1969... On Film!
First off, as I always do here - reminiscing, versing nostalgic, lamenting the passing of time and the toll of years gone by - I could be prone to turn teary-eyed on the blogosphere and all... And I would need to worry about attributing to every single one of those blasted wretches their contributions to my sad case of Saudades here... HUH? Every single one of them - one by one?!? Whoa...! Here is one, just for form (and the chosen title tells you how I feel about the contribution, in this particular case but not only...! For many are just embarrassing memories - truth be told! But you can't change the past - right? Though you wish you could, sometimes...! Anyhow...)
the rotten celluloid from the USA now - COME ON!!!
EU QUERO MUITO MAIS DO QUE ISSO, AQUI...!!
Et vous le savez bien...!)
Imagine that: ALL of these films are going to be celebrating FIFTIETH (50th) ANNIVERSARIES this year - every single one of them! And I am going to have bend over backwards each time - just to reminisce a bit about each one, bring it back to memory, in many cases, as the big anniversary may be totally IGNORED otherwise? NO WAY! I'm giving ONE LINK - one attribution - FOR ALL! And it's this link right here...!
AND IT IS ALL FAIR USE -
CAPISCE?
Onwards then... to the (not-so) silver screens of 1969!
No matter what anybody says -
this is the best film released
on the ''sexy year'' of '69 -
no doubt about it!
An eclectic cast
and an allegorical elegance
makes this one
truly unforgettable.
Too bad it was... French, by default.
The Color of Pomegranates
shares some of those same qualities -
and it has the distinction of having inspired this:
Too bad it was... Russian!
And, OF COURSE, it is the year
of my favorite James Bond film
of all-time; thanks to the director
and co-star... Diana Rigg... of course!
After these three, however,
it is all downhill...!
Let us run them down now,
from bad to worse to worst!
(...not necessarily in that order, though!)
Cowboys... Cowboys - everywhere!
(Not the D.C. variety, at least;
I mean Dallas Cowboys
not DC's Bat Lash or Jonah Hex!)
Cowboys...
And some Cowgirls, too...
All the usual suspects
in those westerns of yesteryear:
from the Duke to Clint...
And then there's... Bob.
In probably the silliest title ever given
to one of them westerns: ''Y.B.Y.''
- and, unlike 007, his director and leading lady
could so not save this wreck from being dreck!
Although we absolutely adore Angie Dickinson!
She's sort of a Caucasian version of Tina Turner -
who doesn't sing!
But that's another story - back to 1969!
This one has got the distinction of
having been the one that started
an entire genre:
that of the women prison flick!
Lots and LOTS of nudity in here...
And it is not titillating one iota.
... also commercialized as ''Zeta One''
this Barbarella knock-off
starred the one and only Anna Gael
... she who was featured (as in, ah, exposed) in several
films of the genre: most notably EROTIQUE... in '68.
Anna Gael - an Aquaficionada of 1969!
Foreshadowed Aqua Anna - you think?
Never mind...
Let's... move on!
NEXT...
''Funeral Parade Of Roses''
also known as ''Paranoia'' - makes sense, eh?
Not to be confused with Panico!!!
Pippi (''P.L.'' - my diametrical opposite, as I am ''L.P.'')
liked to go fishing, among other shenanigans of hers, as I recall...
That does not make her aquaficionada material one bit;
rather, that makes her a mere pillager of the seas
(rivers, lakes; all of it) like any other jerk out there;
and the perfect transition, therefore,
into the ''aqua movies'' of 1969:
That one -though it shows us a fun-loving surfer- was a bad omen
as we now see what plastics are doing to our oceans...
And so this sub-category ends badly here, with this:
Some actors were seen more often than others
all throughout the year:
Roddy McDowall, for instance -
before (way before) Fright Night
and in-between two turns as Cornelius...
(''Angel Angel Down We Go''
and this one:
'Hello Down There'' -
guess he was already going down, in '69...!)
Anne Francis - again!
Burt Reynolds - again!
