BFI 1970s watchlist
by tigger_olg | created - 31 May 2015 | updated - 03 Feb 2018 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Mirror (1975)
Not Rated | 107 min | Biography, Drama
A dying man in his forties remembers his past. His childhood, his mother, the war, personal moments and things that tell of the recent history of all the Russian nation.
Director: Andrei Tarkovsky | Stars: Margarita Terekhova, Filipp Yankovskiy, Ignat Daniltsev, Oleg Yankovskiy
Votes: 52,211 | Gross: $0.18M
2. Raging Bull (1980)
R | 129 min | Biography, Drama, Sport
The life of boxer Jake LaMotta, whose violence and temper that led him to the top in the ring destroyed his life outside of it.
Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Robert De Niro, Cathy Moriarty, Joe Pesci, Frank Vincent
Votes: 380,096 | Gross: $23.38M
3. Stalker (1979)
Not Rated | 162 min | Drama, Sci-Fi
A guide leads two men through an area known as the Zone to find a room that grants wishes.
Director: Andrei Tarkovsky | Stars: Alisa Freyndlikh, Aleksandr Kaydanovskiy, Anatoliy Solonitsyn, Nikolay Grinko
Votes: 144,695 | Gross: $0.23M
4. Amarcord (1973)
R | 123 min | Comedy, Drama
A series of comedic and nostalgic vignettes set in a 1930s Italian coastal town.
Director: Federico Fellini | Stars: Magali Noël, Bruno Zanin, Pupella Maggio, Armando Brancia
Votes: 46,806 | Gross: $0.58M
5. Badlands (1973)
PG | 94 min | Action, Crime, Drama
An impressionable teenage girl from a dead-end town, and her older greaser boyfriend, embark on a killing spree in the South Dakota Badlands.
Director: Terrence Malick | Stars: Martin Sheen, Sissy Spacek, Warren Oates, Ramon Bieri
Votes: 78,358
6. The Mother and the Whore (1973)
210 min | Drama, Romance
The chauvinist Alexandre balances relationships with several women in the post-1968 intellectual scene of Paris.
Director: Jean Eustache | Stars: Bernadette Lafont, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Françoise Lebrun, Isabelle Weingarten
Votes: 6,681
7. Opening Night (1977)
PG-13 | 144 min | Drama
A renowned actress teeters on the edge of a breakdown as she counts down the days toward a big Broadway opening.
Director: John Cassavetes | Stars: Gena Rowlands, John Cassavetes, Ben Gazzara, Joan Blondell
Votes: 12,202
8. The Deer Hunter (1978)
R | 183 min | Drama, War
An in-depth examination of the ways in which the Vietnam War impacts and disrupts the lives of several friends in a small steel mill town in Pennsylvania.
Director: Michael Cimino | Stars: Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, John Cazale, John Savage
Votes: 362,087 | Gross: $48.98M
9. The Spirit of the Beehive (1973)
Not Rated | 98 min | Drama, Fantasy
In 1940, after watching and being traumatized by the movie Frankenstein (1931), a sensitive seven year-old girl living in a small Spanish village drifts into her own fantasy world.
Director: Víctor Erice | Stars: Fernando Fernán Gómez, Teresa Gimpera, Ana Torrent, Isabel Tellería
Votes: 20,662
10. Touki Bouki (1973)
Not Rated | 85 min | Drama
Mory, a cowherd, and Anta, a university student, try to make money in order to go to Paris and leave their boring past behind.
Director: Djibril Diop Mambéty | Stars: Magaye Niang, Myriam Niang, Christoph Colomb, Mustapha Ture
Votes: 4,103
11. The Travelling Players (1975)
230 min | Drama, History, Music
Greece, 1939-1952: Fascist, Nazi, and Communist conflict, as seen through the eyes of a family of travelling provincial players.
Director: Theodoros Angelopoulos | Stars: Eva Kotamanidou, Vangelis Kazan, Aliki Georgouli, Kiriakos Katrivanos
Votes: 4,351
12. The Passenger (1975)
PG-13 | 126 min | Drama, Thriller
Unable to find the war he's been asked to cover, a frustrated war correspondent takes the risky path of co-opting the identity of a dead arms-deal acquaintance.
