Music 81-63: Like Discs Through the Hourglass, These Are the Albums of My Life

I have to admit as these lists get older it gets harder, partially as some more classic artists I enjoy more on greatest hits packages or live recordings than any single album (I'm looking at James Brown, for instance, but the Buzzcocks, too). Trying to compile this lsit also made me realize how much I'm not into "classic" rock. I mean I want to like Hendrix and Van Morrison, to pick two very different types, and all sorts of other talented people more than I do, but I just don't have the urge to go back and do it when new stuff keeps coming out and getting me interested. So take this with a huge grain of salt. (For the previous lists see 1995-1982 here and 2007-1996 here.)

1981
X Wild Gift
Eno/Byrne My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
Garland Jeffreys Escape Artist
Joy Division Closer
King Crimson Discipline

1980
The Clash London Calling
Gang of Four Entertainment!
Talking Heads Remain in Light
The Clash Black Market Clash
Rockpile Seconds of Pleasure
XTC Black Sea

1979
Graham Parker and the Rumour Squeezing Out Sparks
Neil Young Rust Never Sleeps
Nick Lowe Labour of Lust
The Clash The Clash
XTC Drums and Wires

1978
Steve Reich Music for 18 Musicians
Elvis Costello This Year's Model
Nick Lowe Pure Pop for Now People (Jesus of Cool)
Anthony More Flying Doesn't Help
Wire Pink Flag
Big Star Third

1977
Television Marquee Moon
Sex Pistols Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols
Richard Hell and the Voidoids Blank Generation
Talking Heads Talking Heads 77
David Bowie "Heroes"

1976
Brian Eno Another Green World
The Modern Lovers The Modern Lovers
Graham Parker and the Rumour Heat Treatment
The Ramones The Ramones
Graham Parker and the Rumour Howling Wind

1975
Roxy Music Siren
Bob Dylan Blood on the Tracks
Bob Dylan and the Band The Basement Tapes
Brian Eno Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)
Neil Young Tonight's the Night

1974
Richard and Linda Thompson I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight
Roxy Music Country Life
Big Star Radio City
Gram Parsons Grievous Angel
John Cale Fear

1973
Mott the Hoople Mott
John Cale Paris 1919
Harder They Come sdtrk
Roxy Music Stranded
Al Green Call Me

1972
Rolling Stones Exile on Main Street
Randy Newman Sail Away
Big Star #1 Record
Mott the Hoople All the Young Dudes
David Bowie The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars

1971
Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers
The Who Who's Next
Miles Davis Jack Johnson
Sly & the Family Stone There's a Riot Goin' On

1970
The Velvet Underground Loaded
Miles Davis Bitches Brew
Fairport Convention Unhalfbricking

1969
The Velvet Underground The Velvet Underground
The Band The Band
Rolling Stones Let It Bleed

1968
The Band Music from Big Pink
The Velvet Underground White Light/White Heat
The Beatles The White Album
The Byrds Sweetheart of the Rodeo
Dusty Springfield Dusty in Memphis

1967
The Velvet Underground The Velvet Underground and Nico
Love Forever Changes
The Who The Who Sell Out

1966
Bob Dylan Blonde on Blonde
The Beatles Revolver

1965
Bob Dylan Highway 61 Revisited
The Who My Generation
Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass Whipped Cream and Other Delights
Vince Guaraldi A Charlie Brown Christmas

1964
Bob Dylan The Times They Are a-Changin'
John Coltrane A Love Supreme

1963
James Brown Live at the Apollo (I know I wasn't including live albums, but it's the only album from the year I want to mention)

Music 95-82: Some Are Old, Some Are New, Some Choices Leave Me Blue

And the music parade continues whilst I still have the oomph for it. While I did do Top 10s at least back to 89, I don't have those files anywhere (they might exist somewhere in Mac Write II). So for those years I'm doing the top 5 now. Then from 1989 to 1981 I have cassettes I made with cuts from the top albums, as it's something I did back in my college radio days (and then for 2 years at home, lamenting I no longer did college radio). Alas, the blind spots grow larger the younger I was, but that's the case about so many things.

