by Allan Fish
Best Picture The Godfather, US (9 votes)
Best Director Ingmar Bergman, Cries and Whispers (8 votes)
Best Actor Klaus Kinski, Aguirre, Wrath of God (6 votes)
Best Actress Liza Minnelli, Cabaret (6 votes)
Best Supp Actor Joel Grey, Cabaret (8 votes)
Best Supp Actress Harriet Andersson, Cries and Whispers (10 votes)
Best Cinematography Sven Nykvist, Cries and Whispers (11 votes)
Best Score Nino Rota, The Godfather (13 votes)
Best Short Lucifer Rising, US, Kenneth Anger (3 votes)
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On to my birth year.
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1973
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Best Picture/Director
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All Nudity Shall be Punished (Brazil…Arnaldo Jabor)
Amarcord (Italy…Federico Fellini)
American Graffiti (US…George Lucas)
Ana and the Wolves (Spain…Carlos Saura)
Anita (Sweden…Torgny Wickman)
The Ascent of Man (UK…Mick Jackson, David John Kennard, Adrian Malone, Dick Gilling)
Badlands (US…Terrence Malick)
Bamboo House of Dolls (Hong Kong…Chih Hung Kuei)
Bang The Drum Slowly (US…John Hancock)
Battles Without Honour and Humanity (Japan…Kenji Fukasaku)
Because of the Cats (Netherlands…Fons Rademakers)
Belladonna of Sadness (Japan…Eiichi Yamamoto)
Birth of the Nation (West Germany…Klaus Wyborny)
Blume in Love (US…Paul Mazursky)
Bohachi Bushido: Code of the Forgotten Eight (Japan…Teruo Ishii)
A Brief Vacation (Italy…Vittorio de Sica)
The Candy Snatchers (US…Guerdon Trueblood)
Catholics (UK…Jack Gold)
Charley Varrick (US…Don Siegel)
Coup d’Etat (Japan…Yoshishige Yoshida)
The Day of the Jackal (UK…Fred Zinnemann)
The Devil in Miss Jones (US…Gerard Damiano)
Distant Thunder (India…Satyajit Ray)
Don’t Look Now (UK…Nicolas Roeg)
Electra Glide in Blue (US…James William Guercio)
Emperor of the North Pole (US…Robert Aldrich)
End of Man (Brazil…José Mojica Marins)
England Made Me (UK…Peter Duffell)
Enter the Dragon (US/Hong Kong…Robert Clouse)
The Exorcist: the director’s cut (US (2000)…William Friedkin)
F for Fake (France/US…Orson Welles)
Fantastic Planet (France…René Laloux)
Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable (Japan…Shunya Ito)
The Friends of Eddie Coyle (US…Peter Yates)
Ganja and Hess (US…Bill Gunn)
La Grande Bouffe (France…Marco Ferreri)
Happy New Year (France…Claude Lelouch)
The Holy Mountain (Mexico…Alejandro Jodorowsky)
The Homecoming (UK…Peter Hall)
Hot Winds (India…M.S.Sathyu)
The Hourglass Sanatorium (Poland…Wojciech Has)
The House of 72 Tenants (Hong Kong…Cory Yuen)
I Will Walk Like a Crazy Horse (Spain…Fernando Arrabal)
The Iceman Cometh (US…John Frankenheimer)
L’Invitation (France…Claude Goretta)
The Iron Rose (France…Jean Rollin)
Jail Bait (West Germany…Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
Janosik (Poland…Jerzy Passendorfer)
Jealousy and Medicine (Poland…Janusz Majewski)
Kaseki no moro (Japan…Masahiro Shinoda)
Lady Snowblood: Blizzard from the Netherworld (Japan…Toshiyo Fujita)
Láska (Czechoslovakia…Karel Kachyna)
The Last Detail (US…Hal Ashby)
The Legend of the Silver Fir (Czechoslovakia…Frantisek Vlacil)
Lisa and the Devil (Italy…Mario Bava)
The Long Goodbye (US…Robert Altman)
Love and Anarchy (Italy…Lina Wertmuller)
Ludwig’s Cook (West Germany…Hans-Jürgen Syberberg)
La Maman et la Putain (France…Jean Eustache)
Martha (West Germany…Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
Mean Streets (US…Martin Scorsese)
The Mongols (Iran…Parvia Kimiavi)
My Ain Folk (UK…Bill Douglas)
The Night Porter (Italy…Liliana Cavani)
Les Noces Rouges (France…Claude Chabrol)
The Norliss Tapes (US…Dan Curtis)
La Nuit Américainé (France…François Truffaut)
O Lucky Man (UK…Lindsay Anderson)
The Paper Chase (US…James Bridges)
Paper Moon (US…Peter Bogdanovich)
Papillon (US…Franklin J. Schaffner)
Part-Time Work of a Domestic Slave (West Germany…Alexander Kluge)
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid: director’s cut (US (1988)…Sam Peckinpah)
Prostitute Torture Hell (Japan…Noboru Tanaka)
A River Called Titas (India…Ritwik Ghatak)
Sambizanga (Angola…Sarah Maldoror)
Scenes from a Marriage (TV version) (Sweden…Ingmar Bergman)
Scarecrow (US…Jerry Schatzberg)
The Secret Diary of a Nymphomaniac (France…Jess Franco)
Serpico (US…Sidney Lumet)
Sex and Fury (Japan…Norifumi Suzuki)
The Sinful Dwarf (Denmark…Vidal Raski)
Sisters (US…Brian de Palma)
Sleeper (US…Woody Allen)
Society of the Spectacle (France…Guy Debord)
The Sparrow (Egypt…Youssef Chahine)
The Spirit of the Beehive (Spain…Victor Erice)
The Sting (US…George Roy Hill)
The Sugar Daddies (Hong Kong…Chung Sun)
Ten from Your Show of Shows (US…Max Liebman)
Terrifying Girls High School – Lynch Law Classroom (Japan…Norifumi Suzuki)
Theatre of Blood (UK…Douglas Hickox)
Themroc (France…Claude Faraldo)
The Three Musketeers: The Queen’s Diamonds (UK…Richard Lester)
Three Wishes for Cinderella (Czechoslovakia…Václav Vorlicek)
Torso (Italy…Sergio Martino)
Touki Bouki (Senegal…Djibril Diop Mambéty)
Turkish Delight (Netherlands…Paul Verhoeven)
