Possibly the most emotionally engaging science fiction film ever made, (or at least, of those I've seen) 1972's Solyaris remains, in its silent operatic status, one of the complex on-screen romances in film history. Beautiful and haunting, Solyaris is not only a strong love story, but an introspective look at a (very real) character and an exploration of human desire and remembrances.
No list of 70's film, could ever be complete without mentioning the emerging intellectual of the decade: Woody Allen - and, as far as 70's romance, the ultimate Allen: Annie Hall (and yes, Manhattan deserves a mention). Fresh, funny, quotable as few after it, ("I forgot my mantra.") it's a fantastic insight of the many layers and stages of relationships - and a damn fun way to spend to spend 93 minutes of your life, over and over again.
The huge, huge hit that started off the 70's Love Story, deserves its place in film history - if only because we deserve it there. Cheesy beyond words, with a remarkably bad screenplay ("Love is never having to say you're sorry") and not particularly good performances (but then again, I hate Ryan O'Neal)... and somehow, all the wrongs make a right, and the film is really not bad. Or it is, but you just can't help watching and enjoying it - Love Story might just very well be the ultimate guilty pleasure.
Barbra Streisand plays a not-so-pretty and not-too-confident, smart Jewish girl (a role she surely never played before or again) that falls madly in love with a sexy writer (Robert Redford in his prime) in The Way We Were. Albeit slow at times, the severely underrated Pollack film is remembered almost entirely for its (gorgeous) song, but it remains a really beautiful story and one of the many strange pairings between Barbra Streisand and the best-looking leading man at the time of the film's release (covering her own complexes, I'm sure)
In a decade distinguisable for its more sexual contents (though admittedly, moreso for the recently uncensored American industry), Marlon Brando stars in his own second masterpiece of 1972, Bertolucci's L'Ultimo Tango a Parigi. In a tragically complex story of a man haunted by ghosts and taking sexual refuge in a young and naïve Maria Schneider. While unconventional (and revolutionizing!) in many ways it conveys a lot of what the 1970's meant for film - and the scene of the actual last tango has a marvellous tragic beauty to it. And butter shall never be the same, ever again.
No comments:
Post a Comment