1995
Yo La Tengo Electr-o-Pura
Archers of Loaf Vee Vee
Son Volt Trace
Guided by Voices Alien Lanes
Magnetic Fields Get Lost

1994
Pavement Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
Victoria Williams Loose
Guided by Voices Bee Thousand
Built to Spill There's Nothing Wrong with Love
Dave Alvin King of California
This year goes to 6 (7?) with the double release of Magnetic Fields' The Charm of the Highway Strip and Holiday

1993
Uncle Tupelo Anodyne
Liz Phair Exile in Guyville
Archers of Loaf Icky Mettle
Yo La Tengo Painful
Eleventh Dream Day El Moodio

1992
Freedy Johnston Can You Fly
Pavement Slanted and Enchanted
Giant Sand Ramp
Luna Lunapark
Tom Waits Bone Machine

1991
The Pooh Sticks Multiple Orgasm
Matthew Sweet Girlfriend
Mekons The Curse of the Mekons
Teenage Fanclub Bandwagonesque
Shams Quilt

1990
Yo La Tengo Fakebook
Lloyd Cole Lloyd Cole
Reed/Cale Songs for Drella
Eno/Cale Wrong Way Up
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan Mustt Mustt

1989
or the beginning of the "tapes exist" years (where was Rosemary Woods when I needed her?)
was then
Pixies Doolittle
XTC Oranges and Lemons
Peter Gabriel Passion: Music from the Soundtrack for the Last Temptation of Christ
Mekons Mekons Rock 'n' Roll
Yo La Tengo President Yo La Tengo

is now
Mekons Mekons Rock 'n' Roll
Pixies Doolittle
David Byrne Rei Momo
Syd Straw Surprise
Lounge Lizards Voice of Chunk

1988
was then
Throwing Muses House Tornado
Pixies Surfer Rosa
Pere Ubu The Tenement Year
Penguin Cafe Orchestra When in Rome
Billy Bragg Worker's Playtime

is now
Lucinda Williams Lucinda Williams
Sonic Youth Daydream Nation
Feelies Only Life
Pixies Surfer Rosa
Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens Paris-Soweto

1987
was then
various artists Lonely Is an Eyesore
Tom Verlaine Flash Light
French Frith Kaiser and Thompson Live, Love, Larf, and Loaf
Throwing Muses Throwing Muses and The Fat Skier
John Hiatt Bring the Family

is now
Tom Waits Frank's Wild Years
The Replacements Pleased to Meet Me
Tom Verlaine Flash Light
Pianosaurus Groovy Neighborhood
John Hiatt Bring the Family

1986
was then
WOMAD music samplers
XTC Skylarking
Peter Gabriel So
Bill Nelson Getting the Holy Ghost Across
This Mortal Coil Filigree & Shadow

is now
various artists The Indestructible Beat of Soweto
Feelies The Good Earth
Billy Bragg Talking with the Taxman about Poetry
Talking Heads True Stories
Elvis Costello and the Attractions Blood and Chocolate

1985
was then
Kate Bush Hounds of Love
Talking Heads Little Creatures
Shriekback Oil and Gold
The Armoury Show Waiting for the Flood
Replacements Tim

is now
Mekons Fear and Whiskey
Tom Waits Rain Dogs
Talking Heads Little Creatures
The Pogues Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash
Lloyd Cole and the Commotions Rattlesnakes

1984
was then
XTC The Big Express
Laurie Anderson United States Live and Mister Heartbreak
John Cale John Cale Comes Alive
Lou Reed Live in Italy and New Sensations
Yellow Magic Orchestra After Service

is now
Replacements Let It Be
and lord knows...all sorts of good stuff this year (see the above, plus Three of a Perfect Pair, and Brewing Up with Billy Bragg, and Stop Making Sense, and How Will the Wolf Survive?) but I just don't have a feel for this year--maybe it's all washed away by Born in the USA

1983
was then
XTC Mummer
Yellow Magic Orchestra Naughty Boys
Bill Nelson Chimera and Savage Gestures for Charm's Sake
New Order Power, Corruption, and Lies
Howard Devoto Jerky Versions of the Dream

is now
Tom Waits Swordfishtrombones
Talking Heads Speaking in Tongues
T-Bone Burnett Proof Through the Night
Marshall Crenshaw Field Day
Lou Reed Legendary Hearts

1982
was then
XTC English Settlement
Peter Gabriel Security
Bill Nelson The Love that Whirls (Diary of a Thinking Heart)
Simple Minds New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84)
Modern English After the Snow

is now
Richard and Linda Thompson Shoot Out the Lights
Elvis Costello and the Attractions Imperial Bedroom
Lou Reed The Blue Mask
Marshall Crenshaw Marshall Crenshaw
ABC The Lexicon of Love

That was exhausting. And just 19 more years of my life to go!

