Films that are purposefully aimless in a vaguely hippieish sort of way (especially from the 1970s)

Watched Rockers tonight, and realized it actually reminded me of a couple of late 60s/early 70s Israeli films I've seen that feature Arik Einstein (like Horsemouth, a musician). Nearly plotless, lots of meandering about a warm weather city on a beach, intermittent recording sessions, etc. What other films fit this genre, and was it a world trend at the time, and if so where did it originate?

Two-Lane Blacktop rules

The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie?

Absolutely everything from Godard?

2 or 3 Things I Know About Her, I think, came out in the period.

Er, sorry just checked - '67. DISREGARD MY EXISTENCE.

yeah maybe it's partly the influence of godard.

My brain keeps wanting to filter "Hipsterish" over "Hippieish". What would qualify as hipster in the 1970s?

Chantal Ackerman's Je tu il elle probably fits. Very aimless, sorta stoned & grimy character study.

mazursky's blume in love & alex in wonderland

does Picnic at Hanging Rock count?

Robert Downey's "Greaser's Palace"
Jodorowsky "El Topo"

I just watched Picnic at Hanging Rock yesterday!

And no, I don't think it counts. It may be dreamy and meandering and have an unresolved ending but there's a mystery narrative that controls all the action.

Jerry Schatzberg's Scarecrow is about as '70s and as aimless as it gets, even though neither lead character (Pacino and Hackman) is actually a hippie. It's a film I like, but someone else might consider it emblematic of everything that was self-indulgent about American film in the first half of the decade. Cisco Pike's a good one too, and Kristofferson does play a hippieish character in that.

five easy pieces? maybe has too much storyline

dazed and confused

Five Easy Pieces for sure; I assumed it had already been mentioned. For me, it's the blueprint for the thread title. Wim Wenders made some films in the '70s that fit perfectly too, expecially Kings of the Road and Alice in the Cities.

Easy Rider obv

"especially"--"exspecially" only applies to all the porno films that spoof Wim Wenders.

Disagree about Five Easy Pieces -- feel like it's a movie that actually has a pretty major plot arc but disguises it. Scenes at the family home have a real sense of climax, ending is very dramatic, etc.

It's Nicholson's character who's aimless more than the film itself, so I see your point.

Count me in as another poster who knows exactly what we're talking about but can't actually name anything.

I find that aimful movies often suck.

Count me in as another poster who knows exactly what we're talking about but can't actually name anything.

That's actually completely the opposite of how I work: most of the time I haven't a clue what we're talking about, but I chime in anyway.

"vaguely hippieish" is throwing me off but my all-time favorite film, Some Call It Loving (1973), fits "purposefully aimless" as well as any film ever made.

I'm getting the faint impression that "vaguely hippieish" winds up meaning "with men as the central characters." If that impression is wrong, then try Wanda, Puzzle of a Downfall Child, or A Place for Lovers.

clem OTM re: Wenders. Kings of the Road is probably the best example of what this thread is looking for I can think of. Closest Fassbinder counterpart would be Katzelmacher. I think Aguirre absolutely counts here although, again, the "vaguely hippieish" thang throws things off a tad.

I find that aimful movies often suck.

Amen!!

does midnight cowboy fit into this? aside from it being a story about two men bonding, they basically just meander while they bond iirc

Cisco Pike

Was gonna say there must be some Kristofferson films that fit this.

The Passenger

Jack Nicholson sure did love aimless movies.

Yeah I do think Midnight Cowboy fits.

the thread topic makes me think of all those 70s movies that have a lot of long shots or tracking shots in scenes of people wandering around, sometimes back and forth, sometimes in circles.

yeah but what are all those 70s movies

Just in terms of mood, and scarcity of actual stuff happening--of course I absolutely love it--I think McCabe & Mrs. Miller more or less fits.

Oh yeah, Cassavettes fits.

Cassavetes

cassavettes tapes

is there a chillwave band called this?

john cougar cassava-melon-cass-etes tapes

there are some hip ppl in cassavetes but not v hippieish i don't think?

Zabriskie Point is one of these?

xp - i would be in a chillwave band called cassavetes tapes

man zabriskie point makes me want to start a whole other thread dedicated to films that have people walking around in deserts.

best kind of movie, imo

El Topo, dude, El Topo

walkabout

Gus Van Sant and Arvo Part to thread...

I rlly have no idea what you ppl are talking about

probably a handful of Pasolini films that I started watching and fell asleep in the middle

Back in the day even a director as non-hippieish and purposeful as Peckinpah would put some aimless sections in his films. Would that his disciples... aah never mind.

i think these may be deleuze's cinema of the time-image, as opposed to the action-image, where there's a rupture after WWII and characters no longer react to a situation but rather just record it. he says the sensory-motor connection is loosened in neo-realism, where we find reality is "dispersive, elliptical, errant or wavering, working in blocs, with deliberately weak connections and floating events", followed by the french new wave with wandering events and irrational linkages, tati's characters seeing not doing, antonioni's emotied and disconnected spaces, etc.

http://books.google.com/books?id=WKGsHmlEfYkC

i meant emptied but emotied is good

But maybe just having Warren Oates in your movie makes it seem aimless

man zabriskie point makes me want to start a whole other thread dedicated to films that have people walking around in deserts.

The Shooting to thread!

Inner Scar

Pat Garrett would have passages that fit, right? I've only seen it once, but I'm thinking of the moody "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" sequences. I think James Redd is right--that mood permeates American films in general at the time. Not everybody responds to it--I do, and I'm aware that I tend to overrate American films of that era.

'Nashville' ambles along in this manner

cant believe we never said
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jB4xlYKAVCQ

just having Warren Oates in your movie makes it seem aimless

We look nothing alike, but I suppose there is a deeper resemblance.

Speaking of Oates, 92 In The Shade fits this description. In other hands it would have been a tight b-movie potboiler, but instead comes out like a loose pot-burner.

then of course there's the aimless triumvirate of Oates, Nicholson, and Hellman in The Shooting.

I'm really looking forward to Tree of Life (I adore all of Malick's films), but the trailer makes me think it fits this thread's description.

L'avventura seems to fit as well (just like The Passenger mentioned above, another Antonioni film). I only saw it once a few years back, but the plot seemed thin, mostly characters meandering about).