Films of the '70s: 1973

[Stephan]

You can post a list of anywhere between 5 and 20 films (or more, but only 20 will be counted) from the year we're covering. The deciding factor in terms of release dates is the RYM list and the top 10 of each year will go on to the final top 100 round. The deadline is April 8th.

The points scheme is as follows:
1. 50 points
2. 40
3. 35
4. 30
5. 25
6. 20
7. 18
8. 16
9. 14
10. 12
11. 10
10. 9
...
20. 1
However, these are the maximum amounts of points. If you want to put certain films on your list but don't want to give them too many points, you can choose to give these less points than in this scheme (but never more) to decrease the impact on the overall results. If you don't specifically state that you want to give (some of) your films fewer points, I will assume the standard scheme.

Here are some lists to remind you of the great (and awful) films released in 1973, from a variety of sources:
IMDb
RYM
Films101

[Gillingham]

01. Badlands (Terrence Malick)
02. Don't Look Now (Nicolas Roeg)
03. Scener ur ett Äktenskap (Ingmar Bergman)
04. Mean Streets (Martin Scorsese)
05. The Sting (George Roy Hill)
06. The Long Goodbye (Robert Altman)
07. Amarcord (Federico Fellini)
08. La Nuit Américaine (François Truffaut)
09. Vérités et Mensonges (Orson Welles)
10. The Exorcist (William Friedkin)
11. Serpico (Sidney Lumet)
12. Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (Sam Peckinpah)
13. Papillon (Franklin J. Schaffner)
14. Turks Fruit (Paul Verhoeven) 3

Strong year.

[Petri]

Strong year.

Indeed

1. Don't Look Now
2. The Holy Mountain
3. American Graffiti
4. Maa on syntinen laulu [The Earth Is a Sinful Song]
5. Paper Moon
6. Badlands
7. Amarcord [I Remember]
8. The Last Detail
9. The Wicker Man
10. The Sting
11. El espíritu de la colmena [The Spirit of the Beehive]
12. Papillon
13. The Exorcist
14. Enter the Dragon
15. The Long Goodbye
16. Serpico
17. Il mio nome è Nessuno [My Name Is Nobody]
18. 修羅雪姫 [Lady Snowblood]
19 . Mean Streets
20. I corpi presentano tracce di violenza carnale [Torso]

[Miguel]

1. Vérités et mesonges (F for Fake) - Orson Wells
2. The Sting - George Roy Hill
3. La nuit américaine (Day for Night) - François Truffaut
4. Sleeper - Woody Allen
5. Papillon - Franklin J. Schaffner
6. The McKintosh Man - John Huston
7. The Exorcist - William Friedkin
8. High Plains Drifter - Clint Eastwood
9. Scener ur ett aektenskap (Scenes from a Marriage) - Ingmar Bergman
10. Mean Streets - Martin Scorsese
11. Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid – Sam Peckipah
12. El espíritu de la colmena (Spirit of the Beehive) - Víctor Erice

[Greg]

1. High Plains Drifter / Clint Eastwood / U.S.
2. The Exorcist / William Friedkin / U.S.
3. Mean Streets / Martin Scorsese / U.S.
4. American Graffiti / George Lucas / U.S.
5. The Sting / George Roy Hill / U.S.
6. Badlands / Terrence Malick / U.S.
7. Paper Moon / Peter Bogdanovich / U.S.
8. The Long Goodbye / Robert Altman / U.S.
9. Blume in Love / Paul Mazursky / U.S.
10. Scenes from a Marriage / Ingmar Bergman / Sweden
11. Day for Night / Francois Truffaut / France
12. Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid / Sam Peckinpah / U.S.
13. Don't Look Now / Nicolas Roeg / U.K.
14. The Last Detail / Hal Ashby / U.S.
15. World on a Wire / Rainer Werner Fassbinder / West Germany
16. Spirit of the Beehive / Victor Erice / Spain
17. Sleeper / Woody Allen / U.S.
18. Touki Bouki / Djibril Diop Mambety / Senegal
19. The Mother and the Whore / Jean Eustache / France
20. The Spook Who Sat by the Door / Ivan Dixon / U.S.

[Mindrocker]

1973 Was a great year for cultfilms (only second to 1975). Maybe the weirdest of them is the French movie Themroc. Synopsis: A regular bloke gets fed up with dreary everyday life and from there on rejects modern society. He feeds himself by catching policemen and eating them for dinner. Mind, this is not in the slasher/horror genre or anything, but more like a social comment. Also, by today's standards Themroc is rather pedestrian to watch. The best thing about it however is that there ain't no dialogue at all in the movie, only people grumbling and growling at each other.
Next is the Italian/French film La Grande Bouffe: A couple of wealthy and bored men (Marcelo Mastroiani among them) decide to commit suicide, by literally eating themselves to death. Over the top and fun to watch.
And then there's The Holy Mountain by Alejandro Jodorowski, the master of surrealism. The Holy Mountain is generally considered his best movie (although I personally prefer Santa Sangre).