A Dozen Five Faves for Friday

In an incredibly act of juggling, INOTBB will now perform two memes at the same time! Yes, I still need to finish the film list, but I thought I should get started on the "albums of your life" one, too, especially since I actually have Top 10s for the years 1996-2005 already. Here comes the list of the top 5 INOTBB picks to click from right now--minus 2008, as it's presumptuous to know what's best with 4 months left--to 1996, with apologies for the stuff about which I know better now.

2007
Shout Out Louds Our Ill Wills
Okkervil River The Stage Names
Andrew Bird Armchair Apocrypha
M.I.A. Kala
Allison Krauss & Robert Plant Raising Sand

2006
Neko Case Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
Tom Waits Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers, Bastards
The Hold Steady Boys and Girls in America
Regina Spektor Begin to Hope
Howe Gelb Sno' Angel Like You

2005
The New Pornographers Twin Cinema (I didn't get into them until this album, which is why they don't appear in earlier years)
Sleater-Kinney The Woods
The Decemberists Picaresque
Andrew Bird The Mysterious Production of Eggs
Shout Out Louds Howl Howl Gaff

2004
Drive-by Truckers The Dirty South
Rilo Kiley More Adventurous
Neko Case The Tigers Have Spoken
Futureheads Futureheads
Magnetic Fields i

2003
Fountains of Wayne Welcome Interstate Managers
Yo La Tengo Summer Sun
Johnny Cash Unearthed
Lucinda Williams World without Tears
OutKast Speakerboxxx/The Love Below

2002
The Mekons Out of Our Heads
Bright Eyes Lifted, or the Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground
Sleater-Kinney One Beat
Wilco Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Rhett Miller The Instigator

2001
Gillian Welch The Revelator
Old 97's Satellite Rides
The Strokes Is This It
Joe Henry Scar
Manu Chao Próxima Estación: Esperanza

2000
PJ Harvey Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea
Sleater-Kinney All Hands on the Bad One
Marc Ribot y Los Cubanos Postizos Muy Divertado!
Yo La Tengo And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out
Kasey Chambers The Captain

1999
Magnetic Fields 69 Love Songs
Built to Spill Keep It Like a Secret
Wilco Summerteeth
Guided by Voices Do the Collapse
Beck Midnight Vultures
(why, yes, I missed Moby Play and Old 97's Fight Songs--can't always be on top of things, I'm afraid, especially in such a great year)

1998
Lucinda Williams Car Wheels on a Gravel Road
Billy Bragg & Wilco Mermaid Avenue
Belle & Sebastian The Boy with the Arab Strap
Peter Case Full Service No Waiting
Elliott Smith XO

1997
Yo La Tengo I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One
Pavement Brighten the Corners
Sleater-Kinney Dig Me Out
Steve Earle El Corazon
Built to Spill Perfect from Now On

1996
Beck Odelay!
Los Lobos Colossal Head
Steve Earle I Feel Alright
Ani DiFranco Dilate
Amy Rigby Diary of a Mod Housewife

Bands many people with quite good taste like much more than I do: Radiohead, The White Stripes, The Flaming Lips, The Shins, Arcade Fire.

More Movie Mania! The Nifty Nineties

I got mighty close to either giving up on this film meme or just going the list route, for as my years went on, my film watching did not, and I feel more and more a fraud. (Honest, I really do feel bad about having strong opinions about things I don't know enough about. Not that that usually stops me.) So. Take all of this was a mighty grain of salt. Or a chunk of grainy B&W film. I probably know the films of 1939 better than those of 1999.

On top of that, all the cool kids are doing the top albums of your life already. So I've got enough meme-ing to do to last me the summer.