25, Fireman’s Street (Hungary…István Szábo)
Two Roads (India…Mani Kaul)
The Watchmaker of St Paul (France…Bertrand Tavernier)
The Way We Were (US…Sydney Pollack)
The Wicker Man: the director’s cut (UK (1990)…Robin Hardy)
World on a Wire (West Germany…Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
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Best Actor
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Robert Blake Electra Glide in Blue
Dirk Bogarde The Night Porter
Soumutra Chatterjee Distant Thunder
James Coburn Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid
Richard Dreyfuss American Graffiti
Peter Finch England Made Me
Edward Fox The Day of the Jackal
Elliot Gould The Long Goodbye
Tutger Hauer Turkish Delight
Erland Josephson Scenes from a Marriage TV
Harvey Keitel Mean Streets
Jean-Pierre Léaud La Maman et la Putain
Jack Lemmon Save the Tiger
Klaus Löwitsch World on Wires TV
Malcolm McDowell O Lucky Man
Lee Marvin The Iceman Cometh
Walter Matthau Charley Varrick
Steve McQueen Papillon
Rentaro Mikuni Coup d’État
Robert Mitchum The Friends of Eddie Coyle
Jack Nicholson The Last Detail
Warren Oates Dillinger
Philippe Noiret The Watchmaker of St Paul
Jan Nowicki The Hourglass Sanatorium
Ryan O’Neal Paper Moon
Michel Piccoli Themroc
Vincent Price Theatre of Blood
Robert Redford The Sting
George Segal A Touch of Class
Martin Sheen Badlands
Martin Sheen Catholics TV
Donald Sutherland Don’t Look Now
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Best Actress
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Babita Distant Thunder
Ellen Burstyn The Exorcist
Margit Carstensen Martha TV
Julie Christie Don’t Look Now
Blythe Danner Lovin’ Molly
Pam Grier Coffy
Glenda Jackson A Touch of Class
Meiko Kaji Lady Snowblood: Blizzard from the Netherworld
Bernadette Lafont La Maman et la Putain
Marsha Mason Cinderella Liberty
Eva Mattes Jail Bait TV
Charlotte Rampling The Night Porter
Jaroslava Schallerova Laska
Sissy Spacek Badlands
Barbra Streisand The Way We Were
Liv Ullmann Scenes from a Marriage TV
Monique Van de Ven Turkish Delight
Joanne Woodward Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams
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Best Supp Actor
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Jean-Pierre Aumont La Nuit Américaine
Jeff Bridges The Iceman Cometh
Lee J. Cobb The Exorcist
Robert de Niro Mean Streets
Vincent Gardenia Bang the Drum Slowly
Jack Gilford Save the Tiger
Sterling Hayden The Long Goodbye
Ian Holm The Homecoming
Michael Hordern England Made Me
John Houseman The Paper Chase
Trevor Howard Catholics TV
Paul Le Mat American Graffiti
Christopher Lee The Wicker Man
Arthur Lowe O Lucky Man
Fredric March The Iceman Cometh
Jason Miller The Exorcist
Philippe Noiret La Grande Bouffe
Michel Piccoli Le Grande Bouffe
Randy Quaid The Last Detail
Oliver Reed The Three Musketeers: The Queen’s Diamonds
Ralph Richardson O Lucky Man
Edward G.Robinson Soylent Green
Jean Rochefort The Watchmaker of St Paul
Robert Ryan The Iceman Cometh
François Simon L’Invitation
Charles Martin Smith American Graffiti
François Truffaut La Nuit Américaine
Max Von Sydow The Exorcist
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Best Supp Actress
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Linda Blair The Exorcist
Candy Clark American Graffiti
Valentina Cortese Day for Night
Britt Ekland The Wicker Man
Andrea Ferreol La Grande Bouffe
Madeline Kahn Paper Moon
Françoise Lebrun La Maman et la Putain
Vivian Merchant The Homecoming
Magali Noel Amarcord
Glynnis O’Connor Jeremy
Tatum O’Neal Paper Moon
Mackenzie Phillips American Graffiti
Isabel Telleria The Spirit of the Beehive
Ana Torrent The Spirit of the Beehive
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Best Cinematography
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John Coquillon Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid
Rafael Corkidi The Holy Mountain
Luis Cuadrado The Spirit of the Beehive
Jan D’Alquen, Ron Eveslage, Haskell Wexler, American Graffiti
Conrad Hall Electra Glide in Blue
Motokichi Hasegawa Coup d’Etat
Joseph Illik Three Wishes for Cinderella
Laszlo Kovacs Paper Moon
Miroslav Ondricek O Lucky Man!
Cecilio Paniagua Lisa and the Devil
Brian Probyn, Tak Fujimoto, Steven Larner Badlands
Anthony Richmond Don’t Look Now
Owen Roizman, Billy Williams The Exorcist
Giuseppe Rotunno Amarcord
Wotold Sobocinski The Hourglass Sanatorium
Robert L. Surtees The Sting
David Watkin The Three Musketeers: The Queen’s Diamonds
Harry Waxman The Wicker Man
Motoya Washyo Sex and Fury
Vilmos Zsigmond The Long Goodbye
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Best Score
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Bob Dylan Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid
Jerry Goldsmith Papillon
James William Guercio Electra Glide in Blue
Marvin Hamlisch The Way We Were
Hajime Kaburagi Bohachi Bushido: Code of the Forgotten Eight
Michel Legrand The Three Musketeers: The Queen’s Diamonds
Michael J. Lewis Theatre of Blood
Alan Price O Lucky Man!