01. Themroc
02. Papillon
03. The Holy Mountain
04. Wattstax
05. La Grande Bouffe
06. The Exorcist
07. Emperor Of The North
08. Jesus Christ Superstar
09. Badlands
10. Andy Warhol's Dracula

[antonius]

1.Amarcord
2.Scenes from a marriage
3.17 Moments of spring
4.La Grande Bouffe
5.O Lucky Man!
6.La Nuit Américaine
7.The Exorcist
8.Badlands
9.American Graffiti
10.The Sting
11.The Day of the Jackal
12.The Last Detail
13.The Long Goodbye
14.The Three Musketeers
15.Turks Fruit
16.Soylent Green
17.The Way We Were
18.Papillion
19.High Plains drifter
20.Westworld

One of the best years in cinema history.

[Charlie Driggs]

1. American Graffiti (George Lucas)
2. The Sting (George Roy Hill)
3. Film d'amore e d'anarchia (Lina Wertmüller)
4. Soylent Green (Richard Fleischer)
5. Welt am Draht (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
6. Don't Look Now (Nicholas Roeg)
7. La nuit americaine (Francois Truffaut)
8. Crazies (George A. Romero)
9. Day Of The Jackal (Fred Zinneman)
10. Shaft In Africa (John Guillermin)
11. High Plains Drifter (Clint Eastwood)
12. The Way We Were (Sydney Pollack)
13. Badlands (Terrence Malick)
14. Turks Fruit (Paul Verhoeven)
15. Jeremy (Arthur Barron)

Honorable Mentions:

Mann & Frau & Animal (Valie Export)
The Devil In Miss Jones (Gerard Damiano)

[Jirin]

Amazing, incredibly deep you.

Don't Look Now
Scenes From A Marriage
Badlands
The Spirit of the Beehive
The Mother and the Whore
F For Fake
Mean Streets
The Exorcist (5 pts)
Amarcord (3 pts)

Top 5 are all top 100 AT for me.

[Stephan]

Antonius, I cannot find any source that says Seventeen Moments of Spring was ever shown in cinemas as a feature film, so I'm afraid it's ineligible. I will move everything up one spot unless you have an objection to that. You can add a new #20 if you want.

[antonius]

Antonius, I cannot find any source that says Seventeen Moments of Spring was ever shown in cinemas as a feature film, so I'm afraid it's ineligible. I will move everything up one spot unless you have an objection to that. You can add a new #20 if you want.

No, I guess not: it was a series shown on Russian TV in 1973. I got it through our public library here around the corner from where I live in Hoboken last year. I saw that it was classified as "movie" on RYM, so I entered it.
"Scenes from a marriage" also was written for TV initially, in the US the series was released as a movie, but I saw the TV-series, the whole 5 hours.

[antonius]

Number 20 can be Serpico

[Jirin]

Err, that's supposed to be "Amazing, incredibly deep year."

IMO anything that factors on the TSPDT top 1000 list should be eligible for this. Anything that critics tend to rate as movies, otherwise we're precluding a lot of things which have all the production approach of movies but are just too long for cinemas to want to feature. (And you never know what some random local art house has had a special screening of somewhere over the course of 40 years).

[Stephan]

I think those two eligibility rules (released as a feature or eligible for TSPDT) overlap pretty well. I doubt Seventeen Moments of Spring will get any more votes anyway, but Scenes from a Marriage was definitely shown in cinemas; even the 5 hour version.

[Harold]

1. Mean Streets
2. The Long Goodbye
3. Badlands
4. American Graffiti
5. Don't Look Now
6. The Last Detail
7. The Exorcist
8. The Sting
9. Day for Night
10. Sleeper

[Stephan]

Thanks for the Paper Moon recommendation Petri and Greg, fantastic film, I think it might actually top my list. I do still have to watch Don't Look Now, though.

[Michel]

1. La maman et la putain [The Mother and the Whore] (Jean Eustache)
2. The Wicker Man (Robin Hardy)
3. La grande bouffe [The Big Feast] (Marco Ferreri)
4. Electra Glide in Blue (James William Guercio)
5. Soylent Green (Richard Fleischer)
6. A Bigger Splash (Jack Hazan)
7. Le magnifique [How to Destroy the Reputation of the Greatest Secret Agent.] (Philippe de Broca)
8. The Exorcist (William Friedkin)
9. High Plains Drifter (Clint Eastwood)
10. El espíritu de la colmena [The Spirit of the Beehive] (Víctor Erice)
11. The Asphyx (Peter Newbrook)
12. Robin Hood (Wolfgang Reitherman)
13. L'emmerdeur [A Pain in the A...] (Édouard Molinaro)
14. The Long Goodbye (Robert Altman)
15. Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (Sam Peckinpah)
16. Serpico (Sidney Lumet)
17. La nuit américaine [Day for Night] (François Truffaut)
18. Don't Look Now (Nicolas Roeg)
19. Mean Streets (Martin Scorsese)
20. Moi y'en a vouloir des sous (Jean Yanne)

[Henrik]

1. The Sting
2. Scener ur ett äktenskap [Scenes From a Marriage]
3. Paper Moon
4. Badlands
5. The Exorcist
6. Live and Let Die
7. Sleeper
8. The Last Detail
9. 修羅雪姫 [Lady Snowblood]
10. Robin Hood

[Andre]

1. La Grande Bouffe [The Big Feast]
2. Amarcord [I Remember]
3. La Maman Et La Putain [The Mother And The Whore]
4. Soylent Green
5. La Nuit Américaine [Day for Night]

[Romain]

A lot of these films are rocked my childhood....sigh. The first one, is an all time favorite, maybe the second most seen movie of my life after "The good, the bad and the ugly". A good film, I don't know, but a film I love, for sure.

1. Il mio nome è Nessuno (My name is Nobody)(Tonino Valerii et Sergio Leone )
2. Papillon (Franklin J. Schaffner)
3. La maman et la putain (Jean Eustache)
4. Mean Streets (Martin Scorsese)
5. La Nuit Américaine (François Truffaut)
6. The Exorcist (William Friedkin)
7. Le magnifique [How to Destroy the Reputation of the Greatest Secret Agent.] (Philippe de Broca
8. Amarcord (Federico Fellini)
9. The Sting (George Roy Hill)
10. La Planète Sauvage (René Laloux)
11. Soylent Green (Richard Fleischer)
12. Les aventures de Rabbi Jacob (Oury)
13. Serpico (Sidney Lumet)

[Stephan]

1. Paper Moon - Peter Bogdanovich
2. The Exorcist - William Friedkin
3. The Sting - George Roy Hill
4. Badlands - Terrence Malick
5. Serpico - Sidney Lumet
6. Mean Streets - Martin Scorsese
7. Papillon - Franklin J. Schaffner
8. American Graffiti - George Lucas
9. Don't Look Now - Nicolas Roeg
10. Enter The Dragon - Robert Clouse

[Stephan]

And the results! Very exciting race for the top 10, and it's been a long time since the #10 has had needed this many points to win.

#. Title (Director) - Points/Votes/#1s
1. The Sting (George Roy Hill) - 271/10/1
2. Badlands (Terrence Malick) - 260/10/1
3. The Exorcist (William Friedkin) - 242/12/0
4. Don't Look Now (Nicolas Roeg) - 210/8/2
5. Mean Streets (Martin Scorsese) - 199/9/1
6. Scener ur ett Äktenskap [Scenes from a Marriage] (Ingmar Bergman) - 181/6/0
7. American Graffiti (George Lucas) - 177/6/1
8. La nuit américaine [Day for Night] (François Truffaut) - 147/8/0
9. Papillon (Franklin J. Schaffner) - 144/7/0
10. Paper Moon (Peter Bogdanovich) - 128/4/1

Many repeat directors this week; Bergman, Bogdanovich, Friedkin, and Schaffner now all have two films in the finale, while Roeg is the first to add a third.

[Jirin]

Shouldn't Mother and the Whore have about 145 points? Unless the scoring has changed, I see a 1st place (Michel), two 3rd places (Romain & Andre) and one 5th place (Me).

[Stephan]

You are right, I completely missed Andre's vote. Damn, that kicks out two of my favorites. It also makes for the closest finish we've ever had. Four films within 3 points and a draw for 10th place, with both Amarcord and La Grande Bouffe scoring 145 points and both also having one first place. However, Amarcord also has a second place, so Fellini gets his second film in.

Correct results:

#. Title (Director) - Points/Votes/#1s
1. The Sting (George Roy Hill) - 271/10/1
2. Badlands (Terrence Malick) - 260/10/1
3. The Exorcist (William Friedkin) - 242/12/0
4. Don't Look Now (Nicolas Roeg) - 210/8/2
5. Mean Streets (Martin Scorsese) - 199/9/1
6. Scener ur ett Äktenskap [Scenes from a Marriage] (Ingmar Bergman) - 181/6/0
7. American Graffiti (George Lucas) - 177/6/1
8. La nuit américaine [Day for Night] (François Truffaut) - 172/9/0
9. La maman et la putain [The Mother and the Whore] (Jean Eustache) - 147/5/1
10. Amarcord (Federico Fellini) - 145/6/1