1991

I could put this documentary in anywhere (well, any 7 years), but this seemed to be the edition to do it, Michael Apted's wonderful longitudinal project 35 Up. How wonderful humans are, how changeable. We actually do get acts. Who knows if we'll really get the post-life acts some hope for, but perhaps the funniest look at that is Albert Brooks' delightful Defending Your Life, if for nothing else than that it shows Meryl Streep at her most normal and angelic all at once. Plus Rip Torn cracks me up. Then there's Trust, the first of the brilliant two year run by Hal Hartley. One of the sneakiest love stories of all time, which is the way I like them, plus is there a more attractive young couple than Adrienne Shelley and Martin Donovan? Not to mention the film offers the best defense ever for television: "I had a bad day at work. I had to subvert my principles and kow-tow to an idiot. Television makes these daily sacrifices possible. Deadens the inner core of my being."

1992

Sticking with Hartley, there's Simple Men, a story of a crook and his straight-arrow brother on the lam, of course finding women with whom to fall in love, while hoping to track down their estranged dad, the infamous anarchist shortstop. Let's not forget the dance number set to Sonic Youth. I'm also a sucker for the spot-on cynicism of The Player.

1993
Weird year. I keep looking at the list of releases but come up with the same film over and over--Groundhog Day. If you've ever been to Puxsutawney, and fortunately I've only been through on the bus, you'd know this is comedy perched on the cusp of horror.

1994
Ever a fan of fractured narrative, and a fan of the French New Wave, I have to tip my cap to Pulp Fiction, even if it led to too many bad wannabe films and meant we had to deal with Tarantino thinking he's important for decades. I loved the flat-out great story, actually hiding some class criticism, of Quiz Show, with its fine performances. Speaking of that, there's the ultimate femme fatale turn by Linda Fiorentino in The Last Seduction--either she's been the worst used actress in the last 15 years or it's all she had in her. Then there's Heavenly Creatures, which makes me really really scared of teenage girls.

1995
Babe. C'mon you liked it too, admit it. It's an adorable talking pig! And two years from this that sweet farmer will be so mean in LA Confidential--people really do act! To see people seemingly not acting, there's the lovely love story Before Sunrise, only lovelier because of Julie Delpy. I know some people hate this one (one friend once wrote "I can go on my own boring dates, George, I don't need to watch them on film"), but it's lyrical to me. And ends with K. McCarty singing Daniel Johnston. I haven't seen it but once, but Jarmusch's Dead Man sure left an impression as another anti-Western Western (see earlier entries McCabe and Mrs. Wild Bunch). And, like everyone else, the narrative game that is The Usual Suspects was a blast for me, too.

1996
I find myself falling back on the Coens over and over, so I guess I like them more than I thought. Fargo is Frances McDormand's most acclaimed if not best performance, but it sure centers the film. Then there's the Faulkner does Texas Lone Star--completely engrossing and not as heavy-handed as some John Sayles, whose films I always want to like more than I end up actually liking. They're too earnest or something. Actually, Sayles v the Coens is quite a pairing, as many think they're not earnest enough. Maybe Sayles should write them a script and see what happens. Oh, and I almost forgot Irma Vep, one of those films about film, but much much more.

1997
Perhaps my favorite film of the past 15 years is The Sweet Hereafter. Totally harrowing, on some level, but the idea of community grief is fascinating, and the way it keeps almost but not quite getting to the bus accident, making you both want and not want to see it.... Great performances by everyone, but especially two people who make almost any film better, Sarah Polley and Ian Holm. No moment in film period, last 15 years or more, matches the flashback and the fierce look on the baby's face, the utter struggles we have trying to help each other in often the cruelest of ways. If you haven't seen this film, rent it at once.

1998
Confession time--I have never seen The Big Lebowski or The Thin Red Line. Hey, where did everyone go? OK, now that I have either no readership or credibility (or both), I'll ask for a 1998 mulligan. And in the meantime Rushmore gets the nod for finding (allowing?) the sadness in Bill Murray.

1999
I have to admit to a guilty pleasure here, as it's true, I'm terribly fond of Dick. It's not a great film, but as satirical romps go, it's hard to beat, no pun intended. While Kirsten Dunst makes her airhead just a bit smarter than the Nixon White House, the real joy is in all the non-impression versions of the "real" characters, from Dan Hedaya's Nixon to Woodstein being lampooned by Will Ferrell and Bruce McCulloch. Again, narrative games make Being John Malkovich a joy, plus who wouldn't want Catherine Keener in his head? As for some more gravitas, there's Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, with Forrest Whitaker's best performance.

