USCCB - (Film and Broadcasting) - Ten Best List for the Year 1975

Ten Best List for the Year 1975

Alice Doesn't Live Here Any More -- A widow (Ellen Burstyn) takes her young son (Alfred Lutter) on a sojourn across the Southwest trying to pursue her dream of a singing career but winds up as a waitress in a greasy spoon where she's courted by a rancher (Kris Kristofferson). Director Martin Scorsese's somewhat ambiguous picture of the struggles of a single parent in contemporary America also offers some insights on the condition of women in a male chauvinistic society. Several sordid situations and rough language. A-IV-adults with reservations (PG) 1975
Arthur Rubenstein -- Love of Life -- Extraordinary documentary about one of the world's greatest piano virtuosos is concerned not only with music but also with humanity. Directed by Francois Reichenbach, it captures the artist and the man at age 82 and is equally important as a commentary on classical music as it is a testament to a rare human being. Of far greater appeal than the specialized art audience. A-I-general patronage (Not rated by the Motion Picture Association) 1975
Hester Street -- Lively tale of Jewish immigrant life in New York's Lower East Side at the turn of the century revolves around the conflict between a husband (Steven Keats) who wants to forget all traces of his origins and his wife (Carol Kane) who refuses to abandon the Russian Jewish traditions in which she was raised. Directed by Joan Micklin Silver, it's an engaging piece of Americana that is part of the mosaic of the immigrant experience shared by many Americans of diverse national origins. A-III-adults (PG) 1975
Jaws -- Solid thriller about a killer shark establishes the monster's reality by depicting its attacks on the tourist trade of a seaside community, then becomes the all-out battle of three men (Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss) against a malignant force of nature. Aided by good acting and superior special effects, Steven Spielberg directs the hunt and killing of the monster with sustained and riveting dramatic intensity. Graphic scenes of the shark attacks may be too intense for young viewers. A-III-adults (PG) 1975
Lancelot of the Lake -- French director Robert Bresson takes the Arthurian legend and interprets it in austere yet realistic fashion, focusing on the decline of the Knights of the Round Table after their failure in the quest for the Holy Grail. His treatment purges the legend of its magic and romance by searching for an underlying historical substance which for some will have more interest than the story itself. Subtitles. Some realistic violence. A-III-adults (Not rated by the Motion Picture Association of America) 1975
Lies My Father Told Me -- Warm, lyric picture of a boy's growing up in Montreal's Jewish ghetto with a careful exploration of the customs and values of a ritualistic culture. Directed by Jan Kadar, it is a delicate poem about being Jewish and, at the same time, about being human. Some sexual elements make it mature fare. A-III-adults (PG) 1975
The Magic Flute -- Director Ingmar Bergman presents this opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as an actual performance on a cramped 18th-century stage, boldly taking viewers into a world of illusion, stagecraft and mystery. Originally produced for Swedish television, its stress on the theatricality of Mozart's fairy-tale operatics is to the advantage of a pretty silly libretto. Bergman's austere yet ingratiating visual style suitably complements Mozart's beautifully intricate music. It is a classic that might serve as a good introduction to opera for young people, though parents should be aware that it contains some sexual allusions and a brief close-up of an erotic drawing. A-III-adults (G) 1975
The Man Who Would Be King -- Sean Connery and Michael Caine star as highly imperfect heroes in an adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's story about two 19th-century British soldiers who pursue their dangerous dream of founding a kingdom of their own in the remote mountains of northern India. Director John Huston has fashioned a vigorous saga of romantic adventure tinged with realism and some fine acting, including that of Christopher Plummer as Kipling who, one suspects, would have thoroughly enjoyed the movie. Some hard-edged violence. A-III-adults (PG) 1975
Nashville -- Robert Altman's ambitious backstage epic about the careers of the people who make the capital city of country music come alive is a consistently entertaining, at times enlightening, look at an uniquely American phenomenon. Unfortunately, in reaching for something more -- an indictment of sorts of contemporary America -- Altman lapses into a series of cliches regarding political elections, violence, Vietnam, etc. that are quite unworthy of his film at its best. Fine performances by Ronee Blakley, Henry Gibson, Lily Tomlin, Michael Murphy and many others in a large and talented cast. Some of the subject matter and its naturalistic treatment make this a movie not for casual viewers. A-IV-adults with reservations (R) 1975
The Other Side of the Mountain -- Good telling of fact-based story about young skier Jill Kinmont (Marilyn Hassett) who, completely paralyzed from the chest down after a 1956 fall in pre-Olympic competition, overcame her handicap to make a new life for herself as a grade-school teacher. Director Larry Peerce at times veers into sentimentality, but for the most refrains from tampering with the emotional power inherent in the story of an individual's achievement over cruel odds. Very appealing young cast also includes Belinda J. Montgomery and Beau Bridges. A-II-adults and adolescents (PG) 1975