As with previous polls, readers are requested to submit their top 25 films to the 1960s poll in the form of comments below. As before, you are advised to use the Movie Timeline to the right of the home page to ascertain films from that particular decade, though you are in no means restricted to films listed therein, it’s merely a guide.
Allan will begin his top 50 countdown (again only the top half of those counting towards his vote) on Monday 6th April, but will post on Sunday a run down of the 50 films that just missed his top 50, from 51-100. There will be a few he expects people to be surprised to finish so low down, but he again insists this is the ultimate complement to the decade, not an insult to the films in question.
Click on names for archives
Writers/Founders
Wonders in the Dark 
Well, I am going to get the ball rolling with the 60’s poll. This was quite simply the most difficult poll of them all, and I decided to name my Top 50, and then some runners-up:
1. Au Hasard Balthazar (Bresson….France)
2. Persona (Bergman……Sweden)
3. West Side Story (Wise, Robins…..USA)
4. Kes (Loach……UK)
5. Marketa Lazarova (Vlacil…..Czechoslovakia)
6. Andrei Rublev (Tarkovsky…..Russia)
7. The Leopard (Visconti……Italy)
8. Playtime (Tati……France)
9. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick..USA/UK)
10. Viridiana (Bunuel…..France)
11. Once Upon A Time in the West (Leone/USA)
12. Psycho (Hitchcock……….USA)
13. Chimes at Midnight (Welles…..Spain)
14. Le Mephris (Godard………France)
15. The Producers (Brooks……USA)
16. Battle of Algiers (Pontecorvo…..Italy/France)
17. When A Woman Ascends the Stairs (Naruse….Japan)
18. The Gospel According to St. Matthew (Pasolini…..Italy)
19. Le Samurai (Meville……….France)
20. Charulata (S. Ray………India)
21. Memories of Underdevelopment (Alea….Cuba)
22. The Round-Up (Jansco….Hungary)
23. The Pawnbroker (Lumet………USA)
24. Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Demy….France)
25. Masque of the Red Death (Corman….USA)
26. Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (Paradjanov……Russia)
27. Hunger (Carlsen…..Sweden)
28. An Autumn Afternoon (Ozu……..Japan)
29. Valley of the Bees (Vlacil….Czechoslovakia)
30. Onibaba (Shindo………Japan)
31. High and Low (Kurosawa…..Japan)
32. Jules and Jim (Truffaut………France)
33. Winter Light (Bergman……Sweden)
34. Dr. Strangelove (Kubrick….UK/USA)
35. The Cloud-Capped Star (Gitak……India)
36. To Kill A Mockingbird (Mulligan…USA)
37. Black Sunday (Bava……..Italy)
38. Becket (Glanville………UK)
39. Army of Shadows (Melville…..France)
40. Romeo and Juliet (Zeffirelli…..USA)
41. My Fair Lady (Cukor…..USA/UK)
42. 8 1/2 (Fellini………Italy)
43. Loves of a Blonde (Forman…Czechoslovakia)
44. Women of the Dunes (Teshigahara…Japan)
45. La Dolce Vita (Fellini…….Italy)
46. Carnival of Souls (Harvey….USA)
47. Lord of the Flies (Brooks……..UK)
48. The Exterminating Angel (Bunuel…..Spain)
49. The Sound of Music (Wise…..USA)
50. Last Year at Marienbad (Resnais………France)
Point Blank (Boorman……..USA)
The Creamtor (Herz……Hungary) -three way tie–
Strong Runners Up:
Harikari (Kobayashi……..Japan)
Spartacus (Kubrick……..USA)
La Notte (Antonioni……..Italy)
The Graduate (Nichols………USA)
Red Angel (Matsumura…….Japan)
Bonnie and Clyde (Penn……USA)
Repulsion (Polanski…..France)
Weekend (Godard…..France)
Rocco and His Brothers (Visconti….Italy)
Knife in the Water (Polanski…..Poland)
The Apartment (Wilder…..USA)
Midnight Cowboy (Schlesinger…..USA)
Gertrude (Dreyer……Denmark)
Black Sabbath (Bava……Italy)
The Silence (Bergman……..Sweden)
Le Trou (Becker………..France)
Mouchette (Bresson……..France)
Les Bonnes Femmes (Chabrol…..France)
The Color of Pomagranates (Paradjanov….Russia)
