The 1970s are a decade for film I truly hate and today I'll be talking about two of its "classics" (so-called for varying reasons) and also two relatively modern films in comparison. The modern films beat the classics hands down, but there's only one good film in the bunch. That's the one I'll start with.
I caught The Station Agent in the middle of my Patricia Clarkson phase - I had videoed it on tv months ago but that's long since been taped over so I caught this delightful little film online. Story is that a reclusive dwarf (Peter Dinklage) inherits a train depot and forms a friendship with a local man (Bobby Cannavale) and an artist (Clarkson). The film is extremely funny throughout, very quirky indeed and thoroughly enjoyable. Dinklage plays it straight nicely, Clarkson has a lot to do and handles the drama and comedy equally well, Michelle Williams has a nice little role where she doesn't have much to do and Cannavale is a complete RIOT. This is the guy from Third Watch? Who knew? This is a complete crowd-pleaser of a sweet little indie film, highly, broadly recommended.
The second modern film and first of the homages I saw was The Good German. Now this probably sounded like a much better idea on paper than it ended up being. George Clooney is a journalist who gets into post-war Berlin to find himself drawn into a game of intrigue by his driver Tobey Maguire with his old flame Cate Blanchett at the heart of it. Clooney is okay, Maguire is arm-chewingly awful and Blanchett is fine in general but her accent does slip regularly. It does try to make some interesting points thematically, but does so in generic ways. The obvious allusions to Casablanca do nothing for the film and director Steven Soderbergh's decision to shoot it using techniques from the 40s as well as (poorly) intercutting archive footage only hinder the film. Not everything in black and white is brilliantly shot as there are some shots here that smack of inexperience, also *including* the language, nudity and violence banned by the films you're pastiching only goes to show how irrelevant and exploitative doing that is. All of this renders the film at best pretentious and at worst a conceit. Overall the film is as uneven as Cate's accent, some good things, some bad things, overall it's decent but could have been a lot better.
Worst film of the bunch is the first of the "classics", namely Peter Weir's antipodean film Picnic at Hanging Rock. It's a fictional film (which tries its hardest to dress itself up as real) about the disappearance of 3 schoolgirls and their teacher on the outing in the title. It's very nicely shot but that's about it, the acting ranges from passable to laughable, as does the dialogue. Very little character work is done so there's not much to get involved in emotionally and the same problem is faced when the narrative becomes as wandering and aimless as it is. The first time I've ever seen Rachel Roberts embarrass herself, just a turgid drag of a film I'd find impossible to recommend unless you wanted something pretty on in the background with the sound off while you're wallpapering the lounge.
Lastly and the second 70s classic and also the second homage of the round up is American Graffiti. I didn't particularly care for it. It's about ... well, what is it about? It's a load of kids in the early 60s driving around on the night before a couple of them (Richard Dreyfuss and Ron Howard) are scheduled to go to college. There are a few modern films that remind me of this film - first is C.R.A.Z.Y. in that it really relies on the ridiculously brilliant and extensive soundtrack to root the film in the period and provide lots of entertainment. The other film that echoes it is Love, Actually in that there are multiple plot strands and they're very hit and miss. The third film it reminds me of is Borat because for some of the stories it doesn't really matter what order the "hijinks" occour in. So a poor narrative made episodic through various reasons that doesn't hit consistently - some (like the young girl and the racer, as well as the geek picking up the blonde on the street) are entertaining, the problem is the others that aren't are the main ones and when it is them that are focused on more the closer we get to the conclusion of the film it's not very satisfactory. Mildly interesting, but nothing special at all.