramer
Cinematography: Gordon Willis, Manhattan
A year or so ago, I composed a top 100 favorites list. Apocalypse Now was pretty highly ranked; Stalker was nowhere to be found. Since then, I don’t think I’ve rewatched either film.
And yet look what’s on top now! Listmaking’s a funny thing.
Feature: Stalker
2. Apocalypse Now (not so much the Redux)
3. La Vieja Memoria (great Spanish Civil War doc, can you add this to ballot?)
4. The Kids Are Alright
5. Manhattan
(originally Alien was #5, but I had forgotten to include the great Who doc)
Short: At week’s end, I’ll break any ties or pick freely if possible.
Director: Francis Ford Coppola, Apocalypse Now
Actor: Peter Sellers, Being There
Actress: Hanna Schygulla, The Marriage of Maria Braun
Supp. Actor: Robert Duvall, Apocalypse Now
Supp. Actress: Mariel Hemingway, Manhattan
Cinematography: Gordon Willis, Manhattan
Score: Eduard Artemyev, Stalker
Screenplay: Jerzy Kosinski, Being There
Editing: Lisa Fruchtman, Gerald B. Greenberg, Walter Murch, Apocalypse Now
Ensemble: Martin Sheen, Robert Duvall, Robert De Niro, Dennis Hopper, Frederic Forrest, Sam Bottoms, Laurence Fisburne, Albert Hall, Apocalypse Now (runners-up: casts of Alien & Breaking Away)
Line: “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.” (Apocalypse Now)
(runner-up: “I was born a poor black child” in The Jerk)
Use of Music: The Kids Are Alright (runners-up, very competitive year btw: Apocalypse Now – originally #1 before I remember Kids Are Alright) Manhattan & Radio On)
Scene: Killing Kurtz, Apocalypse Now
Doh, that’s Brando not DeNiro in Apocalypse, obviously. Will fix when I’m able.
Best line, now there’s a good category — Woody Allen and Jewish parsimony in the back seat of cab with his date: “You’re so beautiful I can hardly keep my eyes on the meter.”
(I hope I got that right)
From ‘Manhattan’, natch
“You’re so beautiful I can hardly keep my eyes off the meter”
I knew it didn’t sound quite right.
Don’t remember the line, but wouldn’t the first one make more sense?
‘You look so beautiful I can hardly keep my eyes on the meter’.
Taken directly from the script. Yes, the first one makes more sense — Ay, the effect on the memory of soporific drugs.
My choices for 1979:
Best Picture: Manhattan
Best Director: Woody Allen (dir. Manhattan) & Ridley Scott (Alien)
Best Actor: Krzysztof Zanussi (Camera Buff) & Ken Ogata (Vengeance is Mine)
Best Actress: Hanna Schygulla (The Marriage of Maria Braun)
Best Supporting Actor: Robert Duvall (Apocalypse Now)
Best Supporting Actress: Mitsuko Baisho (Vengeance is Mine)
Best Cinematography: Gordon Willis (Manhattan) & Jacek Petrycki (Camera Buff)
Best Score: Krzysztof Knittel (Camera Buff)
Top 10:
1. Manhattan
2. Alien
3. Stalker
4. Camera Buff (dir. Kieslowski)
5. Vengeance is Mine
6. The Marriage of Maria Braun
7. Apocalypse Now
8. The Third Generation (dir. Fassbinder)
9. Ek Din Pratidin/And Quiet Rolls the Dawn
10. Rocky II
I’ll never understand the praise for Robert Duvall in Apocalypse Now.
Well, while I like the performance very much, I see him as a modern day Minotaur in a psuedo re-telling of the Greek journey epics and tragedies. Personally, I prefer Brando’s performance even more in the same film. However, say what you want about the boys from APOCALYPSE NOW as they rank miniscule attention compared with the quietly touching a wise turn by MELVYN DOUGLAS, heatrtbreaking in BEING THERE…
So rare to say this about American film-making at the latter part of this particular decade (as 1978 was one of the weakest years), but I have to quote Sam when vocalizing my opinion of the best film of 1979.
“STAGGERING MASTERPIECE” seems completely in keeping with the film I have selected. I saw it in its initial, theatrical release in a 70mm print (possibly the most life-like imagery I had ever seen on the screen up to that moment) and it was the first time any of us had experienced full blown surround-sound stereophonics.