2000
I'm glad I kept looking at lists for this year as I almost put O Brother Where Art Thou? as the default--a fine film that proved Clooney could carry a picture and that T Bone Burnett's soundtrack could, too. But in the unrequited love sweepstakes nothing matches Kar Wai Wong's In the Mood for Love (released internationally in 2000 and the U.S. in 2001, so sure I'm cheating but it is a film about infidelity after all). As Slant Magazine says, the film is "ravishing beyond mortal words."

To see my previous flick picks hit the magic links: 1963-70, 1971-80, 1981-90.

Movies for a Disco Decade, You Punks

I started this meme the other day, the best film for each year of my life as decided by me. No refunds or exchanges. So here we go with the 1970s....

1971

In our previous entry I worried over the split between the film that meant something to me then and what I feel now is the best film from that year. Most films didn't mean much to me in the '60s cause I was too young to know any better (although I probably should have put down The Happiest Millionaire for 1967 since I remember seeing it in Radio City Music Hall, one of my earliest memories, or maybe I just remember it as I wrote a poem about seeing it, not that my poetry was ever memorable). 1971 does suggest a now/then split, however. For I certainly vividly recall Duel, back when Spielberg couldn't be pretentious as they didn't give him the money and it was merely a TV movie. But boy it packed the thrills, and Dennis Weaver was McCloud, too. Years later I would see McCabe and Mrs. Miller, fall in love with Julie Christie, totally rethink the Western, realize Altman was teaching me a new way to watch, and listen to, a film. Wonderful use of Leonard Cohen, too.

1972

Last time I pointed out this might be the best year for film in my life--certainly the best year up to this point. Nine-year-old me missed most of it, getting "adult" seeing Poseidon Adventure as my first PG film (but I was blase as somehow they let me take out the novel from the public library, and that was even steamier). And my favorite film during that year was definitely What's Up Doc? as I had no idea something called Bringing Up Baby existed and was getting ripped off, however lovingly. That one can say Ryan O'Neal is a better Cary Grant than Streisand is a Katherine Hepburn is damning with feint chin dimples. Still, Madeline Kahn--film never did provide her the plum role she so deserved.

But '72 was the Year of the Marlon as Brando excelled in The Godfather and Last Tango in Paris. And I'm not just buttering him up here. For self-determined intensity, Brando might have been outdone by Klaus Kinski, whose driven performance in that allegory of imperialism Aguirre, the Wrath of God draws everything into it like whirlpools on the Amazon.

And then there's perhaps the most psychologically searing film ever, Bergman's Cries and Whispers. Forget fading to black, scenes fade to red, and the bitter vicissitudes of family never got committed to celluloid more painfully. The death watch scene, and that wheezing. The wine glass scene. Now that's a horror film.

1973

The sound you hear is thousands of piano teacher screaming. For The Sting has made Scott Joplin popular and everyone wants to learn "The Entertainer" (I think I can still pick its beginning out, myself). At 10 I wanted to be Paul Newman, not Redford, which suggests much about my young psyche. At the least I wanted to grow up and be a con man. Look what happened--now I'm in marketing. I won't vouch for the film as much today, but it certainly rides on a terrific supporting cast, from Robert Shaw to Harold Gould. And running with the con man theme, the other best film of this year is/was Paper Moon. Telling that films set in the 1930s were so popular, and that even as I kid I could get swept up in that. Or perhaps it was just my nascent love for old movies getting redirected into something possible for a pre-teen two years before even Beta tapes and 11 before AMC.

1974

Please turn up the speakers on your computer while I broadcast a very low range rumble, for this is the year of Sensurround and Earthquake. In New Jersey the perils of LA seemed quite remote, so to watch it crumble upon Charlton Heston was mostly a romp, except when Joe DePirri got surprised by one rumble and tossed his giant popcorn all over our row at his brother's birthday party. Everything was a disaster that year, as it also offered the sublimely all-star studded ridiculousness of The Towering Inferno (OJ saves the cat--good thing he wasn't married to it). But of course now I know I was watching the wrong Los Angeles film, and should have stuck with my 1930s obsession. Forget it, George, it's Chinatown. (Doubt it would have made sense when I was 11.) Remember when Nicholson didn't just do Nicholson shtick? If you don't, watch this again. And my god, nothing is more scary than John Huston as Noah Cross.

