by Allan Fish
Before beginning the official countdown from 50 of the top sixties films, here’s a list of the next fifty that just missed out…
| 51 La Jétée (France 1962…Chris Marker) |
| 52 Les Bonnes Femmes (France 1960…Claude Chabrol) |
| 53 The Good, the Bad & the Ugly (Italy 1966…Sergio Leone) |
| 54 Hunger (Denmark 1966…Henning Carlsen) |
| 55 Kes (UK 1969…Ken Loach) |
| 56 The Manchurian Candidate (US 1962…John Frankenheimer) |
| 57 The Army in the Shadows (France 1969…Jean-Pierre Melville) |
| 58 The Cloud Capped Star (India 1960…Ritwik Ghatak) |
| 59 A Touch of Zen (Taiwan 1969…King Hu) |
| 60 Yojimbo (Japan 1961…Akira Kurosawa) |
| 61 If… (UK 1968…Lindsay Anderson) |
| 62 A Hard Day’s Night (UK 1964…Richard Lester) |
| 63 Il Desserto Rosso (Italy 1964…Michelangelo Antonioni) |
| 64 The Hustler (US 1961…Robert Rossen) |
| 65 Days and Nights in the Forest (India 1969…Satyajit Ray) |
| 66 Witchfinder General (UK 1968…Michael Reeves) |
| 67 The Innocents (UK 1961…Jack Clayton) |
| 68 Memories of Underdevelopment (Cuba 1966…Tomas Gutierrez Aléa) |
| 69 A Man for All Seasons (UK 1966…Fred Zinnemann) |
| 70 Loves of a Blonde (Czechoslovakia 1965…Milos Forman) |
| 71 Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors (USSR 1964…Sergei Paradjanov) |
| 72 Mouchette (France 1967…Robert Bresson) |
| 73 Ivan’s Childhood (USSR 1962…Andrei Tarkovsky) |
| 74 The Red and the White (Hungary 1967…Miklós Jancsó) |
| 75 Capricious Summer (Czechoslovakia 1968…Jiri Menzel) |
| 76 The Servant (UK 1963…Joseph Losey) |
| 77 Gertrud (Denmark 1964…Carl T.Dreyer) |
| 78 Abschied von Gestern (West Germany 1966…Alexander Kluge) |
| 79 Culloden (UK 1964…Peter Watkins) |
| 80 High and Low (Japan 1963…Akira Kurosawa) |
| 81 Harakari (Japan 1962…Masaki Kobayashi) |
| 82 Through a Glass, Darkly (Sweden 1961…Ingmar Bergman) |
| 83 Repulsion (UK 1965…Roman Polanski) |
| 84 The Insect Woman (Japan 1963…Shohei Imamura) |
| 85 Lola (France 1961…Jacques Demy) |
| 86 Spartacus: Restored Version (US 1960/1990…Stanley Kubrick) |
| 87 Asya’s Happiness (USSR 1967…Andrei Mikhalkov-Konchalovsky) |
| 88 The Masque of the Red Death (UK 1964…Roger Corman) |
| 89 The Cremator (Czechoslovakia 1968…Juraj Herz) |
| 90 La Notte (Italy 1961…Michelangelo Antonioni) |
| 91 The Switchboard Operator (Yugoslavia 1967…Dusan Makavejev) |
| 92 Birds, Orphans & Fools (Czechoslovakia 1969…Juraj Jakubisko) |
| 93 Point Blank (US 1967…John Boorman) |
| 94 Death by Hanging (Japan 1968…Nagisa Oshima) |
| 95 Vivre sa Vie (France 1962…Jean-Luc Godard) |
| 96 War and Peace: Parts I, II, III & IV (USSR 1966…Sergei Bondarchuk) |
| 97 El Cid (US 1961…Anthony Mann) |
| 98 Loving Couples (Sweden 1964…Mai Zetterling) |
| 99 La Dolce Vita (Italy 1960…Federico Fellini) |
| 100 Billy Liar (UK 1963…John Schlesinger) |
Click on names for archives
Writers/Founders
A Face in the Crowd should have AT LEAST made the top 100.
So sad.
Hi Jenny!
