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THE SHAME. Ingmar Bergman's 29th film is a tonal allegory involving a nameless war, a broken marriage, and existential doubt. The performances by such Bergman regulars as Max von Sydow and Gunnar Bjornstrand are letter perfect, but Liv Ullman, newest member of the Bergman company, portrays the whole range of feminine response with a special brilliance.
THE FIXER. "I'm the kind of man who finds it perilous just to be alive," says the reluctant hero of this grueling and often moving adaptation of Bernard Malamud's novel. Under the meticulous direction of lohn Frankenheimer, the cast performs with a power that gives the film an almost Dostoevskian force.
FACES. John Cassavetes wrote and directed this grim and gritty study of the vicissitudes of love and marriage at middle age. The film is alternately powerful and dreary, and demands more sympathy for its characters than many members of the audience will want to give.
THE NIGHT THEY RAIDED MINSKY'S is a surprise: a funny, affectionate valentine" to old-time burlesque. Songs, dances and moldy jokes are all delivered with appropriate irreverence. The actors, including Jason Robards and Norman Wisdom as a couple of seedy comics, Britt Ekland as an innocent young thing in the big city, and Joseph Wiseman and Harry Andrews as concerned fathers, all perform with dedicated energy.
CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG is a friendly musical that drags a bit in the first half, but picks up once Dick Van Dyke, who plays a pixilated inventor, gets his children, his girl friend (Sally Ann Howes) and his car airborne.
THE FIREMEN'S BALL. Under the direction of Milos Forman (Loves of a Blonde), a group of firemen stage a party in honor of their retiring chief, and act out a neat parody of Communist bureaucracy.
YELLOW SUBMARINE is an elaborate animated cartoon adventure starring the Beatles. Although Graphics Designer Heinz Edelmann brings off a series of visual puns, the overall result tends to bog down at times.
BULLITT is a cops-and-robbers movie that moves the audience's viscera, particularly during a chase scene up and down the hills of San Francisco. Steve McQueen stars as a detective with impeccable cool.
FUNNY GIRL. Barbra Streisand makes her movie debut in a loud musical biography of Fanny Brice. Miss Streisand is on screen most of the time, which will delight many fans, but may give others a sense of uneasy familiarity.
COOGAN'S BLUFF. This story of an Arizona sheriff (Clint Eastwood) who comes to New York on a man hunt, amply justifies Director Don Siegel's reputation as a minor film genius.
WEEKEND. Jean-Luc Godard gives the bourgeoisie a good drubbing in a satire that might be sharper if its Maoist political harangues were not so dull.
PRETTY POISON. Homicide can be fun, as Anthony Perkins and Tuesday Weld prove in this stinging satire on violence in America. Direction is by Noel Black, 31, whose previous experience has been mostly in educational and commercial shorts.
OLIVER! They've removed Dickens' reformist zeal, but substituted some colorful period costumes, some excellent songs by Lionel Bart, and some stunning sets by John Box. The result is the best musical of 1968. Carol Reed directs a large cast (including Ron Moody, Shani Wallis and Mark Lester as Oliver) with precision.
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