USCCB - (Film and Broadcasting) - Ten Best List for the Year 1972

Ten Best List for the Year 1972

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie -- Director Luis Bunuel's surrealistic satire on the lives of the very rich presents an incredibly complicated series of events, such as dreamers dreaming of other dreamers, that grows more satisfying as the narrative becomes more outrageously illogical. The central recurring situation is that of six wealthy friends (Fernando Rey, Delphine Seyrig, Stephane Audran, Bulle Ogier, Jean-Pierre Cassel and Michel Piccoli) about to sit down to dinner but always being interrupted by something which prevents them from being able to proceed with the meal. The movie is meant to be enjoyed as something as playful as the title itself. A-III-adults (PG) 1972
The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds -- Joanne Woodward stars in the screen version of Paul Zindel's play about a desperate middle-aged mother living in an urban hovel, abandoned by her husband and struggling to raise two teenaged daughters (Nell Potts and Roberta Wallach). Producer-director Paul Newman's ambitious but flawed exploration into the labyrinthian workings of the human heart is largely redeemed by Woodward's superb performance. A-III-adults (PG) 1972
The Emigrants -- Superb Swedish production starring Liv Ullmann and Max von Sydow about a young couple who leave their native land in the early 19th century to find a new home in Minnesota. Directed by Jan Troell, the re-creation of the era is finely detailed and the acting is first rate. A-II-adults and adolescents (PG) 1972
The Godfather -- Blockbuster screen version of the Mario Puzo novel about a Mafia family's rise, decline and resurgence in the murderous world of New York racketeering. Marlon Brando plays the aging but indomitable Don with James Caan and Al Pacino as leading family members. Francis Ford Coppola's direction is a study in control and pacing with all the right touches in establishing the proper 1940's ambience. The murders are plentiful and gruesome, with little spared in detailing the intricacies of mob life. A-III-adults (R) 1972
Jeremiah Johnson -- Robert Redford stars in the story of a 19th-century mountain man from his arrival in the Rockies through his years as a self-sufficient trapper, then as a family man and, finally, a Crow Indian fighter of legendary proportions. Director Sydney Pollack's Western offers the awesome natural spectacle of the mountain locales, swift frontier action, intense cultural conflict and colorful characters rendered without the burdens of sentimentality and contrivance. Stylized violence. A-II-adults and adolescents (PG) 1972
My Uncle Antoine -- Canadian movie centering on a Christmas Eve during the 1940s when an adolescent gets his first glimpse of adulthood after he and his inebriated uncle lose a corpse they are transporting to the funeral parlor during a snowstorm and arrive home in the early morning to chance upon his aunt's act of infidelity. Directed by Claude Jutra, the film looks with clarity and compassion at the world of a small French-Canadian mining village and its vibrant community of characters seen in a montage of portraiture and vignette. Though rooted in a specific ethnic tradition, its perspective is universal enough to strike chords celebrating our common humanity. A-III-adults (Not rated by the Motion Pictures Association of America) 1972
A Sense of Loss -- In his disturbing documentary about the violent strife in Northern Ireland, Marcel Ophuls examines the conflict by allowing its inhabitants, from all corners and levels, to speak for themselves. The result is a document that addresses with chilling directness a situation apparently beyond control of political forces and national aims and, indeed, very nearly beyond rational comprehension. A-II-adults and adolescents (Not rated by the Motion Pictures Association of America) 1972
The Sorrow and the Pity -- Classic documentary directed by Marcel Ophuls examines France during the German Occupation and replaces the legend of popular resistance with the fact of complicity by large sections of society. Focusing on the town of Clermont-Ferrand, Ophuls uses it as a measure of the nation's collaboration with the Nazis. The object is not to judge the inhabitants of the village but to show how easy it is for people in crisis to accept tyranny and yet believe that they are free. A-II-adults and adolescents (PG) 1972
Sounder -- Appealing story about a black family of Louisiana sharecroppers struggling to survive against natural and human odds during the early days of the Depression. When the father (Paul Winfield) is jailed for stealing food, his wife (Cicely Tyson) and three children (Kevin Hooks is the eldest) are left to crop the sugar cane on their own. The boy's subsequent odyssey to find the labor camp where his father is being held provides additional drama. Produced by Robert B. Radnitz and directed by Martin Ritt, it captures the humanity of the characters and a rich, distanced sense of its sleepy Southern locale. Not only a valid examination of the black experience in America, it is also a fine family movie. A-I-general patronage (G) 1972
What's Up, Doc? -- Funny, stylish and entertaining comedy loosely strings two plots together, one involving a group of four identical valises, the other following a kooky student (Barbra Streisand) in her zany pursuit of an absent-minded college professor who has come to San Francisco with his persistent fiancee (Madeline Kahn) to receive a research grant. Produced and directed by Peter Bogdanovich, this throwback to the Hollywood screwball comedies of the 1930s is great fun for family audiences. A-I-general patronage (G) 1972