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Annie Hall (1977)
Director: Woody Allen
Country: United States
Length: 93 minutes
Type: Romantic Comedy, Drama
I shouldn't have left it so long before seeing this classic, one from the top-35 of the AFI's 100 greatest movies. It's a beautiful romantic-comedy, a razor sharp satire of middle-class New York life, a gag-filled laugh-a-thon but also a mature, intellectual and unsensational examination of the changing fortunes in a relationship. Woody Allen freely shifts between reality, fantasy, voice-overs and dream sequences but it all feels so cohesive and focused. My biggest chuckle of many, many laughs was probably the deadpan line "I'm into leather". I thought there was a proto-'Seinfeld' flavour to it (but more spiky), with jokes about going to the cinema on a date to see 'The Sorrow and The Pity', instead of 'Schindler's List'.
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974)
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Country: Mexico / United States
Length: 112 minutes
Type: Western, Noir
'Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia' is gritty, grimy, occasionally nasty but often beautiful road-movie, melding the Western and Noir genres in a modern Mexican setting. Warren Oates plays Bennie a shambolic, flea-bitten American piano player who spots an opportunity for an easy payday when a crime lord proclaims "Bring me the head of Alfredo Garcia!" because Bennie secretly knows that Garcia is already dead, so he "simply" needs to dig up the body. Of course he's dealing with very dangerous men, so what Bennie sees as a nice picnic trip with his girlfriend turns increasingly violent and chaotic. Oates portrays a man consumed by desperation and inner moral conflict. Several scenes are arguably very misogynist but it does have a final message that no amount of money is worth more than the love and respect of a good woman and concludes with a woman triumphing over the powerful man who had mistreated her.
I'm glad I've finally seen the punchline to 50-years of jokes on the Radio 4 comedy panel show 'I'm Sorry I haven't a Clue'. e.g. Hairdressers Film Club: "Bring Me the Head and Shoulders of Alfredo Garcia"
The main theme is beautiful: