BEST FILMS OF 1976
by Mike Lorefice

All the President's Men
Alan J. Pakula

***

Assault on Precinct 13
John Carpenter

***1/2

Black and White in Color
Jean-Jacques Annaud

Ironic parable of bourgeois imperialist French traders in Africa trying to pretend they care about something other than themselves. Upon learning their country is at war with the Germans (WW1), they are swept away by a patriotic furor that propels them to whip up an incredibly rag tag army to attack the German traders across the way. Things start out innocently, almost as a contest, but once they are set in motion suddenly no one can or will resist and the "only" option becomes to trudge forward and attack. The funniest part is how the French try to inspire the Africans they want to fight for them by teaching them the superiority of everything French! The French are consistently made out to be absurd fools, which is sometimes very funny but tends to wear thin about halfway through the film because almost everyone is a caricature. It's actually supposed to be about the absurdity of war, with the trading post serving as a microcosm, but the French are just so dumb I'm not sure it really comes off. I don't disagree with the small mindedness, the pettiness, or any of that, but the film is so unsubtle about it the characters might as well be wearing a scarlet M for moron. It seems much more in the vein of Bunuel's The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, not particularly discreet or charming. One of Annaud's biggest strengths is his ability to bring locations to life. This was the first film shot in the Ivory Coast, and he's able to use that to lend credibility that's rare for comedy. The location's beauty can be seen by everyone but the French, who only see black things that might almost be men. One of the things Annaud does succeed at showing is the silliness of nationalism; it's directly related to racism because nationalists are essentially elitists clinging to notions that allow them to claim and maintain a false sense of superiority. [1/9/07] ***

Bound for Glory
Hal Ashby

***

Carrie
Brian De Palma

***1/2

Cria Cuervos
Carlos Saura

Repression breeds an increasingly corrosive perversion of reality in Carlos Saura's complex examination of a traumatized child's mind. Opting to ignore the magnitude of what the three young sisters have witnessed and "protect" them from the grieving process, the death of their terminally ill mother (Geraldine Chaplin) is never discussed. Believing the philandering and neglect of her general father Anselmo (Hector Alterio) to be the culprit, Ana (Ana Torrent) places what her mother told her was poison in his glass, leading her to believe she's responsible for what's actually a heart attack. Shifted to the care of Aunt Paulina (Monica Randall), another fascist who chooses their own selfish romantic endeavors over regard for family, the children face their uncertain future alone. Ana takes on the worst qualities of both parents; she's lonely, melancholic, passionless, and desperate like her mother and a tyrant playing dangerous games with family members like her father. The haunting memories of the morbid, largely silent child spark her deluded imagination, allowing Saura to enter the surreal realm of his master Luis Bunuel, mixing fantasy and reality to the point you rarely know one from the other. The most memorable segments enliven the play world Ana orchestrates. At once entertaining and disturbing, she and her sisters reenact scenes from the lives of the troubled adults they've been surrounded by, with Ana taking solace in the role reversal of traumas and indignities she or her kindred spirit mother, who still appears to her, have suffered. Ana Torrent confirms her standing as one of the greatest child actresses in this film that's most closely linked to Victor Erice's superior traumatized Torrent vehicle Spirit of the Beehive, but the themes of Saura's allegory of Franco-era repression also bear considerably resemblance to his own Peppermint Frappe. Anselmo is Franco, who was on his death bed at the time of production. Though many autobiographic details are inserted, Saura focuses on women because they bear the brunt of the patriarchal and catholic repression. They are all withdrawn to the point of listlessness, with the mute grandmother (Josephina Diaz) looking on silently while secretly longing for the good old days of the Spanish Republic, while unknowing authoritarian collaborator Paulina stresses well presented order keeping lies over honesty and freedom. Like an orphaned child, Spain doesn't know what direction it's about to go in, and knowing others are likely to control your destiny and unlikely to be the ones you'd bequeath that power to is frightening. The world the children are being educated for will be outdated as soon as Franco dies, though they may graduate before adequate reform is enacted. For me the main problem with the still memorable film is the way Saura attains his surrealism and allegory - regularly shifting perspectives between the various opposing forces as well as alternating between an intimate and distanced depiction of the material - undermines his psychological portrayal of Ana. ***

Le Coup de Grace
Volker Scholondorff

***

The Desert of the Tartars
Valerio Zurlini

****

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Family Plot
Alfred Hitchcock

***1/2

The Inheritance
Marco Bolognini

***

Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000
Alain Tanner

***

The Judge and The Assassin
Bertrand Tavernier

Rural 19th century French drama about a poor soldier turned tramp (Michel Galabru). He was bitten by a rabid dog, raped by a priest, had his brain toasted in an insane asylum, and is constantly rejected by everyone, especially women who instead choose men of means. After the woman he really wants casts him aside he tries to kill her and himself, but failing at that he becomes a serial rapist and killer. None of what he's been through is meant to excuse the soldier for his inexcusable deeds; it's used to create a larger portrait of France as a country in turmoil. The French had been humiliated by losing Alsace and Lorraine to Germany and anti-Semitism was running wild with the impending trial for spying of Captain Dreyfus, the sole Jewish member of the French Army General Staff. As always, the system functioned to hold up the "order" and "values" of the rich. The well off provincial judge (Philippe Noiret) befriends the serial killer supposedly in an effort to determine whether he's insane and should go back to the asylum or sane and should get the death penalty, but mainly he'll do anything it takes to advance his career. The judge is very narrow minded and sure of himself, certainly sure of the result he needs even though he usually acts as if there's some doubt as to how he'll rule. The film begins with the assassin, who seems more like a lonely loser until we see him in action, but quickly switches to the perspective of the judge so we don't get much more insight into what the assassin is plotting or thinking than the judge does. Tavernier is not judgmental, no character comes off looking good and part of his point is the characters are more similar than they realize or would like to admit. The film isn't about pitying the killer, but that the judge may be nearly as dubious in his methods of dealing with him (not to mention some of his other habits). He badgers and hounds the confession out of this man he considers less than human, acting nice only for his own gain with the assassin being so desperate for human contact he convinces himself the judge is actually his friend. The judge becomes the assassin, with part of the point being that bad deeds done legally still aren't morally acceptable. The assassin is guilty, but he's just a scapegoat for a violent class bent on taking their frustrations out on somebody. The few he kills should still be alive, but are nothing in comparison to the thousands killed by the hopelessness and poverty the system breeds. [8/20/06] ***

The Man Who Fell To Earth
Nicolas Roeg

***1/2

Marathon Man
John Schlesinger

***1/2

Mikey and Nicky
Elaine May

****

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Mr. Klein
Joseph Losey

***

Network
Sidney Lumet

****

Next Stop, Greenwich Village
Paul Mazursky

***1/2

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Obsession
Brian De Palma

***

The Omen
Richard Donner

***1/2

The Outlaw Josey Wales
Clint Eastwood

****

A Real Young Girl
Catherine Breillat

***1/2

Rocky
John G. Avildsen

***

Silent Movie
Mel Brooks

***

Taxi Driver
Martin Scorsese

****

The Tenant
Roman Polanski

***1/2

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