Simply, the top film, for me anyway, of 1979 goes beyond just being a film. Like 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, JAWS, BARRY LYNDON and, to a lesser extent, STAR WARS before it, the intentions of the film-maker are not merely to tell a story about particular people or a particular time. The directors fullest intent was to put you IN the middle of the time and place of the film and seat us NEXT to the people that make up the main characters. No film before or since has so fully turned WAR into an experience felt so deep within the marrow of the viewers bones and it’s to the directors fullest credit that he surpassed even his previous, lauded masterworks in the genres of gangster movies and paranoid politics.
In my mind, the best film of 1979 is not only the greatest war movie ever made, a film that makes you understand fully the madness that ensues in that situation of constant killing, but is the greatest film ever made by this director. It’s his heart and soul, an examination of his psyche and the downfall of his sanity. I cannot think of too many films from the 70’s that were as completely encompassing by way of putting the viewer directly into it or a better film by this particular artist. In an interview at the Cannes Film Festival (where the film was named best of the year), the director stated that his movie “wasn’t about the Viet-Nam war” but, really, that “it IS the Viet Nam war.”
I don’t know of too many people that would deny the film-maker the truth of his statement.
It is a film that has stayed with me and haunted me ever since that first viewing with my father (it’s also one of his all-time, personal favorites, a film he reveres) some 34 years ago…
So…
BEST PICTURE: APOCALYPSE NOW
Top 5: 1. Apocalypse Now 2. Being There 3. Manhattan 4. Don Giovanni 5. The Tin Drum
DIRECTOR: Francis Ford COPPOLA (Apocalypse Now)
Runners Up: Hal Ashby (Being There), Woody Allen (Manhattan), Werner Herzog (Nosferatu: The Vampyre), Volker Schlondorff (The Tin Drum)
LEAD ACTOR: Peter SELLERS (Being There)
Runners Up: Martin Sheen (Apocalypse Now), Klaus Kinski (Nosferatu: The Vampyre), Ken Ogata (Vengeance is Mine), Alec Guinness (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy)
Sheen almost gave up his life for the role of his career (he suffered a near fatal heart attack at 34 years-old during the making of Apocalypse Now, in the sweltering heat of the Phillipines) and Kinski is ominously dazzling as the lonely and regret-ridden Count.
However, it’s the quiet simpleness of Sellers, with his wide eyed view of a world he is not only discovering but, unwittingly, conquering that takes the top slot. Channeling Stan Laurel’s vocal patterns and crossing it with Mr. Rodgers, Sellers is truly a child in a man’s body uninhibited by the laws of conduct and nature. The actor often said he had no life in reality and, often truly lived only when he was playing a part. Little did we know that the complete opposite of his frenetically energized characterizations in such comedy classics as DR. STRANGELOVE and THE PINK PANTHER would not only be his swan song, but his most effortlessly breathtaking turn. His moments with Douglas are a perfect balance of wisdom and simple acceptance.
LEAD ACTRESS: Nastassja KINSKI (Tess)
Runners Up: Sally Field (Norma Rae), Judy Davis (My Brilliant Career), Bette Midler (The Rose), Sigourney Weaver (Alien)
SUPP. ACTOR: Melvyn DOUGLAS (Being There)
Runners Up: Marlon Brando (Apocalypse Now), Robert Duvall (Apocalypse Now), Paul Dooley (Breaking Away), Mickey Rooney (The Black Stallion)
Brando dazzles with so little in the final moments of APOCALYPSE NOW and makes us all understand that the 3 million he was paid for his turn as the all-knowing yet insane Col. Kutz was money well spent. He’s explosive in his quiet philosophy.
But, for my money, the Academy got it so right with the touching and heart-breaking turn by Melvyn Douglas. As Benjamin Rand, oil magnate, billionaire and finance genius inflicted with disease and the promise of untimely death, Douglas imbues the character with a tricky sense of knowledge that he denies when the ideals of his life’s philosophies and work present themselves in the form of a simpleton. I’ve seen many deaths on screen over the years I’ve viewed movies and yet it’s Douglas’s last moments in BEING THERE that ring as one of the truest. Holding on by a thread to frantically complete the work and the thoughts that plaque him to the end, his sudden breathless gulp is worthy of tears. There were so few character actors out there content with standing on the side-lines to bigger, more popular leading men. Douglas knew his place and, in doing so, set to upstage them with every turn he gave. Like his Oscar winning work in HUD and his nominated turn in I NEVER SANG FOR MY FATHER, his work in this 1979 black comedy gem was a testament to his ability to do so much with so little time.