Nino Rota Amarcord
Karl Svoboda Three Wishes for Cinderella
John Williams Cinderella Liberty
John Williams The Long Goodbye
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note that George Tipton for Badlands is not listed as this was based on a previous work by Carl Orff
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Best Short
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…remote…remote… (Austria…Valie Export)
L’Ambassade (Chile…Chris Marker)
A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (US…Bill Melendez)
Christo’s Valley Curtain (US…Albert and David Maysles, Ellen Giffard) (part 2, part 3)
Could this Be Love (US…Abel Ferrara)
Dr. Suess on the Loose (US…Hawley Pratt)
Field of Honor (US…Robert Zemeckis)
Frank Film (US…Caroline Mouris, Frank Mouris)
H is for House (UK…Peter Greenaway)
Line Describing a Cone (US…Anthony McCall)
Salome (UK…Clive Barker)
The Spirit of Dark and Lonely Water (UK…Jeff Grant)
The Trip (Japan…Kihachiro Kawamoto)
Tup Tup (Yugoslavia…Nedeljko Dragic)
Where the Wild Things Are (US…Gene Deitch)
The Wold-Shadow (US…Stan Brakhage)
Best Picture: The Spirit of the Beehive
Best Director: Jean Eustache (La Maman et la Putain)
Best Actor: Vincent Price (Theatre of Blood)
Best Actress: Liv Ullmann (Scenes from a Marriage)
Best Supporting Actor: Robert Ryan (The Iceman Cometh)
Best Supporting Actress: Ana Torrent (The Spirit of the Beehive)
Best Cinematography: Tak Fujimoto, Stephen Larner (Badlands)
Best Score: Jerry Goldsmith (Papillon)
Best Short: H is for House (Greenaway)
Will add the picture runners-up later today.
Best Picture – The Sting (US…George Roy Hill)
Best Director – George Roy Hill The Sting
Best Actor – Robert Redford The Sting
Best Actress – Barbra Streisand The Way We Were
Best Supp Actor – Edward G. Robinson Soylent Green
Best Score – Marvin Hamlisch The Sting
Best Picture: Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid
Top Five: 1. Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid 2. The Long Goodbye 3. Don’t Look Now 4. The Friends Of Eddie Coyle 5. Serpico
5 Almosts: The Spirit Of The Beehive, World On The Wires, Mean Streets, Badlands, Amarcord.
I see Allan put the 1988 version of Peckinpah’s film in the scroll. More reviewers I read claim the 2005 cut as superior (about 1.5 to 1 which I actually computed once)… and the later DC is the one I generally watch. In fact I have only viewed the 1988 version once (while watching the 2005 edition about 4 times). Next time I’m in the mood for some PGABTK, I’ll give the 88 cut a whirl. Can’t say I remember what the differences are off the top of my head anymore. The 88 version is completely fogged up in my memory bank as it has been a while since viewing it.
Also that dreck American Graffiti is leading the poll with two votes over about 9 other films with only one (this may be the most varied year ever for selections). I may switch my choice to The Long Goodbye (good job WeepingSam) to save the site similar embarrassment we witnessed in 1959.
Drek??? No way. Get away from the genre films for a bit and reconsider something wonderfully humanistic and beautifully crafted! Geez…
Check my top ten… I do have a couple of humanistic films. Unfortunately they don’t conform to the one genre Dean Treadway seems to worship most… whatever you call the three point combo of American, Blandly Mainstream, and Trite lol. Maybe it’s just me though…
Oh…AMARCORD (filled with grotesques), maybe WORLD ON THE WIRES (who the hell has seen THAT?), and SPIRIT (about the search for the undead Frankenstein). The rest are gun joyfests. AMERICAN GRAFFITI, nor any of my other top choices, are trite. Take a hard look at yourself! I apologize in advance…but this shit makes me fucking angry. And, by the way…you started it.
God, Dean, do you actually watch anything worth a crap? That few have seen World on a Wire is damning on the narrow-minded inertia of those that haven’t not those that have, while picking American Graffiti best of anything would qualify for incarceration in a sane world. I just counted through the nominations for 1973 and saw 34 better films than American Graffiti.
Dean’s weekly presentations are a real joy and we are lucky to have them. I haven’t yet encountered a single year where I thought he did the period a diservice. The number of films he has seen is staggering, and his taste is eclectic.
Yes, we wouldn’t have out braindead xenophobe quota without him.
Xenophobe? I haven’t seen that remotely in the balloting.
Dean, if you’re interested you can pick up a copy of the Fassbinder at Barnes & Noble, It’s only $30 and B&N has an upcoming half-off sale.
They do?! Guess I’ll be using those gift cards I’ve been stocking up on haha…
Dean’s annual votes are among the best cast on this weekly thread in my opinion.
Thank you for the kinds words, Sam and Peter! As to my watching habits, Allan, they are superlative. I think you know that. I haven’t seen WORLD ON A WIRE, because I’m not particularly a Fassbinder fan—never have been, never will be (I respect him, but he’s not for me). And how the heck would I see that film? I’ve already made it clear: I didn’t grow up in NYC or London with 15 different rep houses (we had two here, long gone, through to the mid-80s here in Atlanta; there’s only one video store in town and I am no longer a member; I don’t have Netflix and I’m not buying a lot of movies (and I’m certainly not paying the likes of 30 dollars for a movie I’ve never seen by a director I don’t really care for). It’s true, though, I DO prefer American or English-language films over subtitled ones, however I would resolutely say that I am not xenophobic, again, as you can tell from the films I list each week. And, finally, I feel my choices are well-considered. Very well considered. For me, there dang near perfect. Honestly, your snooty nose is so high in the air, Allan, I wonder if you are even properly equipped to comment on film; all you’re able to see is sky and ceilings.
Dean, if you don’t like attacks, then don’t make them yourself in the first place. You launched into Maurizio for picking things perfectly acceptably. When someone with a greater appreciation thus dismisses you, you’re in no position to take offence.
I disagree. I rarely if ever have called somebody’s top pick “Drek.” To me, that’s starting something.
Dean, I would take all these tiresome “criticisms” with a grain of salt.
I finally tried to watch WORLD ON A WIRE…and it was a bloodless enterprise. Not for me.
Pic – Two Roads (India…Mani Kaul)
Director – Jean Eustache (La Maman et la Putain)
Actor – Jack Lemmon Save the Tiger
Actress – Glenda Jackson A Touch of Class
Supp Actor – Robert de Niro Mean Streets
Supp Actress – Tatum O’Neal Paper Moon
I vote “American Graffiti” for best film in 1973.
I vote William Friedkin for best director (“The Exorcist”) in 1973
I vote Vincent Price for best actor in “Theatre of Blood” in 1973.
I vote Ellen Burstyn for best actress in “The Exorcist” in 1973.
I vote Jean-Pierre Aumont for best supporting actor in “La nuit americaine” in 1973.
I vote Linda Blair for best supporting actress in “The Exorcist” in 1973
I vote “Badlands” and “The Wicker Man” for best cinematography. (TIE)
I vote “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid” for best score.
My Top 5:
1. American Graffiti
2. The Wicker Man
3. The Exorcist
4. Badlands
5. La nuit americaine (Day For Night)
I change my vote for Best Actress… to Sissy Spacek in “Badlands”.
