'An ode to living free and dying young': Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson in Easy Rider. Photograph: Allstar / Cinetext / Columbia
Mondo Mod
Starring "the youth of the world", this beat documentary prowled the streets of mid-60s Hollywood, chronicling the doings of the kids for the edification of the squares. Groovy tunes from the Inspirations and the Gretschmen punctuate shots of drag-racing and girls in short skirts - a real cult classic. Kovacs shared filming duties with another future cinematographic legend, Vilmos Zsigmond. See the trailer.
Easy Rider
Kovacs really made his name (and virtually invented the music video) with this counterculture classic, an ode to living free and dying young. No one expected it to be such a hit - least of all director Dennis Hopper - but the basic simplicity of the narrative, as well as Kovacs' ability to capture the primal nature of the American landscape, struck a chord across the nation and enabled the underground to go overground. See the immortal opening credits here.
Five Easy Pieces
After filming him on a chopper in a football helmet, Kovacs was again present when Jack Nicholson really became a star, in his extraordinary performance as a piano-playing waster in the early 70s. Kovacs aimed his camera at Nicholson's laser-like stare; Jack's eyes did the rest. Look how still Nicholson's head is in the legendary "chicken salad" scene, where he goes to town on a hapless waitress who won't take his order for toast.
The Last Movie
Dennis Hopper's 1971 follow-up to Easy Rider attracted almost universal derision - the usually equable Roger Ebert called it "pitiful" - but it really deserves reconsideration. Kovacs must have enjoyed the idea that isolated Peruvian villagers construct a primitive religion by imitating the activities of a visiting Hollywood film crew; but whether he did or not, he came up with some amazing images to illustrate the wilder shores of Hopper's imagination. You can get some idea from the sequence accompanying the song Spaces Between Spaces.
What's Up Doc?
This movie is shocking evidence - long suppressed - that Barbra Streisand does in fact possess a sense of humour. Here she starred opposite Ryan O'Neal in Peter Bogdanovich's homage to knockabout Hollywood comedy, and Kovacs had to be on his game to keep up. The extended chase scene with O'Neal and Streisand atop a runaway bike-cart is the jewel in the movie's crown, running through every silent-movie trope imaginable.
Shampoo
Kovacs hooked up with another major figure of 70s Hollywood, Warren Beatty, for this impeccable study of emotional malaise in the midst of LA hedonism. Scripted by Robert Towne, directed by Hal 'Being There' Ashby, Shampoo has some claim to being the 70s movie par excellence - as well as apparently being inspired by the career of hairdresser-turned-producer Jon Peters.
New York, New York
Kovacs only worked for Scorsese once, and it's neither of their best work: this homage to the Vincente Minnelli musical doesn't really get near to what it's aiming at, but does contain a good fistful of showstoppers. Vincente's daughter Liza gives it her all, none more so in the signature tune that closes the film.
Ghostbusters
Arguably Kovacs' most successful film, Ghostbusters is that rarest of objects: an authentic, popular work of genius. On one level, it's a dopey film about spooks, but on another it's the collision of comic talent working at the height of their powers. Bill Murray was never funnier - here's the legendary "dickless" scene, with poor old William Atherton on the end of Murray's best-ever movie insult.
Say Anything...
Once the careers of the Hollywood New Wave floundered, Kovacs found good movies harder to come by. Here's one of his best as the new generation flexed their muscle: Cameron Crowe's teen movie, starring John Cusack. Beloved by many for its evocation of putative slacker culture, it's gone down in legend for the Cusack boombox moment, as he attempts to mollify Ione Skye with Peter Gabriel's In Your Eyes. Altogether now: "Without a noise, without my pride..."
My Best Friend's Wedding
Kovac's last great film, this 1997 rom-com (directed by PJ Hogan) is a quirky number that repositioned Julia Roberts away from her customary goody-two-shoes roles, and pushed her perilously close to being actually unsympathetic. The discovery of the film though, was the quintessential model-turned-actress Cameron Diaz, who turned out to be easily able to hold her own in the screen charisma stakes after debuting as comic book eye-candy in The Mask. And Rupert Everett, doing his worldly-wise gay pal thing, triggered the movie's most fondly remembered scene: a mass singalong of Say a Little Prayer.