Actually, I do believe that FACE IN THE CROWD did place in the Top 100 in the 50’s poll, although we only published the results of the top 50. But I’m sure it did place.
Oh, my bad. I wasn’t even thinking/paying attention. Silly me.
Many great films here!
La Dolce Vita *only* at 99? Really?
I like La Dolce Vita, Andrew, I just prefer 98 others on the particular day I made up the list.
Well Andew, I have LA DOLCE VITA at #45 on my own list so I was a bit kinder than Allan was on the day of compilation. LOL!!! But it’s a masterwork, that’s for sure.
Allan:
Hah! Well put. I just enjoy griping about lists. 🙂
My god.
Witchfinder General and Repulsion above La Dolce Vita?
Allan, good fellow, I salute you.
Better leave off the saluting until you see what’s to come in the top 50, Jon.
Griping about lists is perfectly acceptable when it’s someone else’s.
A number of these films will make my own Top 25, so go figure….
Hi! WitD readers,
Allan said,”Before beginning the official countdown from 50 of the top sixties films, here’s a list of the next fifty that just missed out…”
This is kinda of “scary,” but I’am not familiar with any of the films on the list that Allan just posted! 😕
Yeech!… but, to be quite honest, after I “gave” the list the “once over” again!….hmmm…I maybe familiar with one or two of the titles … 😕
Dcd 😦
Really, Deedee?
Not even “La Jetee”?
Not even “Army of Shadows”?
Not even “Masque of the Red Death”??
Jon, I actually had the “temerity” to put the Corman as my own No. 25!!! I feel like watching that tonight! Good during inclimate weather, which we’re experiencing now in the NYC area.
Dee Dee is only kidding. She has seen quite a few more than a “few” of those. I know it as a fact!
Yup, there’s even one on there Sam hasn’t seen. And there are a few more in the top 50.
Yep, I have seen all but one of these 50…..that’ll be BIRDS, ORPHANS & FOOLS, Allan’s #92.
Jon, I actually had the “temerity” to put the Corman as my own No. 25!!!
Nice. I actually wrote my senior thesis on Poe’s Eureka. In retrospect I don’t know which is worse, Poe’s odd attempt at metaphysics or my poor attempt at literary analysis of same.
Either way, I forced the seminar leader to show this film in class, seeing as how it adapts not only “The Masque of the Red Death” but “Hop-frog” — one of my favorite Poe tales — as well. Also, there’s beautiful cinematography by none other than Nick Roeg himself, who would also go on to shoot another great 60s film (unfortunately absent here): Petulia.
Jon:
I bet that senior thesis by you was utterly magnificent, and it probably intimidated the Professor as well, much as your brilliant and fecund writing does in the eyes of others. And what a great choice there too!
Actually Jon, one of my regular “battles” with Allan has always been, WHAT is teh greater Corman film: “Masque of the Red Death” or “The Fall of the House of Usher?” While I for the longest time I held firm with the latter, I did eventually come around to Allan’s way of thing here, although USHER is still exceptional stuff.
My own favorite Poe story of them all is USHER, but I’ve used THE TELL-TALE HEART, THE BLACK CAT and THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO with the Junior high schoolers, so I’m partial to them.
PETULIA has some beautiful things in it. I don’t think Allan cares for it.
Hey Jon, when will your next post be up at The Power Strip?
I bet that senior thesis by you was utterly magnificent, and it probably intimidated the Professor as well, much as your brilliant and fecund writing does in the eyes of others. And what a great choice there too!
Actually the prof quite liked it. I felt it was rather rushed, personally. I would love to write a book on Poe someday…I’ve read just about his entire output and I think he’s quite unfairly maligned as a “pop”-poet and a “spook” writer. Some of his short stories actually display wit that challenges Bierce’s: Exhibit A, “The Literary Life of Thingum Bob”.
Oh, and USHER is a marvelous film and story. I quite like the Jan Svankmejer adaptation as well.
PETULIA has some beautiful things in it. I don’t think Allan cares for it.
It is rather obtuse…perhaps a blog entry will be needed in the near future on my part 😉
As for the Powerstrip, my primary client sadly has me working even weekends (*groan*) but I will return shortly with a (hopefully) rather piquant series for the usual suspects to sink their teeth into.