Now THIS is a year. Personally, I’d take ’73 over ’68, ’71, and ’72 combined. So good I’m going out of my way to reward a different film in each “official” category (including Screenplay and Editing, even though they don’t count).
Feature: The Mother and the Whore
followed by:
2. Mean Streets
3. Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid
4. Scenes from a Marriage
5. F for Fake
Short: will return later on, either to tiebreak or vote my conscience
Director: Martin Scorsese, Mean Streets
Actor: Robert Mitchum, The Friends of Eddie Coyle
Actress: Sissy Spacek, Badlands
Supp. Actor: Sterling Hayden, The Long Goodbye (I am SO tempted to tie it with Slim Pickens here but will resist)
Supp. Actress: Ana Torrent, Spirit of the Beehive – although I think of this as a lead, not a support (humored a Blair nod, but so much of that performance is the voice)
Cinematography: Rafael Corkidi, The Holy Mountain (could easily be Cuadrado or Szigmond, but my self-imposed 1-category-per-film rule gives it to the unforgettable visuals and color scheme of the Jodorowsky)
Score: Bob Dylan, Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid
Screenplay: Ingmar Bergman, Scenes from a Marriage
Editing: Marie Sophie Dubus, Dominique Engerer, Orson Welles, F for Fake – wow! what a year for editing! who woulda thunk that Mean Streets and Don’t Look Now could be beat, but there you have it…
This was an insanely competetive year in most of my subcategories, with only best line an easy pick for me. There are at least a half-dozen films this year based in which ensemble casts working brilliantly off one another. And as for “Use of Music” and “Scene” it was virtually impossible to choose…so I split the difference, giving one award to each film, since the same were neck-in-neck for both categories.
Ensemble: Elliot Gould, Nina van Pallandt, Sterling Hayden, Mark Rydell, Henry Gibson, The Long Goodbye (despite my ambivalence about how the movie treats Chandler, Rydell and Gibson in particular are just fantastic and the actors all groove well together – incidentally, that’s Schwarzenegger stripping down next to Rydell in one of the last scenes, not that he’s easy to miss)
Line: “Her, I love. You, I don’t even like.”, The Long Goodbye
Use of Music: Mean Streets (what Scorsese does here is just brilliantly in tune even as it’s offbeat: Who would think to pair a yearning, restless Spector pop song with gritty Little Italy street home movies or an early, forgotten Stones single with a close-up of stripper torsos and a rack-focus to an emblem on a smoked-glass backdrop? Or for that matter, a jukebox belting “Please Mr. Postman” with a bunch of goombahs punching it out over the meaning of “mook”? Someone who knows in his gut the magic music and moving image can generate when they click into that irresistable, instinctual psychic rhythm. Nobody pairs image and soundtrack better than Scorsese, yet in this early effort he may have topped even his later triumphs in that regard. Especially that gorgeously bleary Be My Baby jittering along with the 8mm projector in what may be the greatest opening credits sequence of all time. Dirty Dancing and apparently Tabu too, eat your hearts out. Scorsese closed the book on cinematic use of the Ronettes 40 years ago. That said, it was almost upset in this category, and was upset in the next, by…)
Scene: Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (When I finally saw this film last year, I thought they played this song during Billy the Kid’s death. How sublimely wrong I was. Instead it is reserved for what might otherwise seem a “minor” scene, as a comical, slightly pathetic character only just introduced is wounded in a gunfight and slumps off to stare into the setting sun before turning toward his young, weeping, Mexican wife and offering the most heartbreaking gaze into the abyss – and back across a life now unexpectedly ending, facing it not with a kind of comic-book stoicism but a beautiful “this is it, and it’s either so goddamn beautiful it hurts or it hurts so goddamn much it’s beautiful…” Just fucking wow. Wonders’ #1 comedy can eat its heart out, THIS is Slim Pickens’ greatest cinematic moment, and it manages to lift Dylan’s stone-cold classic higher, rather than vice-versa. Just one of the greatest moments in cinema, period.)
***
Close calls:
There are just SO many this year, especially in those last categories.
DIRECTOR – Ingmar Bergman (Scenes from a Marriage), Victor Erice (The Spirit of the Beehive), Jean Eustache (The Mother and the Whore), Federico Fellini (Amarcord), Terrence Malick (Badlands), Sam Peckinpah (Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid), Orson Welles (F for Fake).
ACTOR – Erland Josephson (Scenes from a Marriage), Harvey Keitel (Mean Streets), Jean-Pierre Leaud (The Mother and the Whore), Jack Nicholson (The Last Detail), Orson Welles (F for Fake) – he should count, right?
ACTRESS – Julie Christie (Don’t Look Now), Bernadette Lafont (The Mother and the Whore), Liv Ullmann (Scenes from a Marriage).
SUPP. ACTOR – Robert De Niro (Mean Streets), Mark Rydell (The Long Goodbye) – where is he?! incidentally, he pretty much wrote his scenes too, Christopher Lee (The Wicker Man), SLIM PICKENS (Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid) – WHAT?? WHERE IS HE?????!!!!!, Randy Quaid (The Last Detail).
SUPP. ACTRESS – Linda Blair (The Exorcist) and, hell, Mercedes McCambridge (The Exorcist), Francoise Lebrun (The Mother and the Whore), Tatum O’Neal (Paper Moon).
CINEMATOGRAPHY – LUIS CUADRADO (The Spirit of the Beehive), Brian Probyn, Tak Fujimoto, Steven Larner (Badlands), Anthony Richmond (Don’t Look Now), Giuseppe Rotunno (Amarcord), Vilmos Szigmond (The Long Goodbye).
SCORE – Paul Giovanni (The Wicker Man), Gottfried Hungsberg (World on a Wire) – hey how come this isn’t nominated? I really dig the mellow, echo-y surf music vibes of the theme, and in fact ripped it off the disc a few summers ago to make it the most-played track on my iPod; despite being drowned out by the Williams and Dylan songtracks, it’s easily my favorite instrumental soundtrack of the year, John Williams (The Long Goodbye).
SCREENPLAY – Badlands, Day for Night, F for Fake, The Friends of Eddie Coyle, The Last Detail, The Mother and the Whore, The Wicker Man, World on a Wire (ah, you’ve changed your tune on the title, Allan? 😉 I actually kind of preferred the plural “wires” translation as it played on both electronic cords and marionette’s strings…).
