September 20, 2008

1968 @ Britannica.

2001 We've spent more than a little of 2008 marking 40th anniversaries - here at the Daily, too. See, for example, this, this, this, this, this and this. But wait, as they say: there's more. At the Britannica Blog, bestselling author Raymond Benson, a frequent contributor to Cinema Retro, the magazine dedicated to "Celebrating Films of the 1960s & 1970s," is going to spend two weeks counting down his personal top ten films of 1968. Starting with his #10 on Monday, he'll be considering one film each weekday through October 3.

A handful of bloggers - about two handfuls, actually - myself included, will be commenting on his choices (scroll down a tad), and we won't be alone. Comments are already stacking up, in part because if you guess Raymond Benson's #1 there may be a prize in it for you. I've made my guess plain enough; meantime here's a list few would've guessed up, I'll bet.

Update, 9/23: The choices so far: The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (with Alan Arkin, #10) and Franco Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet (#9).



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Posted by dwhudson at September 20, 2008 2:08 PM

Comments

It is interesting how there are a bunch of 40th anniversaries but no 50th anniversaries. No doubt it is due to the politics of '68. But is it also because films from 1968 seem to have a more modern feel to them than they do from 1958? A selection from 1958 I think stands up pretty well today: Vertigo, Paths of Glory, Touch of Evil, The Seventh Seal, The Cranes are Flying, Man of the West, Look Back in Anger, Left Handed Gun, Le Beau Serge, Mon Oncle, Big Deal on Madonna Street, Etc. [Sorry if this was already covered. Just thinking out loud].

Posted by: Matt at September 20, 2008 8:34 PM