Jon said, “Really, Deedee?
Not even “La Jetee”?
Not even “Army of Shadows”?
Not even “Masque of the Red Death”??
hmmm… 🙄 🙄 (Please insert the 30 second Jeopardy, theme-music here!….and my answer is ….No!)
Deedee 🙂
They’re not noirs, Jon, so definitely no…
They’re not noirs, Jon, so definitely no…
I must say Deedee’s noir purism — indeed, fundamentalism — is inspiring.
I can’t believe The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly just missed the cut!
I’d love to see a PETULIA consideration from you Jon, and I will be watching the Power Strip!
Daniel, it must have just missed Allan’s list! LOL!!!
Dee Dee does love noirs, but quite a bit else too.
It did, Daniel, it did…
I have visions of deedee trying to make everything into a film noir by dancing round incense holders in her living room, turning the colour right down the monochrome, turning off all the lights and lighting up a cigarette to watch the smoke billow past the screen. Very discomforting when watching Death in Venice in black and white and insisting it’s a noir and that Dirk Bogarde’s Aschenbach is actually a P.I. undercover as a dying homosexual composer.
Yes, Sam, more noirs…and Hitchcock…but anything else be hanged.
Allan Fish said, “I have visions of deedee trying to make everything into a film noir by dancing round incense holders in her living room, turning the colour right down the monochrome, turning off all the lights and lighting up a cigarette to watch the smoke billow past the screen….”
Omg! Omg! Omg!….ALLAN FISH!!!!
LOL! 😆
Allan, you are demented.
From the World’s Premier Champion Marble Misplacer, I’ll take that as a black kettle moment and move on.
Always needs to have the last word. YOU are the one who painted that “noir” scenario, not me. Yes, let’s indeed move on.
Guys, seriously, when are you starting the Juliano/Fish Comedy Hour podcast?
I just don’t know who’s the straight one and who’s the comedian…the lines blur.
Ha Jon!
Allan is supposed to be the straight one, but his caustic wit does indeed allow the roles to overlap. That podcast idea is very very tempting!
Sam, this is a serious suggestion. I think with your and Allan’s cinematic knowledge and ‘chemistry’, you should develop the concept of a weekly podcast discussion of a movie. Say 15 mins.
This has been done very successfully by two academics at http://outofthepast.libsyn.com/, but they paly it straight and their podcast lack a certain bite. I am sure you and Allan would do very well at it.
Indeed Tony, indeed. I will discuss this with Allan tomorrow and see what he thinks. But yes I have listened to a few of these before, and they are most interesting.
I’ll check that link you sent here too.
The practicalities of it are somewhat daunting. Got a bit much on our plate at the moment.
It is very easy… and free. Go to http://drop.io/?code=phone. Anyway it’s your call [sic]… just an idea.
The problem is that when we speak on the phone we’re only funny if we’re tearing someone or body to shreds. It’s like like that wonderful but profane Youtube video of Derek and Clive as Statler and Waldorf – or vice versa.
Wow. Mouchette as the 72nd best movie of the sixties, not to mention La Dolce Vita at 99. I think you have just rendered yourself irrelevant for eternity.
I have always been and will always be irrelevant, Jason, old boy, it’s part of my cynical charm.
As a brit I’m slightly biased on this one but my top five would be –
1) Lawrence of Arabia
2) Lawrence of Arabia
3) Lawrence of Arabia
4) Lawrence of Arabia
5) Lawrence of Arabia
Only slightly biased I’m sure you’ll agree. (closely followed by Dr Strangelove, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Hustler and Rosemary’s Baby.
James: Now let me ask you this: Do you love LAWRENCE OF ARABIA?
Thanks for your input and for visiting the site.
No Army of Shadows or Harakiri makes me a sad panda…
Looking at this list makes me realize how behind I am when it comes to the 60’s.
You’re not behind, Huffy, just I’m a sad so and so…you should see the films that were below 100…
For what it’s worth, despite claiming the 60s as my favorite for cinema, I have just barely seen a majority of films on the list (26 seen vs. 24 unseen). In my defense, I am slowly working my way through a canon compiled (by myself) of many other lists. I’m doing so chronologically, though, and am still stuck in the twenties…