EDITING – Don’t Look Now, The Holy Mountain, The Long Goodbye, MEAN STREETS, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, Sisters.
ENSEMBLE – The cast of Amarcord, The cast of American Graffiti, The cast of The Friends of Eddie Coyle, The cast of The Mother and the Whore,
LINE – “What’s a mook?” (Mean Streets).
USE OF MUSIC – American Graffiti, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, The Wicker Man.
SCENE – Peacock in the snow (Amarcord), Death of the daughter (Don’t Look Now), Hall of mirrors (Enter the Dragon), Pretty much any scene in which the kid is possessed (The Exorcist), Entering the temple (The Holy Mountain), Hanging out in the hotel (The Last Detail), Meet Frankenstein (The Spirit of the Beehive), Slapped by a shrink (The Long Goodbye), Smashing the bottle (The Long Goodbye), Getting naked means never having to say you’re sorry (The Long Goodbye), BE MY BABY (Mean Streets), Fighting over mooks (Mean Streets), I don’t love you (Scenes from a Marriage), The singing, dancing tavern (The Wicker Man), Light My Fire (The Wicker Man).
Always love your assessments of each year, Joel, even if I sometimes wonder (per your confessions) about how many English-language films you’ve seen.
Well there are going to be lots of holes regardless, but I’ll put it his way: the English-language films between 1959 and 1967 hardly wow me at all compared to the European ones, ’67 and ’69 on they generally do but ’73 is an outlier, maybe the last year (for me, anyway, in which Eurocinema tops American…).
However your query did pique my interest so I counted it up: this year I’ve seen a hair less than half of Allan’s US/UK picks which I’d consider not bad. One thing to keep in mind is that years ago I compiled a kind of master canon, full of holes and much smaller than Allan’s master list of course (its less than 2000 films I’m pretty sure, less than 3000 anyway), but still a solid guide to films that had been celebrated over the years. An entire Netflix queue is devoted to it, and it’s my basic means of plugging holes in my viewing. But it’s slow going (especially because I will go months without Netflix, or ignore that queue even when I have the service) and though I began it in 2008, I’m only at about 1950 now! So while the basics of the golden age are usually covered there are definitely some big holes from there on, although they tend to emerge more post-1980 since my personal fondness for 50s-70s cinema has led me to an independently thorough exploration of it.
Actually, a further count reveals we can put that theory to rest – at least this particular year! In 1973 I saw three times as many of Allan’s American picks as his European, so obviously the handful of Europeans impressed me more, and pound-for-pound it was no contest…
And come to think of it, even the above isn’t true (except the pound-for-pound part) as my ballot actually includes more American titles than European ones. Even in the runners-up I tended to mention almost every ’73 US film I’d seen on Allan’s ballot (I think only Save the Tiger, Day of the Jackal, and The Way We Were are MIA, although Charlotte’s Web should have been on Allan’s list, and my own nearlies – maybe Paul Lynde for Tempeton the Rat!).
That said, there are some very notable American holes in my ’73 viewing, including Papillon and especially The Sting (which I’ve seen bits and pieces of, and recorded many times back when I had a DVR, but somehow it always slipped through the cracks). That’s what that Netflix queue is for, I guess!
Too late to count, not that it would make a difference anyway, but:
Short: The Trip
Although Tup-Tup must be seen to be believed…
And also I’m really bummed the clip of L’Ambassade didn’t have English subs. I was really looking forward to watching that…if anyone knows another way to see it, let me know. Maybe they have subs in a zip file somewhere on the internet…I’ve watched things that way before…
Will come back after watching Coup d’Etat but am currently leaning toward Beehive — which TCM is showing Monday night, for those who’ve missed it to date. Helluva tough choice for Best Actor and one of my favorites isn’t even on the shortlist. Love already on display for Garrett not surprising but still mystifying. I like Peckinpah but this one never worked for me. It certainly deserves Best Song, though.
Picture: Mean Streets
Director: Martin Scorsese, Mean Streets
Actor: Erland Josephson, Scenes from a Marriage
Actress: Liv Ullmann, Scenes from a Marriage
Sup. Actor: Robert de Niro, Mean Streets
Sup. Actress: Valentina Cortese, La Nuit Americaine
Cinematography: Giuseppe Rotunno, Amarcord
When the studio was presented with the script for my film of choice this year, they insisted it would never work; there were too many story lines running concurrently, and audiences would be hopelessly lost. It ended up being not only the best movie of the year, but also–happily–one of the most profitable of all time. It also changed the way we processed cinematic storytelling, even before Robert Altman had accepted it. Though I absolutely ADORE the ten films that follow it on my list, I could go no other way. The acting, the dialogue, the look, the sound, the editing, the needle-drop scoring (even better than the remarkable MEAN STREETS)…it changed so much of American film that…well, it simply could not be ignored. Its effects are still being felt today, with every decade producing a movie of its like. But I have to give props to so many other films this year, and so I think my relatively well-balanced ballot says it all. As always, the capitalized, non-winning entries are the films that were left off of Allan’s always remarkable list. I have to note that the song category of mine was packed to the max with possibilities, and though both the Hamlisch/Bergmans standard and the Dylan anthem live on in many ways, I was compelled to go another direction; the protracted final shot of that movie, with that insanely emotive song as its backing, is just TOO unforgettable. And finally, as to the oft-neglected short film category, I REEEEALLY urge you all to look at Frank and Caroline Mouris’ FRANK FILM; it is utterly, SO COMPLETELY unlike anything ever made (though I wish a better print were made available):
1973
