Directorial Chronology - 1971
In The American Cinema: Directors and Directions 1929 - 1968, Andrew Sarris provided an extremely useful and entertaining appendix he called "Directorial Chronology." It was basically a best American film of the year list with a highly auteurist, idiosyncratic bent. So you would see things like Man's Favorite Sport (Hawks) ranked well above something more critically exalted (by the mainstream) like Fail Safe (Lumet). He did not numerically rank the films, but they are pretty clearly presented in order of preference (and preferred auteurs). Since it is my aim to pay tribute to great text by the great man, I am going to attempt to do the same.
Here is the next entry, 1971, which is really the beginning of what we now refer to as the American Film Renaissance. These lists start to get longer and filled with so many great films it is hard to believe we actually once lived in these times.
Directorial Chronology - 1971
Elaine May A New Leaf
Robert Altman McCabe and Mrs. Miller
Peter Bogdanovich Last Picture Show
Monte Hellman Two-Lane Blacktop
Blake Edwards Wild Rovers
Peter Watkins Punishment Park
Stanley Kubrick Clockwork Orange
Sam Peckinpah Straw Dogs
Milos Forman Taking Off
Alan Pakula, Klute
Melvin Van Peeples Sweet Sweetback's Baaad Aaaaaaaassssss Song
Ted Kotcheff Wake in Fright
Don Siegel The Beguiled
William Friedkin French Connection
Mike Nichols Carnal Knowledge
Richard Fleischer The Last Run
Jack Hill The Big Doll House
Ivan Passer Born to Win
George Armitage Private Duty Nurses
Don Siegel Dirty Harry
Frank Perry Doc
Woody Allen Bananas
John Hancock Let's Scare Jessica to Death
John Frankenheimer The Horsemen
Dennis Hopper, The Last Movie
Stephanie Rothman The Velvet Vampire
Alan Arkin Little Murders
Norman Lea Cold Turkey
John Cassavetes Minnie and Moskowitz
Jerry Schatzberg Panic in Needle Park
Jack Nicholson Drive, He Said
Richard Sarafian Man in the Wilderness
Sergio Leone Duck, You Sucker
Gordon Parks Shaft
Clint Eastwood Play Misty for Me
Paul Newman Sometimes a Great Notion
Robert Bean Made for Each Other
Otto Preminger Such Good Friends
Ingmar Bergman The Touch
Richard Sarafian Vanishing Point
Robert Mulligan Summer of '42
George Lucas THX 1138
Anthony Harvey They Might be Giants
Burt Kennedy Support Your Local Gunfighter
