Yearly Roundup – 1967
Posted by martinteller on July 17, 2012
The Cream of the Crop
A fine pair of “top 100-worthy” comedies for 1967. Playtime is a film that gets better every time I see it. Tati at the peak of his talents, incredibly inventive and quietly witty. He ups the ante from Mon Oncle, thrusting Hulot into an entirely drab and compartmentalized world. It’s a world of “plastics,” itself a memorable line from Mike Nichols’ The Graduate. A longtime favorite of mine, with heaps of iconic moments, terrific use of the Simon & Garfunkel music, great performances and an unforgettable ending.
Slightly Less Creamy, But Still Tasty
It’s a post-noir year, but the influence is felt in the haunting In Cold Blood, the masterfully crafted heist film Grand Slam, and a pair of noir-tinged Joe Shishido flicks: A Colt Is My Passport and Branded to Kill. From Eastern Europe we get Jansco’s powerful anti-war film The Red and the White and Forman’s far more light-hearted The Firemen’s Ball. Bresson gives us one of his heartbreaking works, the stunning Mouchette. Documentaries make a strong showing with Allan King’s peek inside an offbeat home for troubled youngsters Warrendale and Connell & Jersey’s amazing fly-on-the-wall civil rights piece A Time for Burning. Finally, we have the film that was deconstructed and reconstructed in The Five Obstructions: Leth’s quirky short The Perfect Human.
Varying Degrees of Like
Belle de Jour
Cool Hand Luke
David Holzman’s Diary
Don’t Look Back
I Even Met Happy Gypsies
Japan’s Longest Day
Point Blank
Le Samourai
Samurai Rebellion
Titicut Follies
Two for the Road
The Two of Us
Wavelength
The Young Girls of Rochefort
Varying Degrees of Hate
2 or 3 Things I Know About Her
Some Notable Films In The Middle
Bonnie and Clyde
La Chinoise
La Collectionneuse
The Dirty Dozen
The Fearless Vampire Killers
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
In the Heat of the Night
Marat/Sade
Marketa Lazarova
Oedipus Rex
Terre em transe
Tonite Let’s All Make Love in London
Wait Until Dark
Week End
You Only Live Twice
Uncharted Territory
Accident, Barefoot in the Park, Bedazzled, Casino Royale, Doctor Doolittle, Dragon Inn, The Harem, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, I Am Curious (Yellow), In Like Flint, The Jungle Book, Magical Mystery Tour, Our Mother’s House, Peppermint Frappé, Quatermass and the Pit, The Shooting, To Sir With Love, The Trip, Valley of the Dolls, Who’s That Knocking At My Door
Sean Gilman said
The only big omission I see here is King Hu’s DRAGON INN, one of the great action movies of all-time.
martinteller said
I started that once several years ago, in anticipation of Tsai’s GOODBYE DRAGON INN. Don’t remember why I didn’t get very far, but you’re right, it should be on the Uncharted list.
JamDenTel said
CASINO ROYALE is a weird one…a film that’s either an incoherent mess or a surreal fantasy, depending on how you look at it. I personally enjoy it, but…your mileage may vary.
martinteller said
Yeah that one’s pretty low priority for me.
Danny said
Yeah, most of your omissions list looks pretty omissionable.
martinteller said
Well, a few are from my watchlist… but most of them I have little interest in.