Me still marvel at 1974, year when Brooks directed two of top three grossing films (Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles) and Coppola directed Godfather II and Conversation. It rare for director to make two films in one year, and two best examples both happen in 1974. (Me will grant you Dial M For Murder and Rear Window could probably challenge those two for best one-two punch)
I think folks like to bring up Spielberg's Jurassic Park/Schindler's List year, too, though I really think Coppola's duo is untouchable. It seems to happen to artists sometimes. They just hit some creative peak and a lot of their best work spills out of them.
That not limited to film either. Bob Dylan released Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, and Blonde on Blonde in 15 month span; Beatles went from Help! to Rubber Soul to Revolver in 364 days; from March 1968 to August 1969 James Brown put out 9 studio albums and had 18 singles on charts, and five out of six in a row had "Popcorn" in title!
My favourite example: Fairport Convention's 1969: released What We Did On Our Holidays (Jan), Unhalfbricking (Jul), Liege & Lief (Dec), and record what will be Full House, across which they invent, define, and perfect English folk-rock.
"A running gay panic joke hasn't aged too well, however." No, it hasn't, but it's a recurring bit in practically everything Brooks has done. He seems like a genuinely good guy, but oof, what a blind spot.
This essay gave me a fun flashback: I saw Silent Movie on cable when I was maybe 11? And it wasn't until the Marcel Marceau scene that I realized I'd accidentally been watching it on MUTE the entire time! Apparently I was just sharp enough to intuit that the joke of his cameo doesn't play if you can't hear him speak, but not enough to clock the otherwise total lack of music or sound effects... I totally played myself. This was slightly pre-DVR, so I had to wait until the movie replayed later in the afternoon to get the full effect. Worth it.
A film club I was in for a bit watched the Brooksfilms production THE VAGRANT. Extremely odd and distinct movie! I didn't like it but it remains another great example of the adventurous, creative stuff Brooks was producing.
Great write-up, I need to check this out. The prescience is making me think of the beginning of Meet John Doe, where a giant company buys a decent newspaper and lays off all the longtime reporters in the name of efficiency and higher profits, swap out the typewriters for computers and it could be entirely contemporary. Rapacious assholes never go out of style, apparently.
Silent Movie, for all its faults and silliness, was my introduction as a child to Mel Brooks and to that type of rapid-fire gag comedy, so it will always have a special place for me. I remember physically lying on the ground in tears when the merry-go-round horse takes something like a full minute to drop several wooden turds in the middle of a scene.
Me still marvel at 1974, year when Brooks directed two of top three grossing films (Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles) and Coppola directed Godfather II and Conversation. It rare for director to make two films in one year, and two best examples both happen in 1974. (Me will grant you Dial M For Murder and Rear Window could probably challenge those two for best one-two punch)
I think folks like to bring up Spielberg's Jurassic Park/Schindler's List year, too, though I really think Coppola's duo is untouchable. It seems to happen to artists sometimes. They just hit some creative peak and a lot of their best work spills out of them.
That not limited to film either. Bob Dylan released Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, and Blonde on Blonde in 15 month span; Beatles went from Help! to Rubber Soul to Revolver in 364 days; from March 1968 to August 1969 James Brown put out 9 studio albums and had 18 singles on charts, and five out of six in a row had "Popcorn" in title!
Elvis Costello with My Aim Is True, This Year's Model and Armed Forces right out of the damn box.
My favourite example: Fairport Convention's 1969: released What We Did On Our Holidays (Jan), Unhalfbricking (Jul), Liege & Lief (Dec), and record what will be Full House, across which they invent, define, and perfect English folk-rock.
"A running gay panic joke hasn't aged too well, however." No, it hasn't, but it's a recurring bit in practically everything Brooks has done. He seems like a genuinely good guy, but oof, what a blind spot.
The World of Coca-Cola groups their Columbia Pictures exhibit with its New Coke exhibit. Coincidence? Maybe not...
This essay gave me a fun flashback: I saw Silent Movie on cable when I was maybe 11? And it wasn't until the Marcel Marceau scene that I realized I'd accidentally been watching it on MUTE the entire time! Apparently I was just sharp enough to intuit that the joke of his cameo doesn't play if you can't hear him speak, but not enough to clock the otherwise total lack of music or sound effects... I totally played myself. This was slightly pre-DVR, so I had to wait until the movie replayed later in the afternoon to get the full effect. Worth it.
A film club I was in for a bit watched the Brooksfilms production THE VAGRANT. Extremely odd and distinct movie! I didn't like it but it remains another great example of the adventurous, creative stuff Brooks was producing.
Great write-up, I need to check this out. The prescience is making me think of the beginning of Meet John Doe, where a giant company buys a decent newspaper and lays off all the longtime reporters in the name of efficiency and higher profits, swap out the typewriters for computers and it could be entirely contemporary. Rapacious assholes never go out of style, apparently.
Silent Movie, for all its faults and silliness, was my introduction as a child to Mel Brooks and to that type of rapid-fire gag comedy, so it will always have a special place for me. I remember physically lying on the ground in tears when the merry-go-round horse takes something like a full minute to drop several wooden turds in the middle of a scene.