BEST PICTURE: AMERICAN GRAFFITI (followed by, in descending order): O Lucky Man!, The Exorcist, Scenes from a Marriage, Mean Streets, The Sting, Electra Glide in Blue, Paper Moon, Badlands, The Long Goodbye, Amarcord, PAINTERS PAINTING, Don’t Look Now, PAYDAY, F for Fake, Papillon, Scarecrow, The Iceman Cometh, The Wicker Man, Theatre of Blood, Sleeper, The Last Detail, GODSPELL, HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER, Bang the Drum Slowly, The Friends of Eddie Coyle, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, The Night Porter, Sisters, Day for Night, MAGNUM FORCE, Serpico, Holy Mountain, The Paper Chase, JEREMY, Turkish Delight, A Brief Vacation, The Day of the Jackal, THE LAST OF SHEILA, Charley Varrick, SAVE THE TIGER, THAT‘LL BE THE DAY, CHARLOTTE‘S WEB, Blume in Love, DILLINGER, WATTSTAX, The Way We Were, Breezy, COFFY, TOM SAWYER, Fantastic Planet, Enter the Dragon, THE SEVEN-UPS, THE ADVENTURES OF RABBI JACOB, LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL, Le Grande Bouffe, MY NAME IS NOBODY, THE LAUGHING POLICEMAN, WHITE LIGHTNING, SOYLENT GREEN, THE CRAZIES, ROBIN HOOD, JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR, WALKING TALL
DIRECTOR: Lindsay Anderson, O LUCKY MAN! (2nd: Martin Scorsese, Mean Streets, followed by: George Lucas, American Graffiti; William Friedkin, The Exorcist; Ingmar Bergman, Scenes from a Marriage; Terrence Malick, Badlands)
ACTOR: Vincent Price, THEATRE OF BLOOD (2nd: Malcolm McDowell, O Lucky Man!, followed by Erland Josephson, Scenes From A Marriage; Robert Blake, Electra Glide in Blue; Rip Torn, Payday; Harvey Keitel, Mean Streets)
ACTRESS: Liv Ullmann, SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE (2nd: Ellen Burstyn, The Exorcist, followed by Sissy Spacek, Badlands; Pam Grier, Coffy; Barbara Streisand, The Way We Were; Julie Christie, Don’t Look Now)
SUPPORTING ACTOR: Jason Miller, THE EXORCIST (2nd: Robert De Niro, Mean Streets, followed by Paul Le Mat, American Graffiti; Ralph Richardson, O Lucky Man!; Charles Martin Smith, American Graffiti; John Houseman, The Paper Chase)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Tatum O’Neal, PAPER MOON (2nd: Madeline Kahn, Paper Moon, followed by Valentina Cortese, Day for Night; Linda Blair (and Mercedes McCambridge), The Exorcist; Candy Clark, American Graffiti; Mackenzie Phillips, American Graffiti)
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Lazslo Kovacs, PAPER MOON (2nd: Owen Roizman and Billy Williams, The Exorcist, followed by: Miroslav Ondricek, O Lucky Man!; Robert L. Surtees, The Sting; Conrad Hall, Electra Glide in Blue; Vilmos Zsigmond, The Long Goodbye)
SCORE: Alan Price, O LUCKY MAN! (2nd: Jerry Goldsmith, Papillon, followed by: Marvin Hamlisch, The Way We Were; James William Guercio, Electra Glide in Blue; Bob Dylan, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid; Michael J. Lewis, Theatre of Blood)
SHORT: FRANK FILM (Frank and Caroline Mouris) (2nd: The Wold Shadow (Stan Brakhage), followed by Cristo’s Valley Curtain (Albert and David Maysles, Ellen Giffard); A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (Bill Melendez); Where The Wild Things Are (Gene Deitch); L’ammbassade (Chris Marker)
FURTHER:
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: George Lucas, Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck, AMERICAN GRAFFITI (2nd: David S. Ward, The Sting, followed by Ingmar Bergman, Scenes from a Marriage; Terrence Malick, Badlands; Martin Scorsese and Mardik Martin, Mean Streets; Robert Boris and Rupert Hitzig, Electra Glide in Blue)
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: William Peter Blatty, THE EXORCIST (2nd: Alvin Sargent, Paper Moon, followed by Robert Towne, The Last Detail; David Sherwin and Malcolm McDowell, O Lucky Man!; Leigh Brackett, The Long Goodbye; Waldo Salt and Norman Wexler, Serpico)
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: PAINTERS PAINTING (Emile de Antonio) (2nd: F for Fake (Orson Welles), followed by Wattstax (Mel Stuart); Let The Good Times Roll (Robert Abel and Sidney Levin)
ART DIRECTION: THE STING, followed by Paper Moon, The Exorcist, High Plains Drifter, Tom Sawyer, Sleeper
COSTUME DESIGN: THE STING, followed by Paper Moon, Tom Sawyer, The Way We Were, Amarcord, Godspell
FILM EDITING: AMERICAN GRAFFITI, followed by The Exorcist, O Lucky Man!, Mean Streets, Sisters, Electra Glide in Blue
SOUND: AMERICAN GRAFFITI, followed by The Exorcist, Paper Moon, The Sting, Papillon, Godspell
SCORING OF A MUSICAL/ADAPTATION SCORING: Marvin Hamlisch, THE STING (2nd: Godspell (Stephen Schwartz and Stephen Reinhardt))
ORIGINAL SONG: “Tell Me” from ELECTRA GLIDE IN BLUE (music and lyrics by James William Guercio) (2nd: “The Way We Were” from The Way We Were (music by Marvin Hamlisch, lyrics by Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman), followed by “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” from Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (music and lyrics by Bob Dylan); “O Lucky Man!” From O Lucky Man! (music and lyrics by Alan Price); “Live and Let Die” from Live and Let Die (music and lyrics by Paul and Linda McCartney); “She’s Only A Country Girl” from “Payday” (music and lyrics by Shel Silverstein))
SPECIAL EFFECTS: THE EXORCIST
MAKEUP: THE EXORCIST (2nd: Papillon)
ANIMATED FEATURE: CHARLOTTE’S WEB (2nd: Fantastic Planet)
PICTURE: The Long Goodbye
DIRECTOR: Fassbinder, World on a Wire
LEAD ACTOR: Robert Mitchum, Friends of Eddie Coyle
LEAD ACTRESS: Sissy Spacek, Dablands
SUPPORTING ACTOR: Sterling Hayden, The Long Goodbye, though it’s hard to pass by De Niro
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Ana Torrent, Spirit of the Beehive
SHORT: not really being qualified to vote on these, I’ll vote for another great piece of video art – Nam June Paik’s Global Groove
SCORE: John Williams, The Long Goodbye
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Vilmos Szigmond, The Long Goodbye
Plus bonus picks:
Script: I need a vote for Charley Varrick in here somewhere, and this makes a good spot for it
Music/Sound: Mean Streets
Best Quotation in another film or other medium: Tarantino’s recycling the “pair of pliers and a blowtorch” line from Charley Varrick is a strong contender, but I have to vote for “if the devil comes, we’ll shoot him with a gun” from Pere Ubu’s Laughing (by way of Badlands).