1975

Open wide and say Jaws. Damn it for starting the summer blockbuster idea that Lucas would run with (you won't see any of those films on my list, thank you very much), but what a thrill ride. I'm also completely enamored, still, with Love and Death, especially as it's sort of for me what MP and the Holy Grail is for others, a trove of lines to recite at any provocation. Maybe it's because I'm 50% Ukrainian, which at 12 I thought was Russian (of course it was all Soviet no-goodnik, lefty in training me didn't know). Maybe it's because I'm 100% silly, and the idea of scythe-wielding Death dancing to Prokofiev is too delicious. And there's this priceless exchange, which at that age was probably just getting a firm grip on my imagination:

Countess Alexandrovna: You are the greatest lover I've ever had.
Boris: Well, I practice a lot when I'm alone.



1976

I have to hail Taxi Driver, of course, but I have a soft spot for hokum that overpowers its own corniness (come to think of it, that might be the goal of my entire life), and there's absolutely nothing half-baked about Network, which was satire 32 years ago and more or less a documentary now. All those great performances--Holden, Dunaway, Beatty, Duvall, Straight, and of course Peter Finch. For some of its greatness, go here. 1977 can wait. And I do know Nashville came out this year--it's a close runner-up.

1977

The year Annie Hall broke. I actually like Manhattan more, but what a film this is. Again, my humor has to be at least 92% Woody Allen derived (5% the first year of SNL especially Steve Martin guest appearances, 2% Monty Python, 1% my parents' divorce, which I turned into a laff riot). Which means Amy better never suggest we adopt any South Koreans. (shudder)

1978

Not to get all artsy on you, but the images of Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven pop into my head in the same way the lines of Woody Allen do. Of course that's the argument against the film--it's all pretty pictures--but I think it's after something basic and Biblical as envisioned by Edward Hopper. Not to mention trying to find a good still from it now on line was hard. Maybe that means people just haven't posted the good stuff. Or maybe it means it works only as a movie, and if nothing else it captures time and the seasons better than most films.

1979

Manhattan. In which NYC is even prettier than the young Mariel Hemingway. Plus NYC never got a boob job. Close second has to be All that Jazz, a film I wrote about back when Roy Scheider died.

1980

And the decade closes much more strongly in film than it did in politics. If I may I want to pick a trifecta. First there's Melvin and Howard, Jonathan Demme before he got pretentious. A true American story, capturing our flirts with success and fame and flirting. Then there's Atlantic City, a mix of a bit of everything done somehow right--old time polish from Burt Lancaster, edgy sexuality from Susan Sarandon, some old world new wave from Louis Malle, and poetry from John Guare. Plus the edge of America past the edge of decay.

Last and far from least the longest film on this entire lifetime list, I see England, I see France, I see Fassbinder's Berlin Alexanderplatz. OK, that was the silliest intro to a very un-silly film, one more or less humorless, a recipe that might seem deadly for something over 900 minutes long. But the world in the film is so real you get totally swept into it. I got to see this in 1984 or so over a weekend in Baltimore and the experience is still precious to me (one reason years later Best of Youth would also be so rewarding). Build me a world to go live in.

It Was a Very Good Film, When I Was 0-7

So there's this meme going around and I caught it cause I'm promiscuous like that, especially when the arts are involved and what's more to complete the project would be a huge time suck when the rest of my life has too many demands already. I learned about it over at Ben's place: you're supposed to name the best film for every year since you've been born. Now, since I'm older than Thomas Alva Edison (Ole Alvy, we called him), that's a lot of films, and it seems weird to pimp for my buds Auggie and Lou Lumiere.... (bet those 11 words have never shared such close space before).