SUPP. ACTRESS: Mariel HEMINGWAY (Manhattan)
Runners Up: Barbara Barrie (Breaking Away), Shirley MacLaine (Being There), Candice Bergen (Starting Over), Meryl Streep (Kramer vs. Kramer)
Hating to admit it, there’s a fidgety fire in Streeps turn as an abandoning mother trying to find herself. MacLaine shines as the sexually neglected wife of Melvyn Douglas in her best turn since 1960’s THE APARTMENT.
However, it’s the smarter than mature turn of Mariel Hemingway, as Woody Allen’s 17 year old sex kitten, that really added a cementing quality to the love triangle that is on display in MANHATTAN. Looking like jail bait to a sexual predator, Hemingway exudes a romantic sincerity that perfectly balances all the hot air blowing out of the stuffy intellectuals her boy-friend craves, kind of, in his life. Matching wits with Woody Allen is no small feat, and Hemingway stands toe-to-toe with master of the one-liner and remains solid as the anchor that grounds him in reality. Watch for the scene where Hemingway breaks out into tears of betrayal as Allen breaks their relationship in a soda shop and it’s clear that the elders in this category had nothing on this freshman thespian.
PHOTO: Vittorio STORARO (APOCALYPSE NOW)
Runners Up: Gordon Willis (Manhattan), Igor Luther (The Tin Drum), Caleb Deschanel (The Black Stallion), Geoffrey Unsworth-Ghislain Cloquet (Tess)
Stanley Kubrick once said, while making his Viet-Nam opus FULL METAL JACKET, that war is many things. It’s insane, horrifying, testing, epic, god-like and, most of all, beautiful in a perverse sort of way… Vittorio Storaro must have known what Kubrick meant. As he proves with his golden hued tapestry of images for APOCALYPSE NOW, it’s often the most beautiful back-drops that see the greatest insanity and carnage. All you need to see is the opening shots of Willard, framed upside down, as he slowly loses his mind in a hotel room, or the blood red sun coming up over a rice-patty field as Kilgore’s trumpeter plays “Charge of the Light Brigade” and the helicopters float off to battle, to know that something very other-worldly, horrifying and totally gorgeous is about to play before our eyes. Storaro’s work here hypnotizes to the tune of never being able to turn away even in the most gut-wrenching sequences.
One of the ten or twenty greatest examples of cinematography as true art ever done for the cinema.
Only Willis comes close with his noir and fashion-magazine black-and-white imagery of the greatest city in world for Woody Allen’s valentine to MANHATTAN.
MUSIC: Jerry GOLDSMITH (STAR TREK: The Motion Picture)
NO BRAINER!
I haven’t listed runners up in this particular category and for good reason. Simply put, no composer could compare, match or even attempt to best the sonic fantasia that sprang from the mind of Jerry Goldsmith in his scoring of STAR TREK. From it’s immediate, triumphant opening title theme (which has gone on to replace the Maurius Constant theme from the original TV series as the fanfare for everything Star Trek-Roddenberry himself preferred it and loved it), to the vast musical landscapes painted as the Enterprise forges on deeper and deeper into space, this is the score I think Stanley was hoping for when he commissioned Alex North to score 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY and failed. Combining modern techniques and instruments with classical melody, Goldsmith triumphs with his greatest work for the big screen in an epic sonic masterpiece. Listen to it without the visuals and the choice becomes even more crystal clear. Goldsmith wrote and conducted many scores for film after STAR TREK, but I dare say he could have hung his baton up after 1979 knowing he scored his biggest home run.
The finest score of Goldsmith’s career.
Legendary and awe inspiring!
Best Picture: Apocalypse Now
Best Director: Francis Ford Coppola- Apocalypse Now
Best Actor: Peter Sellers- Being There
Best Actress: Sally Field- Norma Rae
Best Supporting Actor: Melvyn Douglas- Being There
Best Supporting Actress: Meryl Streep- Kramer vs. Kramer
Best Cinematography: Gordon Willis- Manhattan
Best Picture: Manhattan
Runners-up:
2.Apocalypse Now
3.Alien
4.Monty Python’s Life of Brian
5.The Marriage of Maria Braun
Best Director: Woody Allen (Manhattan)
Best Actor: Dustin Hoffman (Kramer Vs. Kramer)
Best Actress: Hanna Schygulla (The Marriage of Maria Braun)
Best Supporting Actor: Melvyn Douglas (Being There)
Best Supporting Actress: Mariel Hemingway (Manhattan)
Best Cinematography: Aleksandr Kynazhinsky (Stalker)
Best Score: Jerry Goldsmith (Star Trek: The Motion Picture)
Since ‘Apocalypse Now’ will emerge the runaway winner (I’m with Kael, who held her nose when she walked out of a screening of ‘Apocalypse’) and since I haven’t seen ‘Stalker’ (ordered it, but still haven’t received it), I’m abstaining in the Film and Director categories.