They were working a lot... in 1969!
Llyod Bridges - in his personal prequel to
his comedic turn in... Airplane!
Anne did not succumb to Don's charm...!
... especially Anne!
But Burt too...
And... even JIM BROWN!
Black Lives Mattered in 1969 -
or they were just down with the Brown!
JIM made one heck of a transition
from football player to movie star -
paving the way for... O.J.
Jim's little brother Charlie also got a big break...
A few other Black Lives brought to the screen that year:
Alas, there were those films to remind them
some of the sad historical facts -
in all ways imaginable too:
... well, that was like
THE WHOLE MOVIE right there!
This black dude also got lucky in 1969:
... along with several other people...
... in the classic that time forgot... ISABELLA
Still, it isn't always rosey for the white chick there...
But she came out of it... triumphant, indeed!
...and then there was this charming mulatto, seen in.
FELLINI'S SATYRICON
The equally charming Capucine is in it...
And so are Danika... and Magali!
Danika La Loggia...
And Magali Noel...
Sharing a kiss.
It would influence one's tastes in erotica for a lifetime -
years later, Sybil Danning & Nathalie Delon
would only confirm it...
(Although it ended badly, for them;
but that is another story...)
Ennio Morricone - he had the touch
for theme music composing!
Vero - there was Spasmo, also:
And while we're at it
-and since it is a rainy day, at blogging time here-
why not some more music that does cover it
all the way from 1969 to the mid-1970s:
But back to Bluebeard now:
The 1944 Bluebeard has everything the 1972 one had -
minus the Danning-Delon coupling bit, of course:
But we got side-tracked again:
one last thing about SATYRICON, however:
Why the gay horse ride, Federico?
It went nowhere at all - was pointless
and those are nobody's favorite HORSEMEN...
Back to 1969 now:
Genre films were in vogue, somewhat, too:
GWANGI benefited greatly from the wizardry
of one Ray Harryhausen!
James Franciscus starred -
simultaneously shooting my favorite POTA film:
Beneath The Planet of the Apes
which was to be released the following year!
Genre films did not mean super-heroics... yet!
All of the following are not superhero flicks -
despite their titles sounding like they could be...
Man... Peter Ustinov...
and ANTHONY QUINN!
No one has come down the pike since
that could replace these two guys -
or Walter Matthau... Oliver Reed... Richard Basehart!
The list could go on and on and on...
1969 being such a ''sexy year''...
it sure did take all kinds - of movies, too!
And we sure did have great variety that year...
Ah yeah... Lancaster!
Another Burt who was overworked in '69!
Ah yes - REDFORD too!
Always thought it was telling that he shared the screen
TWICE in 1969 with Katharine ROSS...!
And yet - they weren't an ITEM...?
SURE...
Newman (not Seinfeld's) shared the screen
only ONCE with Joanne Woodward...
and they got married - FOR LIFE!
For all intents and purposes, there was a void
left with the departure of one Sean Connery
from the titular role in those James Bond films;
and although Cubby Broccoli had found a successor
to carry on the torch (or so he thought) with that franchise
there were many pretenders to that 007 throne out there:
Redford, Caine, Brando, Newman...
this STILETTO dude and Matt Helm - of course!
Oh Lord... the sweet thing, Sharon Tate...
She was in the Matt Helm film, too!
What a waste...
Between this, her other 1969 role (later...)
that sad detour through both the Valley of the Dolls
and the Dance of the Vampires Ball...
or whatever it was called again!
Her full potential was never realized.
Sharon Tate should have had serious dramatic roles instead;
she should have been in...
She should have been in any (or all) of those, instead:
Mary...?
Don't you mean... Rosemary, actually?
Ever noticed the same guy (initials K.K.)
composed the haunting music for both
movies about VAMPIRES and WITCHES -
within a couple of years of each other?
No coincidence...
But that is another story...!
Here is Helen: before and after she reached it:
Patty Duke and Liza Minnelli rode that Pity Party
bandwagon all the way to... well, a certain degree of recognition, yes.