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Nichols….USA)
A Man For All Seasons (Zinnemann….UK)
Vidas Secas (……..Brazil)
L’Aventura (Antonioni……Italy)
Through A Glass Darkly (Bergman….Sweden)
Colloden (Watkins………UK)
The Hunt (Saura………Spain)
The Lion in Winter (Harvey……USA)
Hamlet (Kotnisev………Russia)
The Miracle Worker (………USA)
This Sporting Life (Anderson……UK)
Billy Liar (Schesinger……UK)
Oliver! (Reed……..UK)
The Conformist (Bertolucci……..Italy)
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (Aldrich….USA)
Z (Costa-Gavres……..France/Greece)
Fall of the House of Usher (Corman….USA)
The Criminal (Losey………UK)
La Verite (Clouzot………France)
Sons and Lovers (Russell………UK)
The Bad Sleep Well (Kurosawa…..Japan)
Mary Poppins (Stevenson………UK)
The Birds (Hitchcock…….USA)
A Hard Day’s Night (Lester………UK)
If (Anderson………UK)
Point Blank (Borrman……..UK)
Belle de Jour (Bunuel……..France)
War and Peace (Bonderchuk………Russia)
Closely Watched Trains (Menzel……Czechoslovakia)
Absheid Von Gestern (Kluge……..Germany)
Asya’s Happiness (Mikhalkov-Konchalovsky….Russia)
Simon of the Desert (Bunuel….Spain)
Le Jetee (Marker………France)
Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (Richardson………UK)
The Wanderer’s Notebook (Naruse…..Japan)
Scattered Clouds (Naruse……..Japan)
Night of the Living Dead (Romero……USA)
An Actor’s Revenge (Ichikawa…..Japan)
The Insect Woman (Imamura……Japan)
Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors (Francis….UK)
The Whip and the Body (Bava…….Italy)
The Music Man (da Costa……..USA)
The Hour of the Furnaces (Solanes……..Cuba)
Boy (Oshima………Japan)
The Shop on Main Street (Kadar/Klos)
In Cold Blood (Brooks……..USA)
Le Feu Follet (Malle………France)
Accattone (Pasolini………Italy)
Advise and Consent (Preminger……..USA)
101 Dalmatians (Luske………USA)
Victim (Dearden…….UK)
Lola (Demy………..France)
El Cid (Mann………USA)
Human Condition 1 and 2 (Kobayashi…Japan)
Days and Nights in the Forest (S. Ray….India)
Eros + Massacre (Yoshida………Japan)
Witches’ Hammer (Czechoslovakia)
The Passion of Anna (Bergman…..Sweden)
Witchfinder’s General (UK)
Yojimbo (Kurosawa……..Japan)
Mentioning My Fair Lady in a top 500 of the 1960s would be laughable. Having it ahead of 8½ and having The Sound of Mucus in at the expense of Eros + Massacre (and placing that and several others on a level with Dr Terror’s Shithouse of Horrors) is equally a capital offence. Would you like to be shot, hung or strapped to Old Juicy for crimes against the cinema? I believe it’s Old Juicy in your state.
Oh, and the term runners up (it means those who come actual or equal second, not a million or so that come somewhere after 50) really needs looking up in the dictionary, Sam, old boy. Nothing wrong with a best 100, I’m doing 51-100 in a list on Monday, but say so, none of this runners up mallarkey.
Human Condition should be part 3, too, as 1 and 2 were in 1959.
hahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!
that comment is an all-time classic Allan!!!!
As I get older I have come to the realisation that the great films are the ones you remember vividly, so these are 60’s movies (not definitive) I think Sam has overlooked – my apologies if I have missed a film Sam has listed:
Shoot the Piano Player
Jules e Jim
Lolita
The Hustler
The Manchurian Candidate
Shock Corridor
The Naked Kiss
The Servant
In the Heat of the Night
Hombre
Le Samourai
Cool Hand Luke
The Conformist
Easy Rider
Zorba the Greek
Two Women
The Prime of Moss Jean Brodie
Exodus
The Misfits
Yojimbo
Divorce, Italian Style
The Odd Couple
They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?
Seven Up!
The Night of the Iguana
I shall now wait patiently for Allan’s abuse.
