Oscar Party! Tonite we're gonna party like it's 1976 (Dersu Uzala,Sandakan No.8)
Details
NOTE: We're skipping one week, so this next meetup will be in THREE weeks, on March 13, 2026.
Oscar Party! We're going back 50 years, to 1975, another great year for movies. There are many movies that look amazing that we've never heard of, and some Hollywood movies that are so classic we should just watch them again. We're going to watch 8, two at a time for the next four meetings: Dersu Uzala (Kurosawa), Sandakan No. 8 (an obscure Japanese movie that has never even been released in the US), Barry Lyndon (our first Kubrick!), One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest (one of the all-time great movies), Profumo di donna (can you figure out what that means in English?), The Promised Land (a Polish classic), and we'll end with two more all-time favorite Hollywood movies, Three Days of the Condor and Dog Day Afternoon.
I tried to whittle it down to four movies, but there are just too many great ones to see. I had to cut out a lot of interesting ones to get it to eight.
We're doing double features again: you can watch both or one or the other or watch none and not come (or, of course, you're welcome even if you haven't watched them).
This week, we'll start with Dersu Uzala, which won best foreign film 1976. It's Kurosawa, but financed by the USSR. Kurosawa was having financial difficulties, and actually approached Russia with the idea for the film.
The second movie is Sandakan No. 8, a Japanese movie directed by Kei Kumai. This is a totally obscure film though it was nominated for best foreign film in 1976, it has never been released on DVD in the US. Yet it's one of the highest-grossing Japanese films in China of all-time. You can find it on ok.ru here:
https://ok.ru/video/2113196001902
It looks like it's also available on the Criterion channel if you have that.
Here are the movies we'll be watching:
March 13:
Dersu Uzala (Kurosawa)
Sandakan No. 8 (Kumai)
March 27:
Barry Lyndon (Kubrick)
One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest (Foreman)
April 10:
Profumo di donna
The Promised Land
April 24:
Three Days of the Condor
Dog Day Afternoon
These movies are available on all the streaming services, or as always you can also find a (free) link to them here:
https://gregoryberry.net/1976oscars/ (coming soon!)
We will meet on Friday, March 13, at 8PM, at LEANING TOWER OF PIZZA at 24th Street and Lyndale, same as always. See you there!