Actor: Gian Maria Volonte (‘Christ Stopped At Eboli’)
Actress: Sally Field (‘Norma Rae’) — so close between Field and Schygulla
S. Actor: Paul Dooley (‘Breaking Away’)
S. Actress: Eva Mattes (‘Woyzeck’) — so close between Mattes and Streep;
and Mariel Hemingway sounds like Minnie Mouse on helium in ‘Manhattan’ (they’re called voice lessons, my little peach cleft).
Photography: Geoffrey Unsworth, Ghislain Cloquet (‘Tess’)
Well, of course Kael would, to her Brian de Palma was a genius.
‘Casualties of War’ is her favorite Vietnam movie (I think). Gee, I wonder why.
Oh boy Mark, it’s anything but a runaway to this point!!!
APOCALYPSE NOW if we count the redux and regular version as ONE is actually in a 5-5 tie with Woody Allen’s MANHATTAN and for Best Director Coppola is leading Woody Allen by only a single vote at 7 to 6.
Coincidence? I’m waiting on a copy of Stalker too and hence haven’t voted yet. But Apocalypse is the one to beat.
OK, I can’t abstain any longer, though ‘Stalker’ still remains unseen by me.
Film: ‘Manhattan’ — Pretty much a tourist’s guide to the high haunts of Manhattan’s rich and famous, that is the Upper East and the Upper West sides of the borough. ‘Manhattan’ would make an interesting double bill with ‘Do the Right Thing’, two films with widely, wildly disparate views of New York City.
Director: Woody Allen, who, here anyway, drops the Bergman/Fellini adulation in his directing, though the mimicry, alas, will return in 1980 and ‘Stardust Memories’.
Much stronger year, to end the decade. And a very German year, which is appropriate, as the 70s were a very good year for German films. Though the best comes from a bit further east…
PICTURE: Camera Buff, Kieslowski
DIRECTOR: Herzog, Nosferatu Phantom of the Night
LEAD ACTOR: Ken Ogata, Vengeance is Mine
LEAD ACTRESS: Hanna Schygulla, The Marriage of Maria Braun
SUPPORTING ACTOR: why not Kinski, in Nosferatu (that might be a lead, though, hard to say)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Eva Mattes, Woycek
SHORT: tentatively at least – back to the video – Ancient of Days, by Bill Viola
SCORE: Nosferatu, Popol Vuh (unless it’s not original?)
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Jorg Schmidt-Ritwein, Nosferatu
Plus bonus picks:
Script: Life of Brian
Music/Sound: this one isn’t easy – you have a Sex Pistols movie and a Who movie released this year – but great as those bands are, neither are up to the level of the Ramones, so Rock and Roll High School wins the prize.
Best Film: The Marriage of Maria Braun
Best Director: Rainer Warner Fassbinder (The Marriage of Maria Braun)
Best Actor: Peter Sellers (Being There)
Best Actress: Hanna Schygulla (The Marriage of Maria Braun)
Best Supporting Actor: Robert Duvall (Apocalypse Now)
Best Supporting Actress: Mariel Hemingway (Manhattan)
Best Cinematography: Gordon Willis (Manhattan)
Best Score: Star Trek, Jerry Goldsmith
Best Short: Lady and the Lamp
Best Picture: The Tin Drum
Best Director: Volker Schlondorff (The Tin Drum)
Best Actor: Peter Sellers (Being There)
Best Actress: Judy Davis (My Brilliant Career)
Best Supporting Actor: David Warner (Time After Time)
Best Supporting Actress: Barbara Barrie (Breaking Away)
Best Cinematography: Geoffrey Unsworth, Ghislain Cloquet (Tess)
Best Score: Miklos Rosza (Time After Time)
Best Short: Banjo the Woodpile Cat
Pic: Monty Python’s Life of Brian (UK…Terry Jones)
Director: Manhattan (US…Woody Allen)
Actor: Klaus Kinski Woyzeck
Actress: Sally Field Norma Rae
Supp Actor: Melvyn Douglas Being There
Supp Actress: Meryl Streep Kramer Vs Kramer
Score: Jerry Goldsmith Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Pic- Apocalypse Now
Dir- Coppola – Apocalypse Now
Actor- Jack Lemmon – The China Syndrome
Actress- Hanna Schygulla- The Marriage of Maria Braun
Supp. Actor – Melvyn Douglas – Being There
Supp. Actress- Meryl Streep – Kramer Vs. Kramer
Score- Goldsmith – Star Trek
Cinematography – Willis – Manhattan
Best Picture: Manhattan
Best Director: Woody Allen, Manhattan
Best Actor: Roy Scheider, All that Jazz
Best Actress: Nastassja Kinski, Tess
Best Supporting Actor: David Warner, Time After Time
Best Supporting Actress: Mariel Hemingway, Manhattan
Best Cinematography: Gordon Willlis, Manhattan
Best Score: How well, I remember seeing “Time After Time” and walking out with that gloriously soaring end title Miklos Rozsa music stirring through me. I thought to myself Best Score of the Year. And then about two months later I saw, and heard, Jerry Goldsmith’s “Star Trek.” Best score by a hair: Jerry Goldsmith, Star Trek.