Director: Michelangelo Antonioni | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Maria Schneider, Jenny Runacre, Ian Hendry
Votes: 26,172 | Gross: $0.62M
13. Days of Heaven (1978)
PG | 94 min | Drama, Romance
A hot-tempered farm laborer convinces the woman he loves to marry their rich but dying boss so that they can have a claim to his fortune.
Director: Terrence Malick | Stars: Richard Gere, Brooke Adams, Sam Shepard, Linda Manz
Votes: 62,733
14. Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974)
Unrated | 193 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
A mysteriously linked pair of young women find their daily lives preempted by a strange boudoir melodrama that plays itself out in a hallucinatory parallel reality.
Director: Jacques Rivette | Stars: Juliet Berto, Dominique Labourier, Bulle Ogier, Marie-France Pisier
Votes: 6,354 | Gross: $0.03M
15. Solaris (1972)
PG | 167 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
A psychologist is sent to a station orbiting a distant planet in order to discover what has caused the crew to go insane.
Director: Andrei Tarkovsky | Stars: Natalya Bondarchuk, Donatas Banionis, Jüri Järvet, Vladislav Dvorzhetskiy
Votes: 98,219
16. Cries & Whispers (1972)
R | 91 min | Drama
When a woman dying of cancer in early twentieth-century Sweden is visited by her two sisters, long-repressed feelings between the siblings rise to the surface.
Director: Ingmar Bergman | Stars: Harriet Andersson, Liv Ullmann, Kari Sylwan, Ingrid Thulin
Votes: 36,974 | Gross: $1.74M
17. Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)
PG | 121 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Luke Skywalker joins forces with a Jedi Knight, a cocky pilot, a Wookiee and two droids to save the galaxy from the Empire's world-destroying battle station, while also attempting to rescue Princess Leia from the mysterious Darth Vader.
Director: George Lucas | Stars: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Alec Guinness
Votes: 1,449,187 | Gross: $322.74M
18. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972)
PG | 102 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
A surreal, virtually plotless series of dreams centered around six middle-class people and their consistently interrupted attempts to have a meal together.
Director: Luis Buñuel | Stars: Fernando Rey, Delphine Seyrig, Paul Frankeur, Bulle Ogier
Votes: 46,816 | Gross: $0.20M
19. Kings of the Road (1976)
Not Rated | 175 min | Drama
A traveling projection-equipment mechanic works in Western Germany along the East-German border, visiting worn-out theatres. He meets with a depressed young man whose marriage has just broken up, and the two decide to travel together.
Director: Wim Wenders | Stars: Rüdiger Vogler, Hanns Zischler, Lisa Kreuzer, Rudolf Schündler
Votes: 6,428
20. The Tale of Tales (1979)
29 min | Animation, Short
Distant, well-worn memories of childhood are inhabited by a little gray wolf. Through astonishing imagery, the memory of all of Russia is depicted.
Director: Yuri Norstein | Star: Aleksandr Kalyagin
Votes: 4,130
21. Killer of Sheep (1978)
80 min | Drama
Set in the Watts area of Los Angeles, a slaughterhouse worker must suspend his emotions to continue working at a job he finds repugnant, and then he finds he has little sensitivity for the family he works so hard to support.
Director: Charles Burnett | Stars: Henry G. Sanders, Kaycee Moore, Charles Bracy, Angela Burnett
Votes: 7,530 | Gross: $0.40M
22. The Devil, Probably (1977)
Not Rated | 95 min | Drama
Charles drifts through politics, religion and psychoanalysis, rejecting them all. Once he realises the depth of his disgust with the moral and physical decline of the society he lives in, ... See full summary »
Director: Robert Bresson | Stars: Antoine Monnier, Tina Irissari, Henri de Maublanc, Laetitia Carcano
Votes: 4,729 | Gross: $0.03M
23. Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)
R | 102 min | Drama
While drag-racing through the American Southwest in a Chevrolet 150, a driver and his mechanic cross paths with an enigmatic hitchhiker and the tall-tale-spinning driver of a GTO.
Director: Monte Hellman | Stars: James Taylor, Warren Oates, Laurie Bird, Dennis Wilson
Votes: 13,418
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