Seriously, this is an odd and mostly silly project. For what does "best" film mean, anyway? And should it be the best for you then when the year actually happened, which of course makes the early years particularly difficult unless you were monstrously precocious. So here's what I came up with, and it's totally subjective, and yes, I'm a snob, and yes it's what I could do as quickly as possible while still spending entirely too much time on it. So much so I'm going to break it up into decades. Ladies and gentlemen, the fabulous 1960s....

1963

The Zapruder Film. OK, just kidding, nothing like a little assassination humor to kick things off in a merry vein. (It is an incredible documentary, though.) Charade (Stanley Donen). Sure, it's really Hitch-lite, but by 1963 Hitch needed some lightening (his film that year was The Birds, which has an eerie power, but best of the year?). Plus Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn make such a lovely couple. Plus there's the lines started by her, "You know what's wrong with you?" "No, what?" "Nothing." Plus it's great who the bad guy is. Hud gets to be runner-up, for James Wong Howe's shimmery b&w photography if nothing else, not that Paul Newman and a shimmery herself Patricia Neal are nothing else.

1964

Dr. Strangelove. If I need to explain, you haven't seen the film recently. Actually, now it seems less funny, more prescient. The other day I was re-reading through David Thomson, who I generally like if not always agree with, and he's cold to the the too-cold for him Kubrick. Even to Strangelove (as Sellers is too cold for him, too). But then I realized his real problem--in his George C. Scott blurb, he doesn't mention Buck Turgidson. For a film critic, this is like not noticing a B-52 has crossed your defense perimeter. Screw Patton, this was Scott's best performance.

1965

This is the first year I have to cheat a bit, and move up a few weeks a film actually released in mid-December 1964. Otherwise 1965 sucks, as I almost chose Mickey One out of perversity (if you've seen it, you'll know what I mean). So, instead it's The TAMI Show. TAMI stands for Teen Age Music International, and it's one of the first rock concert films, with a wildly diverse group of perfomers. Gerry and the Pacemakers, playing like they need them. Glimpses of Terri Garr as a young go-go dancer. James Brown at the height of his get-down. And a frightened Mick Jagger, as he has to go on after Brown.

1966

Maculine/Feminine. So much good Godard that still seems so much of the 1960s and so much completely timeless. Funny, bitter (feminin ends up just fin at the end), brittle, and bright. If that generation was the "Children of Marx and Coca-Cola" what are kids now? (Probably not able to enjoy a film this clever.)

1967

Bonnie and Clyde. I know, the consensus pick, but after you've seen a naked Faye Dunaway at a window saying, "Boy, what you doing with my momma's car," and that's just the first 3 minutes, you'd be hooked too. One of the films that tried its best to work out the 1960s violence the 1960s couldn't work out of, so it set it in a different decade. It also let the bad guys be the good guys. Think about this film and think that Sound of Music was just two years prior. Try not to think about which film won a best picture Oscar.

1968

You think I'm going to say 2001, but it's Kubrick gone mysto-mushy, great moments for which you need to be on drugs to connect the dots, some in invisible ink. So instead I'll default to a film that meant much to me years later, Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet. It's a solid enough version, but of course it's solid enough Shakespeare, too--there's a reason it's the entry drug into the world of the Bard. But Zeff (rhymes with Hef?) decided how nice it would be to cast actual teens in the starring roles. Therefore, Olivia Hussey.

I can't begin to say how shocked our high school freshman year English class teacher was when Olivia unveiled her Husseys, however briefly. Especially since our teacher was a nun. You'd think she would have known, given the film had been out for well over a decade at that point. Not that we complained.

1969
Can't be anything but The Wild Bunch. Peckinpah captured the west at its worst, codes gone screwy, and probably did make violence more cathartic than it needed to be. Still, as the credits show, for just as Holden says "If anybody moves, kill him," we get the credit Directed by Sam Peckinpah. If we want our violence, he will question how much we can withstand our desires.

1970
Since you don't count by saying, "0-1-2-3," 0 is part of what ends not what begins. I'm going to go truly artsy here and say The Conformist. I need to see it again--it's been over 2 decades--but it's the kind of complex that cinema rarely seems to even want to try to be anymore. It's got action, and politics. And Bertolucci has to be in this list some place, no? Given (preview of coming attractions) 1972 could be 5 films, we'll be sure he gets a spot here.

I'll be back tomorrow to see if we can avoid the malaise of the 1970s.