Yep Kevin, Rosza comes within a hair for me too! I love the FILM SCORE MONTHLY CD of it!
Top five for 1979:
1. Manhattan – Woody Allen
2. Apocalypse Now – Francis Coppola
3. Stalker – Andrei Tarkovski
4. Tess – Roman Polanski
5. The Marriage of Maria Braun – Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Best Picture: Manhattan
Best Director: Francis Coppola
Best Actor: Peter Sellers (Being There)
Best Actress: Nastassja Kinski (Tess)
Best supporting actor: Marlon Brando (Apocalypse Now)
Best supporting actress: Mariel Hemingway (Manhattan)
Best Cinematography: Gordon Willis (Manhattan)
Best Score: Eduard Artemyev (Stalker)
Best Picture: Manhattan
Best Director: Woody Allen (Manhattan)
Best Actor: Peter Sellers (Being There)
Best Actress: Nastassja Kinski (Tess)
Best Supporting Actor: Paul Dooley (Breaking Away)
Best Supporting Actress: Barbara Barrie (Breaking Away)
Best Cinematography: Gordon Willis (Manhattan)
Best Musical Score: Phillipe Sarde (Tess)
Best Short: Asparagus (US, Suzan Pitt)
I generally like weird shit: the Quay brothers’ animation, Lynch’s features, and Gondry’s music videos are among my favorite films, loosely defined.
That said, I just watched Asparagus. And…that is some fucking weird shit…
I was hoping to post this earlier in the week, but it’s been an unexpectedly busy one for me. I’ve adopted a new cat named Yuri, I’ve gotten new (PAID!) assignments as both a film editor and a screenwriter, and I’m still contributing to MOVIE GEEKS UNITED! (I have new assignments as an interviewer here, where I’m about to talk to Mark Rappaport, Noah Baumbach, and Greta Gerwig). So, of course, now, as far as WITD goes, I’m called upon to do the most difficult of all things: choose my favorites of 1979–the year that changed my life.
It was the year in which I first saw 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. I was a kid, going to movies alone, with a crowd of adults around me, probably wondering what this little bud was doing among ‘em. I was always a movie lover, since my infancy, really (and I know this sounds insane but it’s possible that my parents took me to see 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY at the drive-in as a 3-year-old, and it made some sort of indelible impression on me…I can remember them talking about it (negatively) before I knew I had seen it and, as an 8-year-old movie buff, hearing them, thinking “There was a baby floating in space at the end? I need to see THIS!” Even so…believe me…the first time my parents saw it, I was with them…)
In 1979, I was a strange sort at my school. No one knew quite what to make of me, but they knew I was different. (I even appeared in the only film I was ever asked to be in that year–THE SHERIFF AND THE SATELLITE KID, an Italian film shot in Georgia, with Bud Spencer and Cary Guffey). I was then going to see all sorts of films that my peers had no idea existed. My parents had no clue what they had created by taking me to movies at drive-ins and letting me watch whatever I wanted on TV (with a LOT of classic movies in the mix). As the drive-in era was dying post-STAR WARS, they kindly drove me to repertory cinemas in Atlanta, and didn’t limit AT ALL what I was seeing, because they knew I was somehow special. They never had to comfort me after taking me to even movies as harsh as THE MANSON MASSACRE and EATEN ALIVE, so they felt, rightly, they had a unique kid. What can I say? I haven’t been lucky in very many points in my life, but in this one, I was. 1979 proved this to me. If I could deliver a love letter to one year, it would be this one. I would like to do this fully now, but, as I said, to be most effective, it would have to be a lot longer and more detailed. So, now, I must get specific:
I have a theory: that the 9 year in every decade is the best of that period. Why? I can only surmise that filmmakers working during the decade in question want to get out their final word on the era, and thus save their best for last. But, in the end, who really knows why: maybe it’s simply just chance working here. Still, it’s a very definable trend.