WS, all you have to do to ‘qualify’ for shorts-voting is click on the links!
Btw, we are 4 for 4 in agreement on the actors haha.
Sorry, that was me, not Allan. /fixed
I dunno why so many are not taking advantage of this education on post-62 short films we are providing. Are short films less valuable than long ones? Does size really matter?
I try to get to them, but it can take a while…. Anyway, at this point in history, that is just an excuse to name drop video art, a new and wonderful thing in the early 70s.
Yeah best strategy is probably to tackle one a day if there’s a quiet moment – which may not lead to all of them being see , but will still accomplish quite a bit of exploration. I should follow my own advice, as I’m generally catching up with them all last-minute on Friday or Saturday haha.
BEST PICTURE: AMARCORD
BEST DIRECTOR: Terrence Mallick for BADLANDS
BEST ACTOR: Jack Nicholson for THE LAST DETAIL
BEST ACTRESS; Joanne Woodward for SUMMER WISHES, WINTER DREAMS
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Robert De Niro for MEAN STREETS
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS; Tatum O’Neal for PAPER MOON
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Brian Probyn, Tak Fujimoto and Steven Larner for BADLANDS
BEST SCORE: Nino Rota for AMARCORD
BEST SHORT: H IS FOR HOME.
Best Picture: The Exorcist
Best Director: Federico Fellini (Amarcord)
Best Actor: Jack Lemmon (Save the Tiger)
Best Actress: Joanne Woodward (Summer Wishes Winter Dreams)
Best Supporting Actor: Robert DeNiro (Mean Streets)
Best Supporting Actress: Linda Blair (The Exorcist)
Best Cinematography: Vilos Zseigmond (The Long Goodbye)
Best Score: Jerry Goldsmith (Papillon)
Best Short: Salome
Film: ‘Scenes from a Marriage’; ‘World on a Wire’; ‘The Long Goodbye’
Director: R.W. Fassbinder (‘World on a Wire’ and ‘Jail Bait’); Ingmar Bergman (‘Scenes from a Marriage’); Robert Altman (‘The Long Goodbye’)
Actress: Liv Ullmann (‘Scenes from a Marriage’); Sarah Miles (‘The Hireling’); Eva Mattes (‘Jail Bait’ — based on a vague, but extremely favorable memory)
Actor: Robert Shaw (‘The Hireling’); Rip Torn (‘Payday’); Jack Nicholson (‘The Last Detail’)
S. Actress: Vivien Merchant (‘The Homecoming’); P.J. Johnson (‘Paper Moon’ — “tell ’em about the time you got hit upside the head with a beer bottle, Miss Trixie — tell ’em about the time you got thrown in jail, Miss Trixie”); Nina Van Pallandt (‘The Long Goodbye’)
S. Actor: Ian Holm (‘The Homecoming’); Sterling Hayden (‘The Long Goodbye’); Fredric March (‘The Iceman Cometh’)
Screenplay: Bergman (‘Scenes from a Marriage’); Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck (‘American Graffiti’); Leigh Brackett (‘The Long Goodbye’)
Photography: Giuseppe Rotunno (‘Amarcord’); Vilmos Zsigmond (‘The Long Goodbye’); Tak Fujimoto, Stevan Larner (‘Badlands’)
Why would you choose P.J. Johnson (whom I agree, is a unique presence in the movie) over O’Neal and Kahn? I think so many people on here are trying to out-weird each other…this is sometimes not a contest for the best; it’s often a contest for the most unique OPINIONS.
Forgetting our own disagreements about taste differences, on this particular point I actually agree with you Dean (though not necessarily about Mark’s choices for this year).
I guess because I think O’Neal is a reactor and not an actor, and because I’ve got Kahn winning best supporting actress next year for her work in ‘Blazing Saddles’ and ‘Young Frankenstein’.
Are my choices really that weird? Check out ‘Payday’ and ‘The Hireling,’ wonderful movies that deserve to be widely seen.
Dean, with all affection, “Jesus Christ Superstar”! You’re joking. As the Bible so succinctly puts it, “Christ wept”.
Touche, you have seen ‘Payday,’ so you know how good it is.
Payday is great, no question; unjustly underseen! Wow…Rip Torn…he’s incredible in it, and I like the songs and the script, too. Good suporting cast as well. THE HIRELING is something I’ve always searched for but never could find. I look at these holes in my viewing habits as pleasent, because it means I have good, undiscovered things ahead of me. Sometimes I get verklempt because I can’t find (online) the sort of films I want to see that I haven’t seen yet. YOU TUBE is more and more becoming a place to go for these. Anyway, I’ll redouble my efforts to see it. I guess I can see you point about O’Neal, since the performance was coaxed out of her under great duress for both her father and her director. But the results remain and I totally think, on film, she nails it. And Kahn will DEFINITELY be in the running next year; very well could win…
As for JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR…I get it. It’s kinda bad, I know. But I do really like the music, and also think Jewison came up with an instantly recognizable look for the film. I dunno…I sorta like giving shout-outs to good trash towards the bottom of each week’s Best Picture round-up…
Now GODSPELL…That movie is superb! I’ll go to the mat defending that!
Hey, I found THE HIRELING on good ol’ You Tube. Settling in to watch it now!
I would go to the mat for GODSPELL also Dean!!!!!
But is it really possible to choose a single ‘best’? Especially in such an apples/oranges category like performance – or for that matter, ‘film’ (where I generally pick a ‘favorite of the bests’ each year). Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for a sort of general objectivity and overall ranking but at the point of individual numerical superiority it just becomes ridiculous – in other words, levels of greatness sure but pinpoint gradations of such c’mon. The categories where I feel most confident making specific declarations of ‘best’ are where there are very specific thresholds to serve as guidelines – direction, editing, cinematography, etc. and even there criteria for various films wildly diverge. Ultimately you go with your gut and it’s a crap shoot (like Dean said last weak vis a vis Oates and Johnson: splitting hairs).
In my assessments, I weigh historical importance, influence, technical quality, and personal taste (which includes how influential the film is on me in my life and whether or not I, personally, can find any quibbles about it). I feel, in that way, that I could make an argument as to why I generally place everything on my lists in the order in which they appear. True, i feel some weeks I could slightly rejigger the order a bit (at some point, you just have to let these rankings go, though). It IS difficult, though—often painful to leave out some great achievements. But that’s the game of it all.
