Hal Ashby is rarely mentioned in anyone's list of the greatest auteurs of all time, but I've been an admirer of his since seeing his breakout cult hit Harold and Maude. His later films--including Coming Home, Shampoo, and Being There--are well-received and even listed among the greats, yet none has seemed to make a name for the director, in the same way as a Scorsese or a Coppola. I've never seen anyone make reference to a stereotypical "Ashby film."
This is strange, since the director has a unique style and voice, and each of his films is recognizable as his. His underseen debut, The Landlord, shows the same visual touches seen in Harold and Maude and Being There, but also raises similar social questions. Released in 1970, The Landlord is about race in America, and what it meant to be black at that time.
The landlord is Elgar Enders (Beau Bridges), a rich kid who buys a run-down apartment building in Park Slope in the hopes of refurbishing it for himself. But after forming a relationship with the African-American residents there, he begins to change his mind. The Landlord is a remarkable film that compellingly portrays the race relations of its time, and features a finely nuanced performance from Bridges as the snotty but gradually maturing Elgar, as well as from Lee Grant as his sheltered mother and Pearl Bailey as an eccentric mystic who's one of his tenants.
31. The Tree of Life (2011): Feb. 13
32. Kull the Conqueror (1997): Feb. 14
33. The Landlord (1970): Feb. 18
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