It was as a young film fan in 1979 that I started noticing articles hailing 1939 as the finest year for movies. But, but the end of 1979, I started saying “What the hell? I KNOW 1939′s so IMPORTANT, but this year has been unbelievable.” Even now, I look at 1979 as the true rival to 1939 as the cinema’s most notable year–and even, since then, there has been ‘89, and most importantly, 1999. Okay…I was a kid in 1979, yeah, and everything we see as kids, we hold up as the best the world has to offer. But who can really argue the following list? It’s a monster. In the interest of honesty, though, many filmmakers have stated that the movies we see at this age are the most powerful. Though I saw about half of these titles in their release year, I saw the other half over the course of two later years, in which my family had acquired cable television, thus I was able to get a complete overview of 1979′s offerings. Still, it remains the greatest of all movie years; it is indisputable, to me, but again, it is a HIGHLY personal choice; I don‘t mean to start any arguments. In the interest of objectivity, though, it WAS a big year for Canada, Japan, Germany, and especially Australia. As for America: there were many premier-period SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE-related debuts: Steve Martin (three films repped), Bill Murray, Albert Brooks, and Dan Ackroyd. Landmark year for Meryl Streep who has three movies on the list. The most romantic of all movie years, and the most musical, and the funniest! Many excellent science-fiction entries, and many respectable horror movies, too! Plus, can I say that this year transformed so many craft categories? Art direction, makeup, special effects, music, costume design, cinematography, editing and especially sound would never be the same after 1979.
Oh, I could go on. And on. But I cannot exhaust myself. So many great things to see here; if you haven’t caught many 1979 titles, consider yourself lucky: you have a host of fantastic entertainments ahead of you. If you doubt my love of this year, I urge you to open your mind, and I also so urge you to take a look at those titles you do not recognize. As a tribute to this year, I have augmented all categories to include seven, rather than the usual six choices. I have, as usual, capitalized those titles not included in Allan’s always magnificent list, and I promise, I will be looking at more titles he’s included as part of this year, because I truly believe 1979 is as magical as any year that has occurred in movie history.
One thing: I don’t understand the need here to regard the director’s cuts as the definitive ones, since, in the age of DVDs and Blue-Rays and such, they feel as attempts to make films more relevant than they first were. REDUX is an interesting exercise we were all looking forward to seeing, but once we saw it, we realized why the movie was constructed the was it was. REDUX is not the final version of APOCALYPSE NOW; in fact, it reduces it. The same goes with THE EXORCIST, DONNIE DARKO, and almost any director’s cut (in fact, only THX-1138, BLADE RUNNER and maybe ALIENS and THE ABYSS deepens the original movies…and notice we don’t get any director’s cuts of any NON-genre movies? Why is that? Because there is no market for THOSE titles…and because genre fans will gobble up anything thrown at them…)
Finally, changing gears here quickly, I must reiterate: these final choices for 1979 were alternately easy and positively laborious. Making each final move was like trying to not tumble off a needle tip, and then the finality felt like breaking bad news to my very closest friend–the very one that introduced me to my wife (and I‘m not even married)):
Not breaking many ties here, but I finally had to go with those films that I’ve watched and admired most both in that year, and in the years hense. My winner, then, was really obvious to me, as I must have watched it 20 times in 1979 alone. It is that director’s true masterpiece!