1 MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE (1962)
2 GRADUATE, THE (1967)
3 HUSTLER, THE (1961)
4 PAWNBROKER (1964)
5 BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (1969)
6 DOCTOR ZHIVAGO (1965)
7 SPARTACUS (1960)
8 PSYCHO (1960)
9 LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1962)
10 TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (1962)
11 INHERIT THE WIND (1960)
12 MIDNIGHT COWBOY (1969)
13 JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG (1961)
14 PRODUCERS, THE (1968)
15 DIRTY DOZEN (1967)
16 ONE, TWO, THREE (1961)
17 PAY OR DIE (1960)
18 PLANET OF THE APES (1968)
19 TRAIN, THE (1965)
20 GOLDFINGER (1964)
21 BONNIE AND CLYDE (1967)
22 GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD (1965)
23 A HARD DAY’S NIGHT (1964)
24 MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, THE (1962)
25 APARTMENT, THE (1960)
Excellent lists, guys.
Best decade in film history. Here’s my 25 reasons why:
1. My Night at Maud’s (Rohmer)
2. High and Low (Kurosawa)
3. Le Doulos (Melville)
4. Lawrence of Arabia (Lean)
5. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick)
6. Faces (Cassavetes)
7. La Dolce Vita (Fellini)
8. The Apartment (Wilder)
9. Woman in the Dunes (Teshigahara)
10. Chimes at Midnight (Welles)
11. The Bad Sleep Well (Kurosawa)
12. The Swimmer (Perry)
13. Once Upon a Time in the West (Leone)
14. 8 1/2 (Fellini)
15. Dr. Strangelove (Kubrick)
16. The Silence (Bergman)
17. I am Cuba (Kalatozov)
18. The Arrangement (Kazan)
19. L’Ecclise (Antonioni)
20. Kwaidan (Kobayashi)
21. Il Posto (Olmi)
22. Never on Sunday (Dassin)
23. Night of the Iguana (Huston)
24. Rocco and His Brothers (Visconti)
25. Harakiri (Kobayashi)
Angelo, you have served yourself quite well there, regardless of what Allan says!!!
Ari, again you have compliled an extraordinary list. I am stunned at your placement of MY NIGHT AT MAUD’S at #1, but in a good sense!
Tony, there are a few on your list that are already on my list, but your compilation is superlative. Interesting with PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE, which I do love, even if its rather theatrical, especially as Maggie Smith’s performance is one of the greats!
Rohmer is one of my very favorite directors, and I’d say Maud’s is pretty much my definition of a perfect movie.
And you are not alone on that assessment Ari. I do like it though as well, but perhaps I favor CLAIRE’S KNEE. But they are both great, and kudos to you for embracing Rohmer.
It’s coming, Angelo, you zenophobic bigot. God, we love you! Don’t ever change, he says knowing you’d rather stab yourself in the eye with a propelling pencil.
Now Mr Juliano wants a three way tie for no 50…what utter bollocks! Cheating really is an artform for this man.
Allan, your words of tribute are much appreciated.
(with previous lists even though I have always admitted to a lack of order I have nonetheless been able to find 2-3 ‘top’ films. It has been hardest for me to do that for this decade so my #1 film should be taken even more provisionally than would normally be true. In any case the films are not in any order.)
