Movies Watched -- 3 Days of the Condor (1975)

117 minute running time so around 20 minutes too long … Robert Redford running around the streets of mid-1970s Manhattan, Faye Dunaway and her amazing cheekbones … prominent shots of the World Trade Center, both outside and inside … an old Ford Bronco … his pea coat … the computers and telecom equipment shots … Max von Sydow as bad guy with bad mustache … a CIA within the CIA and paranoia and post-60s conspiracy stuff … this is John Farr reco but it only gets a yellow rating from me, mostly as a period piece.

This whole damn thing was about oil!

Movies Watched -- Just Another Love Story (2008)

In Danish. 104 minutes so just about the right length. The Danes know how to make good movies (and TV), they understand how to tell a story … this is a legit mystery / thriller and good ones are hard to come by, so I’ll give it a green-go … might be hard to find, I had to BUY a copy. This was a John Farr recommendation, and I second it.

Thank you, Sebastian. For being so wonderfully courteous, kind, ordinary, and normal.

Movies Watched -- I Only Want You To Love Me (1976)

In German. 104 minute running time so around the right length. I loved this movie, it was fall-down funny, and it’s mainly because the star, Vitus Zeplichal, is so good. It’s hard to overestimate how much Fassbinder loathes German culture, he’s just scathing… but in a funny, loving way, if you know what I mean. I think I finally understand Fassbinder. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul was a lot less entertaining than this movie. I thank John Farr for this excellent recommendation and I second it. Green-go!

Movies Watched -- One Fine Morning (2022)

In French. 112 minute running time so at least 12 minutes too long. There was no story here, no arc. It’s just Lea Seydoux and her nice tits and her Twiggy haircut taking public transport in Paris and shuttling her father around to various old folks’ homes while seducing a married guy … I don’t care, I don’t know why John Farr recommended this. Red rating.

Movies Watched -- Don't Look Now (1973)

110 minute running time so at least ten minutes too long, but this was so terrible that there would be no saving it. What an awful recommendation from John Farr (“an arty, eerie entry for those seeking something different”). Wrong. Scrawny Julie Christy is beautiful and Venice is an interesting city, but this was just no good. Red rating.

Best Thriller / Mystery Movies of the 1970s

These are the best thriller / mystery movies of the 1970s according to John Farr. I’ve arranged them chronologically below:

English-language movies:

1. 10 Rillington Place (1971)

2. Duel (1971)

3. Get Carter (1971)

4. Klute (1971)

5. Straw Dogs (1971)

6. The French Connection (1971)

7. Walkabout (1971)

8. Deliverance (1972)

9. Frenzy (1972)

10. Images (1972)

11. The Godfather (1972)

12. Badlands (1973)

13. Charley Varrick (1973)

14. Don’t Look Now (1973)

15. Mean Streets (1973)

16. Serpico (1973)

17. The Day of the Jackal (1973)

18. The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973)

19. The Offence (1973)

20. The Sting (1973)

21. Chinatown (1974)

22. Murder on the Orient Express (1974)

23. The Conversation (1974)

24. The Godfather: Part II (1974)

25. The Missiles of October (1974)

26. The Parallax View (1974)

27. The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)

28. The Yakuza (1974)

29. Thieves Like Us (1974)

30. Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

31. Farewell, My Lovely (1975)

32. Night Moves (1975)

33. Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)

34. Three Days of the Condor (1975)

35. All The President's Men (1976)

36. Helter Skelter (1976)

37. I Only Want You To Love Me (1976)

38. Marathon Man (1976)

39. Mikey and Nicky (1976)

40. Taxi Driver (1976)

41. The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976)

42. The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)

43. The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1977)

44. The Duellists (1977)

45. Escape from Alcatraz (1979)

46. Mad Max (1979)

47. Scum (1979)

48. The China Syndrome (1979)

49. The Great Train Robbery (1979)

50. The Onion Field (1979)

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Foreign-language movies:

1. La Rupture (1970) (French)

2. Le Cercle Rouge (1970) (French)

3. The Conformist (1970) (Italian)

4. Le Boucher (1971) (French)

5. Max and the Junkmen (1971) (French)

6. La Bonne Annee (1973) (French)

7. Going Places (1974) (French)

8. Rabid Dogs (1974) (Italian)

9. The Clockmaker of St. Paul (1974) (French)

10. Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) (French)

11. The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (1975) (German)

12. I Only Want You To Love Me (1976) (German)

13. Mr. Klein (1976) (German)

14. Violette (1978) (French)

15. Buffet Froid (1979) (French)

16. Vengeance Is Mine (1979) (Japanese)

Movies Watched -- Whale Rider (2003)

101 minute running time so a good length … this was cute, I enjoyed it, a little contrived of course, a little too sweet, a little too moving, so no green-go … the little girl is beautiful, not sure how much Maori blood she has, but probably more than the white woman who wrote and directed it, lol … a feel-good movie for the whole family to enjoy, but the politics of it are pretty complicated, if you bother to think about it.

And she came on the back of a whale... a woman to lead a new people.

Movies Watched -- Sweet Sixteen (2002)

In Scottish (needs subtitles) … 106 minute running time so about 10 minutes too long … more stories of delinquent Scottish youth … a Ken Loach movie, I should have known (he also made Kes (1969), which is one of the greatest movies of all time … I, Daniel Blake also wasn’t bad). This movie wasn’t bad, just predictable and depressing. When the kid seriously considered murder, the audience probably stopped rooting for him. This was a John Farr reco (“a sympathetic portrait of troubled adolescence”), but it only gets a yellow rating from me.

What a waste.

Movies Watched -- The Clay Bird (2002)

In Bengali. 98 minute running time so the perfect length. I know nothing about the history of Bangladesh (East Pakistan) and how it became independent (so the movie is set before 1971) and the conflict between Hindus and Muslims and about boys being sent off to a madrasa, etc. so I learned a few basic things by watching this movie. I think there was a lot of symbolic stuff within that I didn’t get because I’m too dense. This was a John Farr reco (“lyrical gem”), and I’ll give it a yellow rating at best.

The clay bird laments:"Why did you infuse my heart with longing if you didn't give my wings the strength to fly?"

Movies Watched -- 13 Tzameti (2005)

In French. 90 minute running time so the perfect length, but this was an absurd story and sick and twisted and bad for the soul (Russian roulette thing) … I had to buy a copy of this movie since I couldn’t find it anywhere and now I know why, it’s both dumb and disturbing. Very surprised John Farr recommended this, what a bad call on his part. Supposedly based on a true story, but I doubt it. Red rating.