A terrific year indeed. Find below my choices for 1973:-
Best Picture: Amarcord
Best Director: Federicco Fellini (dir. Amarcord)
Best Actor: Jack Nicholson (The Last Detail)
Best Actress: Liv Ullmann (Scenes from a Marriage)
Best Supporting Actor: Robert De Niro (Mean Streets)
Best Supporting Actress: Ana Torrent (Spirit of the Beehive)
Best Cinematography: Tak Fujimoto, Steven Larner, Brian Probyn (Badlands)
Best Score: Bob Dylan (Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid)
p.s. I was surprised to see Ana Torrent listed as a supporting actress for Spirit of the Beehive, as, quite clearly, she was the leas actress in it. That said, in a way it was good as I could vote for her.
Top 15:
1. Amarcord
2. Mean Streets
3. Scenes from a Marriage
4. The Long Goodbye
5. La Nuit Americaine
6. The Last Detail
7. The Mother & the Whore
8. Badlands
9. Scarecrow
10. Serpico
11. Padatik (The Foot Soldiers) (dir. Mrinal Sen)
12. Day of the Jackal
13. Spirit of the Beehive
14. Ashani Sanket (Distant Thunder)
15. Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid
Just Missed: The Exorcist, Abhimaan (dir. Hrishikesh Mukherjee), American Graffiti
Best Picture: La Maman et la Putain
Best Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder (World on a Wire)
Best Actor: Jean-Pierre Léaud (La Maman et la Putain)
Best Actress: Liv Ullmann (Scenes from a Marriage)
Best Supporting Actor: Robert De Niro (Mean Streets)
Best Supporting Actress: Tatum O’Neal (Paper Moon)
Best Cinematography: Laszlo Kovacs Paper Moon
Best Score: Bob Dylan (Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid)
Well, Coup d’Etat was really good and I’d now put Rentaro Mikumi on my shortlist for this year’s best actors, but here’s my list:
Best Picture: Spirit of the Beehive
(Runners-up: Battles W/O Honor and Humanity, Amarcord, F for Fake)
Best Director: Erice
Best Actor: Mitchum, Friends of Eddie Coyle
(Runners-up: Matthau, Loewitsch, Mikumi and Bunta Sugawara for Battles Without Honor and Humanity)
Best Actress: Christie
Supporting Actor: De Niro (sympathetic runners-up: March, Robinson, Ryan)
Supporting Actress: Torrent
Cinematography: Cuadrado
Score: Toshiaki Tsushima, Battles Without Honor and Humanity.
Pic- The Spirit of the Beehive
Dir- Erice- The Spirit of the Beehive
Actor- Erland Josephson – Scenes From a Marriage
Actress- Liv Ullman – Scenes From a Marriage
Supp. Actor- Robert De Niro – Mean Streets
Supp. Actress- Tatum O’Neal – Paper Moon
Score- Dylan – Pat Garrett….
Cinematography- Cuadrado – The Spirit of the Beehive
Best Picture: Mean Streets
Best Director: Martin Scorsese, Mean Streets
Best Actor: Robert Mitchum, The Friends of Eddie Coyle
Best Actress: Sissy Spacek, Badlands
Best Supporting Actor: Robert DeNiro, Mean Streets
Best Supporting Actress: Valentina Cortese, Day for Night
Best Cinematography: Laszlo Kovacs, Paper Moon
Best Score: Bernard Herrmann, Sisters
Top five for 1973:
1. Scenes from a Marriage – Ingmar Bergman
2. The Long Goodbye – Robert Altman
3. The Mother and the Whore – Jean Eustache
4. The Spirit of the Beehive – Victor Erice
5. Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid – Sam Peckinpah
Best Picture: Scenes from a Marriage
Best Director: Ingmar Bergman
Best Actor: Robert Mitchum (The Friends of Eddie Coyle)
Best Actress: Liv Ullmann (Scenes from a Marriage)
Best supporting actor: Sterling Hayden (The Long Goodbye)
Best supporting actress: Ana Torrent (The Spirit of the Beehive)
Best Cinematography: Luis Cuadrado (The Spirit of the Beehive)
Best Score: Bob Dylan (Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid)
Best Picture: Badlands
Best Director: Terrence Malick (Badlands)
Best Actor: Vincent Price (Theatre of Blood)
Best Actress: Sissy Spacek (Badlands)
Best Supporting Actor: Vincent Gardenia (Bang the Drum Slowly)
Best Supporting Actress: Vivian Merchant (The Homecoming)
Best Cinematography: Tak Fujimoto (Badlands)
Best Score: Nino Rota (Amarcord)
Best Short: The Wold-Shadow
Picture: The Iceman Cometh
Director: Erice, The Spirit of the Beehive
Actor: Malcoln McDowell, O Lucky Man
Actress: Liv Ullmann, Scenes from a Marriage
Supporting Actor: Robert Ryan, The Iceman Cometh
Supporting Actress: Torrent, Spirit of the Beehive
Short: Where the Wild Things Are
Cinematography: Giuseppe Rotunno, Amarcord
Score: Alan Price, O Lucky Man
Though it’s a completely pointless gesture, I still plan on voting for short film after the official voting has closed. I haven’t been able to watch all the shorts I wanted to (this has been a crazy week), but will chime in after the fact with my pick. At this point it looks like the Greenaway has it anyway, so except to make for a tie (something I’d rather avoid than encourage) my vote is not really “needed.” I shall return…
Best Picture: F for Fake
Best Director: Orson Welles (F for Fake)
Best Actor: Orson Welles (F for Fake)
Orson Welles wasn’t a great filmmaker because of Citizen Kane; It was every film he made after Kane. F for Fake was his most experimental film and in my opinion his great achievement.
Best Actress: Ana Torrent (Spirit of the Beehive)
This and Enzo Staiola in Bicycle Thieves, are probably the best child performances ever.
Best Cinematography: Luis Cuadrado (The Spirit of the Beehive)
He was losing his sight while filming one of the most gorgeous color films ever.
Best Score: Bob Dylan (Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid)
Slim Pickens walking toward the sunset after being shot while “Knocking on Heaven’s Door” plays. The combination of Peckinpah’s beautiful images and Bob Dylan’s music creates one of the finest scenes of the 70s.
Best Short: H is for Home
Peter Greenaway’s best short film and in my opinion one of his greatest films.
+1 on Pickens/Dylan.