Which is your favourite: Era/Decade of Film?

[onetwothreefour]

what is your favourite era/decade of films?

okay: i expect that most people will vote for the nineties purely because most of us here are in our twenties. that's fine. however, what i really want to know is why - what is it that attracts you to the films you enjoy? i assume that most people picking the nineties like the gloss and the glamour, but conversely there may be others who prefer the independant underground of the nineties' cinema.

personally, i have to immediately go for the sixties, just because of my fixation on the french new wave. i'm a sucker for that entire era (and the whole decade of the hollywood fifties which preceded it), and could watch it all day long. i love the colour schemes that came through in the sixties once colour hit, and i also love some of the remaining black and white stuff - where it's all really at its peak.

still, i have the nineties in my heart, having grown up on its film. despite the influx of commercial shite that began about that time, there's plenty of amazing films that i love. i don't dislike the eighties, but there was too much shit outweighing the likes of spike lee and john hughes (yes, a rather random pairing i know ).

i also ticked the thirties too, almost entirely due to my love for the master, fritz lang

 

[Pounding_Grooves]

70,s. ..... chinatown,nashville, the long goodbye, french connection, network,godfather 1 and 2,california split,the last detail,one flew over the cuckoos nest

 

[axl blaze]

wow look at all those 90's. I certainly fell into that cliche you described 1234. like prolly most of you I was born in early 80's but truly grew up in the 90's - I think of myself as a child of the 90's.

like you said, the 80's were good but the good were overshadowed by others. I just love early 90's pop culture with directors in the like as: Tarantino, John Singleton, and Spike Lee.

btw I count Lee as mostly a director of the 90's, because he became more acceptable and had a larger impact. that's when he hooked up with Scorcese - I mean is that not every director's dream job?!

 

[wanderlust]

i love all things art deco.

 

[L2R]

The yayo fueled 70's rules, my man.

 

[quiet roar]

I love the feel of noir films. One of the only types of film I can watch even if the plot/script suck a little.

 

[Mazey]

i watch just about anything from the late 30's to the early 1970's
my wife says i'd be happy with a black & white television just because most movies i watch are B&W .

 

[PinholeStar]

In terms of Hollywood output, it's the 70s easily. Pounding_Grooves described why.

 

[EA-1475]

Breaking down eras is not quite so easy as listing them as whole decades.

The first sound era was from about 1929 (when sound became standard) to 1934 with the introduction of the production code. You had a lot of movies focusing on the depression, a lot of gritty social commentaries, and the like.

The next era was from 1934 ending in early 1942. After the production code, Hollywood cleaned up a lot. Gone were the serious social drama with heavy themes. This era of escapist entertainment. Screwball comedies, period dramas, and big budget musicals.

After US entrance into WWII, you see another radical shift. Movies become even more moralistic, less whimsical and have with heavy patriotic overtones.
You don't get another radical shift until the collapse of the studio system in the early fifties.

Personally, I'm all about the pre-code era but I also like the screwballs of the late 30's. 1939 is arguably the greatest year in the history of Hollywood. Gone With The Wind, Wizard of Oz, Wuthering Heights, Dark Victory, Bringing Up Baby. That year kicked ass. Although 1933 is my personal fav.
With exception of movies by Billy Wilder, Hitchcock, and a few film noires, I think the the 40's (after 1941) totally sucked.
In the 50's, Hollywood started lightening up. You see the return of the sex comedy (a new spin on the old screwballs) and the rise of method acting which would later hit its peak in the 70's.
Don't much care for movies after that.

 

[EA-1475]

70,s. ..... chinatown,nashville, the long goodbye, french connection, network,godfather 1 and 2,california split,the last detail,one flew over the cuckoos nest

Yeah but how many comedies from that era have dated well?

Not many.

 

[EJ]

When looking at my Top 100 list, the '90s would seem to be my favourite. But when I look at my Top 10, 7 of them are from the '60s and '70s. Based on that, I have to go with the '70s.

The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, Apocalypse Now, A Clockwork Orange, Star Wars: A New Hope, Jaws, Close Encounters, Aguirre "Wrath of God", The Enigma of Kasper Hauser, Enter the Dragon, Walkabout, Taxi Driver, Solyaris, Stalker, The Conversation, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Deliverance, The Deer Hunter, Mad Max, Mean Streets, Manhattan, Superman: The Movie, even The Warriors and Grease. Plus a few from one of my favourite years ('75), Picnic at Hanging Rock, Dog Day Afternoon and Barry Lyndon.

EA-1475, you may consider these quite dated, but I still see them as great comedies...

Life of Brian, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Blazing Saddles.

...Particularly Life of Brian, which I think is timeless. Anyhow, comedies are usually at the lower end of the quality spectrum for mine, along with the horror genre.

With a bulk of such quality movies, the '70s will probably stay my favourite decade for life. The '60s would be second, some great, great movies there. Then '90s, '80s, and the current decade. There are very few films pre-1960 that I really like. I think there's only 6 or 7 in my Top 100.

 

[EA-1475]

^^^ OK, I'll grant you Monty Python, Woody Allen and Mel Brooks.

I still think the 30's were better.

 

[faris]

personally, i really dig 80's movies. good movies, cheesy movies, whatever... there are some really good classics (and not-so-good "classics") in the 80's. i was born in 1977 so i do consider the 80's to be when i grew up.

(no particular order just off the top of my head, and i didn't say "good" movies either! )

the goonies
roxanne
the breakfast club
pretty woman
rad :D
karate kid
weird science
back to school
stand by me
dirty dancing
girls just wanna have fun
fletch
real genius
porky's
nightmare on elm street


some of these are movies i wasn't technically allowed to watch because i was only around 7 or so. they will be forever burned in my mind.

 

[tribal girl]

^Ha!. :D

You know what? I was gonna make a post pretty much identical to yours last night. But for some reason, I couldn't be bothered. I was even gonna make a list.

Maybe later.

 

[AmorRoark]

Have to go with the 1960s:

2001: A Space Odyssey, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, The Graduate, Pierre Le Fout, Psycho, The Birds, The Children's Hour, Days of Wine and Roses, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Lolita, In the Heat of the Night, The Music Man, Butch Cassidey & The Sundance Kid, The Good The Bad & The Ugly, Cool Hand Luke, Easy Rider, Midnight Cowboy, Dr. Strangelove, Lawrence of Arabia, Bonnie & Clyde, Z, The Hustler, My Fair Lady, West Side Story, Yojimbo, Hello, Dolly!, True Grit

I know that just seems like a list but I love all these movies.

I just generally enjoy the feeling and look of these films. The somewhat grainy but beautifully unrealistic colors, and conversely the mix between color/b&w film choices, the style of the clothes. Popular shot choices. The development of more of an appreciation of foreign films is a huge plus. The 60s really was a time of change for film and it coincided with the times. Though the film industry seemed to be on a decline during the 60s due to lesser viewership I think the less interest allowed for more freedom of film development. They took risks with subject matter, nudity, perspective, story line, violence, angles, stock, and just progress in general. Love it. I wish I had been around for it all honestly. My favorite year is arguably 1969 but I like films throughout the entire decade.

 

[AmorRoark]

*bumpity*