But the cake goes to Ali MacGraw -
after leaving everyone teary-eyed at the end of Love Story
she came back (!) to say... Goodbye Columbus!?
...and teachers got good exposure that year, too, eh:
between Mr Chips and Miss BRODIE...
...you couldn't ask for anything more?
Not when you'd had it two years earlier!!!
Another title that would influence... a lifetime
of living habits, really!
And that sinking feeling that comes with that...!
ALFRED was there to help, at least...
His '69 contribution, however, wasn't his best...
We miss Charlton... Vittorio and Orson.
But we miss Sharon the most.
WOW - Old Man Orson Welles was a working actor:
that's the third film we see his name here... all released in the same year!
People don't remember stuff like that...!
Inger Stevens -alas- we saw only once...!
Not to be confused with Connie Stevens... Senta Berger... Jean Seberg...
Gayle Hunnicutt... Joan Hackett... Anne Francis!
Oh right... there had to be another western -
with the 7th Gun of the Magnificent Order... George!
Westerns were aplenty, still... in 1969:
James Garner benefited from that...
... although he would do something else, on the side, too!
And it must be Cowboys doing the shooting, too...
Wow - Jane Fonda AND Susannah York
in the same film - and practically no nudity at all.
Glenda Jackson and Jennie Linden
bared much more, thankfully, in...
And now a question to Ken... Kenny...
why that wrestling match, Alan vs. Oliver, that way...?
Why couldn't it have been... Glenda and Jennie, instead?
(By the same token, why have poor Oliver Reed box
against a Marquis of Queensbury clone, also?!?)
Nobody's favorite WRESTLING... even back then:
Everyone was thinking the same thing - at the same time.
Already...!!!
Wow (again) - Lee Remick AND Lilli Palmer in the same movie!
Two of my favorites... alas, the film is quite forgettable indeed!
Lilli Palmer (my dear fellow ''L.P.'' there; second only
to Luciana Paluzzi!) was much more... palatable (!) in this biopic
also featuring the sensual Senta Berger...
Team-ups (if you will) of two voluptuous actresses
would often fall considerably short of exxxpectations though:
for the young, pubescent cinephile as well as the expert movie buff
- both! Multiple examples of that in 1969 alone, verily:
all on top of one another here...! '69, the sexy year, hmm;
quite the tease alright! But never really more than that...
(Marisa is shy; Elsa never delivered, like Disney's Elsa, in a way! LOL)
....and then there were the other FRENCH FILMS
... those Catherine Deneuve offerings seen earlier, sure, and...
Thank God there were the alternatives...
Hardly a better way to round this 1969 line-up of films up
than with the attitude of one young ''Kes'' by Ken... Loach, this time!
And BAD attitude displayed by one Robert Downey Sr.
(that's right - SENIOR - father of the other one!)
who still dares to sub-title his flick
''the truth and soul movie'' - HA!
The movie's poster says the real truth about it...
Let us not forget, also, that 1969
is the year that gave us
this timeless classic
and fateful meeting...
Bambi stole that one - clearly had the greater amount
of screen time; the bigger part! Gojira just cameos... in the very end!
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Born in the Age of Aquarius, destined to seek out truths in many an art form, trained as a historian and a journalist but truly a prose-lover... Luciano is out to dispel any clichés and reinvent them all both to the tune of a little something called the truth as also to his own image - and being old-fashioned, he does not mind that distinction one infinitesimal tiny bit at all...! "There are two ways to spread the light; be the candle... or the mirror that reflects It." I have chosen to be the latter... okay? ~*~
"To be not only a seeker of light... but a dream weaver of light" ~*~ For as surely as the moon reflects the light from the sun, you and I can reflect the Light from Above - and be, indeed, the light of this world! ~*~*~*~ NOTE: THERE ARE COOKIES ~ from at least three parties~ ON ALL OF MY BLOGS! ~*~ accept it!
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