#175 – Amarcord, 1973, Federico Fellini
In an Italian seaside town, young Titta gets into trouble with his friends and watches various local eccentrics as they engage in often absurd behavior. Frequently clashing with his stern father and defended by his doting mother, Titta witnesses the actions of a wide range of characters, from his extended family to Fascist loyalists to sensual women, with certain moments shifting into fantastical scenarios.
#217 – The Wicker Man, 1973, Robin Hardy
Police sergeant Neil Howie is called to an island village in search of a missing girl whom the locals claim never existed. Stranger still, however, are the rituals that take place there.
#305 – Don’t Look Now, 1973, Nicolas Roeg
Laura and John, grieved by a terrible loss, meet in Venice, where John is in charge of the restoration of a church, two mysterious sisters, one of whom gives them a message sent from the afterlife.
#306 – The Spirit of the Beehive, (El espíritu de la colmena), 1973, Víctor Erice
In the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, Ana, a sensitive seven-year-old girl in a rural Spanish hamlet is traumatized after a traveling projectionist screens a print of James Whale’s 1931 “Frankenstein” for the village. The youngster is profoundly disturbed by the scenes in which the monster murders the little girl and is later killed himself by the villagers. She questions her sister about the profundities of life and death and believes her older sibling when she tells her that the monster is not dead, but exists as a spirit inhabiting a nearby barn. When a Loyalist soldier, a fugitive from Franco’s victorious army, hides out in the barn, Ana crosses from reality into a fantasy world of her own.
#418 – The Sting, 1973, George Roy Hill
Set in the 1930s this intricate caper deals with an ambitious small-time crook and a veteran con man who seek revenge on a vicious crime lord who murdered one of their gang.
JUMBO CACTUAR APPROVED FILM
#421 – Mean Streets, 1973, Martin Scorsese
A small-time hood must choose from among love, friendship and the chance to rise within the mob.
JUMBO CACTUAR APPROVED FILM
#422 – The Mother and the Whore, (La maman et la putain), 1973, Jean Eustache
In this sexually frank French drama, the aimless young Alexandre juggles his relationships with his girlfriend, Marie, and a casual lover named Veronika. The dialogue-heavy film focuses intently on the love triangle, with Marie increasingly jealous of Alexandre’s fling with Veronika. As the trio continues their unsustainable affair, the emotional stakes get higher, leading to conflict and unhappiness.
#466 – Badlands, 1973, Terrence Malick
Dramatization of the Starkweather-Fugate killing spree of the 1950s, in which a teenage girl and her twenty-something boyfriend slaughtered her entire family and several others in the Dakota badlands.
#526 – The Exorcist, 1973, William Friedkin
12-year-old Regan MacNeil begins to adapt an explicit new personality as strange events befall the local area of Georgetown. Her mother becomes torn between science and superstition in a desperate bid to save her daughter, and ultimately turns to her last hope: Father Damien Karras, a troubled priest who is struggling with his own faith.
#548 – Day for Night, (La Nuit américaine), 1973, François Truffaut
A committed film director struggles to complete his movie while coping with a myriad of crises, personal and professional, among the cast and crew.
Jumbo Cactuar Film Index 