PICTURE: ALL THAT JAZZ (followed by, in descending order): Manhattan, A Little Romance, Tess, Apocalypse Now, The Tin Drum, Best Boy, Breaking Away, Alien, Kramer Vs. Kramer, Oblomov, The Black Stallion, Stalker, Over the Edge, Being There, Going in Style, Hair, The Onion Field, Wise Blood, RICHARD PRYOR LIVE IN CONCERT, The China Syndrome, Woyzeck, GAL YOUNG ‘UN, Mad Max, The Marriage of Maria Braun, Norma Rae, Saint Jack, STARTING OVER, THE IN-LAWS, That Sinking Feeling, The Jerk, Vengeance is Mine, QUADROPHENIA, The Warriors, RICH KIDS, Time After Time, My Brilliant Career, North Dallas Forty, Monty Python’s Life of Brian, THE SEDUCTION OF JOE TYNAN, THE MUPPET MOVIE, Escape from Alcatraz, PHANTASM, ROCK AND ROLL HIGH SCHOOL, HEARTLAND, Real Life, Hardcore, The Europeans, MURDER BY DECREE, Nosferatu the Vampire, THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT, Scum, THE ODD ANGRY SHOT, YANKS, VOICES, MEATBALLS, THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY, 1941, THE ROSE, THE BROOD, 10, THE WANDERERS, BUTCH AND SUNDANCE: THE EARLY DAYS, CALIFORNIA DREAMING, RUST NEVER SLEEPS, ELVIS, WINTER KILLS, THE LEGACY, THE LADY IN RED, SALEM’S LOT, FRENCH POSTCARDS, AND JUSTICE FOR ALL, DRACULA
DIRECTOR: Bob Fosse, ALL THAT JAZZ (2nd: Woody Allen, Manhattan, followed by: Francis Ford Coppola, Apocalypse Now; Ira Wohl, Best Boy; George Roy Hill, A Little Romance; Volker Schlondorff, The Tin Drum; Roman Polanski, Tess; Carroll Ballard, The Black Stallion)
ACTOR Roy Schieder, ALL THAT JAZZ (2nd: Peter Sellers, Being There, followed by: David Bennett, The Tin Drum; Martin Sheen, Apocalypse Now; Richard Pryor, Richard Pryor Live in Concert; Ben Gazzara, Saint Jack; Dustin Hoffman, Kramer vs. Kramer; Jack Lemmon, The China Syndrome; Treat Williams, Hair)
ACTRESS: Sally Field, NORMA RAE (2nd: Nastassja Kinski, Tess, followed by: Hannah Schygulla, The Marriage of Maria Braun; Diane Lane, A Little Romance; Jane Fonda, The China Syndrome; Jill Clayburgh, Starting Over; Judy Davis, My Brilliant Career)
SUPPORTING ACTOR Paul Dooley, BREAKING AWAY (2nd: Ian Holm, Alien, followed by: James Woods, The Onion Field; Melvin Douglas, Being There; Frederic Forrest, Apocalypse Now; Justin Henry, Kramer Vs. Kramer; Robert Duvall, Apocalypse Now; Wilford Brimley, The China Syndrome)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS Barbara Barrie, BREAKING AWAY (2nd: Meryl Streep, Kramer Vs. Kramer, followed by: Cheryl Barnes, Hair; Season Hubley, Hardcore; Mariel Hemingway, Manhattan; Candice Bergen, Starting Over; Jessica Lange, All That Jazz)
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Gordon Willis, MANHATTAN (2nd: Caleb Deschanel, The Black Stallion, followed by: Vittorio Storaro, Apocalypse Now; Giuseppe Rotunno, All That Jazz; Geoffrey Unsworth and Ghislain Cloquet, Tess; Igor Luther. The Tin Drum; Nestor Alamendros, Kramer Vs. Kramer)
SCORE: Georges Delarue, A LITTLE ROMANCE (2nd: Carmine Coppola, The Black Stallion, followed by: Phillippe Sarde, Tess; Miklos Rosza, Time After Time; John Williams, 1941; Jerry Goldsmith, Star Trek The Motion Picture; Sol Kaplan, Over The Edge)
SHORT: THE SOLAR FILM (Saul and Elaine Bass); followed by Solly’s Diner (Larry Hankin); It’s So Nice To Have A Wolf Around The House (Paul Fierlinger)
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Steve Tesich, BREAKING AWAY (2nd: Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman, Manhattan, followed by: Bob Fosse and Robert Alan Aurthur, All That Jazz; Edward Cannon and Martin Brest, Going in Style; Charles S. Haas and Tim Hunter, Over the Edge; Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank Jr., Norma Rae; James L. Brooks, Starting Over; Mike Gray, T.S. Cook, James Bridges, The China Syndrome)
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Allen Burns, A LITTLE ROMANCE (2nd: Jean Claude Carriere, Volker Schlondorff, Franz Seitz and Gunter Grass, The Tin Drum, followed by: Francis Ford Coppola, John Milius and Michael Herr, Apocalypse Now; Peter Bogdanovich, Paul Theroux, and Howard Sackler, Saint Jack; Robert Benton, Kramer Vs. Kramer; Michael Weller, Hair; Aleksandr Adabashyan and Nikita Mikhalov, Oblomov)
DOCUMENTARY: BEST BOY (Ira Wohl) (2nd: The Kids Are Alright (Jeff Stein))
NON-ENGLISH LANGUAGE FILM: THE TIN DRUM (Volker Schlondorff, Germany) (2nd: Oblomov (Nikita Mikhalov, Russia), followed by: Vengeance is Mine (Shohei Imamura, Japan); Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, Russia), The Marriage of Maria Braun (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Germany); Woyzeck (Werner Herzog, Germany)
ART DIRECTION: ALIEN, Apocalypse Now, Tess, All That Jazz, The China Syndrome, 1941, Manhattan
COSTUME DESIGN: ALL THAT JAZZ, Tess, Hair, The Warriors, Mad Max, Quadrophenia, The Europeans
EDITING: ALL THAT JAZZ, Apocalypse Now, Breaking Away, Alien, Hair, The Black Stallion, The China Syndrome, Best Boy
SOUND: APOCALYPSE NOW, The Black Stallion, Alien, All That Jazz, The China Syndrome, 1941, The Rose
ORIGINAL SONG: “It Goes Like It Goes” from NORMA RAE (music by David Shire, lyrics by Norman Gimbel) (2nd: “Rainbow Connection” from The Muppet Movie (written by Paul Williams and Kenny Ascher), followed by: “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” from Monty Python’s Life of Brian (music and lyrics by Eric Idle); “Moondust” from Meatballs (music by Elmer Bernstein, lyrics by Norman Gimbel); “Rock and Roll High School” from Rock and Roll High School (music and lyrics by The Ramones); “I Will Always Wait for You” from Voices (music and lyrics by Jimmy Webb); “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend” from Rock and Roll High School (music and lyrics by The Ramones); “Somewhere in Between” from The China Syndrome (music and lyrics by Stephen Bishop))
SCORING FOR A MUSICAL/ADAPTATION SCORING: Ralph Burns, ALL THAT JAZZ (2nd: Galt McDermott and Tom Pierson, Hair, followed by Paul Williams and Kenny Ascher, The Muppet Movie; The Ramones, Rock and Roll High School)
SPECIAL EFFECTS: ALIEN (2nd: 1941, followed by Star Trek The Motion Picture; The China Syndrome)
MAKEUP: ALIEN (2nd: Nosferatu The Vampire, followed by The Warriors)
Best Picture – Apocalypse Now
Best Director – Francis Ford Coppola (Apocalypse Now)
Best Actor – Malcolm McDowell Time After Time
Best Actress – Bette Midler The Rose
Best Supp Actor – Melvyn Douglas Being There
Best Supp Actress – Meryl Streep Kramer Vs Kramer
All right, then. Stalker was a compelling exercise in intellectual sci-fi and making the familiar strange, but it won’t change my votes.
Best Picture: Apocalypse Now
Best Director: Coppola
Best Actor: from a very strong field, Scheider (runners-up: Dourif, Ogata, Sellers, Kinski)
Best Actress: Schygulla
Supporting Actor: Adorf (runner-up: Forrest, Apocalypse Now.)
Supporting Actress: Thalbach
Cinematography: Storaro — with Kynazhinsky a strong runner-up for Stalker
Score: Fabio Frizzi et al for Lucio Fulci’s Zombi 2/Zombie
BEST PICTURE: HAIR
BEST DIRECTOR: FRANCIS FOR COPPOLA for APOCALYPSE NOW
BEST ACTOR: DUSTIN HOFFMAN for KRAMER VS KRAMER
BEST ACTRESS; SALLY FIELD for NORMA RAE and BETTE MIDLER for THE ROSE (tie)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: ROBERT DUVALL for APOCALYPSE NOW
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: JANE ALEXANDER for KRAMER VS KRAMER
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: GORDON WILLIS for MANHATTAN
BEST SCORE: PHILIPPE SARDE for TESS
BEST SHORT: THE PLANK
I love it! A vote for HAIR!!!
With some grotesquely suggestive passages (makes ’63′s Aos, which I do like, look like a Disney film), and I’m not sure how much I “like” it (although many sequences are dazzling), but I have to break the tie by giving it a nod for its accomplishment; this is very inventive and sophisticated animation:
Short: Asparagus
Just realized there is a MAJOR oversight on the ballot and I can’t believe I didn’t rectify it with my own nominations, which have now been duly corrected.
The Kids Are Alright is one of the greatest rock documentaries of all time, indeed one of the greatest musical films. What a shame I forgot to mention this when people were actually paying attention to this thread. Shucks.