Directorial Chronology - 1975

The Passenger, directed by Michelangelo Antonioni

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.

Now, the astonishing year of American cinema that was 1975

Directorial Chronology - 1975

Stanley Kubrick Barry Lyndon
Michelangelo Antonioni The Passenger
Hal Ashby Shampoo
Arthur Penn Night Moves
Steven Spielberg Jaws
John Huston The Man Who Would Be King
Robert Altman Nashville
Robert Aldrich Hustle
Steven Spielberg Jaws
Frank Perry Rancho Deluxe
Floyd Mutrux Aloha, Bobby and Rose
Michael Ritchie Smile
Howard Zieff Hearts of the West
Richard Fleischer Mandingo
Woody Allen Love and Death
Stanley Donen Lucky Lady
Sam Peckinpah The Killer Elite
Miloš Forman One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Sidney Pollack Three Days of the Condor
Jack Starrett Race with the Devil
Milton Katselas Report to the Commissioner
Michael Schultz Cooley High
Russ Meyer Supervixens
Jonathan Demme Crazy Mama
John Schlesinger The Day of the Locust
Sidney Poitier Let's Do It Again
Paul Bartel Death Race 2000
Walter Hill Hard Times
Sidney Lumet Dog Day Afternoon
Phil Karlson Framed
John Frankenheimer French Connection II
Joan Micklin Silver Hester Street
Norman Jewison Rollerball
Jack Hill Switchblade Sisters
Jonathan Kaplan White Line Fever
James Ivory The Wild Party
John Milius The Wind and the Lion
George Hill The Great Waldo Pepper
William Gridler Sheba Baby
Otto Preminger Rosebud
Herbert Ross The Sunshine Boys
Peter Hyams Peeper
Bryan Forbes The Stepford Wives
Melvin Frank The Prisoner of Second Avenue
Dick Richards Rafferty and the Gold Dust Twins
J. Lee Thompson The Reincarnation of Peter Proud
Antonio Margheriti Take a Hard Ride
Curt McDowell Thundercrack
Robert Clouse The Ultimate Warrior
John G. Avildsen W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings
Ray Danton Psychic Killer

Overture

Remember when at the beginning of certain prestige pictures, usually big budgeted epics, they used to start the film with an overture, a bespoke classical piece set over illustrations representing the film? Something borrowed from symphonic music, as a way of classing up the joint. Presumably a way of providing

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Directorial Chronology - 1975

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Overture

TCM Look-Ahead - April 17

TCM Look-Ahead - April 10

Directorial Chronology - 1974