1)L’Eclisse (Antonioni)
2)81/2 (Fellini)
3)High and Low (Kurosawa)
4)Devi (Ray)
5)Contempt (Godard)
6)The Leopard (Visconti)
7)La Dolce Vita (Fellini)
8)Andrei Rublev (Godard)
9)L’Avventura (Antonioni)
10)Au Hasard Balthazar (Bresson)
11)Battle of Algiers (Pontecorvo)
12)I am Cuba (Kalatazov)
13)Exterminating Angel (Bunuel)
14)Woman of the Dunes (Teshigahara)
15)Lawrence of Arabia (Lean)
16)Yojimbo (Kurosawa)
17)Army of Shadows (Melville)
18)Red Desert (Antonioni)
19)Harakiri (Kobayashi)
20)Once Upon a Time in the West (Leone)
21)Jules and Jim (Truffaut)
22)Psycho (Hitchcock)
23)2001 A Space Odyssey (Kubrick)
24)Autumn Afternoon (Ozu)
25)Persona (Bergman)
the ones that could be on the above list on a different day:
1)The Hunt (Saura)
2)The Birds (Hitchcock)
3)La Notte (Antonioni)
4)Red Beard (Kurosawa)
5)Playtime (Tati)
6)The Good the Bad and the Ugly (Leone)
7)The Silence (Bergman)
8)Through a Glass Darkly (Bergman)
9)The Roundup (Jancso)
10)The Red and the White (Jancso)
11)Weekend (Godard)
12)Gertrude (Dreyer)
13)The Apartment (Wilder)
14)Cheyenne Autumn (Ford)
15)Memories of Underdevelopment (Alea)
16)Red Angel (Masumara)
17)The Bad Sleep Well (Kurosawa)
18)Satyricon (Fellini)
19)Last year at Marienbad (Resnais)
20)Charulata (Ray)
21)Nayak (Ray)
22)When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (Naruse)
23)Scattered Clouds (Naruse)
24)Sanjuro (Kurosawa)
25)Cloud Capped Star (Ghatak)
26)Subarnarekha (Ghatak)
27)The Cremator (Herz)
28)Onibaba (Shindo)
29)Le Samourai (Melville)
30)2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (Godard)
31)Komal Gandhar (Ghatak)
32)An Actor’s Revenge (Ichikawa)
33)Z (Costa Gavras)
34)Breathless (Godard)
35)Viridiana (Bunuel)
36) Paris Nous Appartient (Rivette)
Personal Favorites from this decade:
1)The Leopard (Visconti)
2)Lawrence of Arabia (Lean)
3)Good the Bad and he Ugly (Leone)
4)Once Upon a Time in the West (Leone)
5)High and Low (Kurosawa)
6)La Dolce Vita (Fellini)
7)Yojimbo (Kurosawa)
8)Red Beard (Kurosawa)
9)Army of Shadows (Melville)
10)Harakiri (Kobayashi)
Kaleem, what can I say?
These lists are awesomwe, tremendous and extraordinary tasteful.
We are lucky to have them!
Well, this is an especially tough decade for me. One of the biggest problems being a number of my favorite directors being at the top of their game. I could’ve easily done an all-Godard top 10 and still had leftovers, but I restrained myself. I allowed myself 3 Godards and 2 Bergmans and somewhat arbitrarily limited everyone else to 1 each, which made it a bit easier as well. Here’s the resulting top 25, followed by some leftovers that I (very regretfully) couldn’t find room for:
1. Masculin feminin (JLG)
2. The Silence (Ingmar Bergman)
3. I Fidanzati (Ermanno Olmi)
4. My Night at Maud’s (Eric Rohmer)
5. La Jetee (Chris Marker)
6. Belle de jour (Luis Bunuel)
7. 8 1/2 (Federico Fellini)
8. A Married Woman (JLG)
9. Play Time (Jacques Tati)
10. Lolita (Stanley Kubrick)
11. Scorpio Rising (Kenneth Anger)
12. Alphaville (JLG)
13. The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo)
14. The Flicker (Tony Conrad)
15. Advise and Consent (Otto Preminger)
16. The Nun (Jacques Rivette)
17. The Face of Another (Hiroshi Teshigahara)
18. The Apartment (Billy Wilder)
19. Samuel Beckett’s Film (Alan Schneider)
20. Mothlight (Stan Brakhage)
21. When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (Mikio Naruse)
22. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone)
23. Love Is Colder Than Death (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
24. Persona (Ingmar Bergman)
25. 9 Variations on a Dance Theme (Hilary Harris)
LEFTOVERS:
Towers Open Fire (Antony Balch)
Winter Light (Ingmar Bergman)
Hour of the Wolf (Ingmar Bergman)
Comanche Station (Budd Boetticher)
Simon of the Desert (Luis Bunuel)
The Exterminating Angel (Luis Bunuel)
Faces (John Cassavetes)
Report (Bruce Conner)
Play Dirty (Andre De Toth)
Juliet of the Spirits (Federico Fellini)
La Dolce Vita (Federico Fellini)
Two Or Three Things I Know About Her (JLG)
Week-End (JLG)
Vivre sa vie (JLG)
Marnie (Alfred Hitchcock)
Now Hear This (Chuck Jones)
Blind Beast (Yasuzo Masumura)
Manji (Yasuzo Masumura)
Funeral Parade of Roses (Toshio Matsumoto)
David Holzman’s Diary (Jim McBride)
Intimate Lighting (Ivan Passer)
La Collectionneuse (Eric Rohmer)
Night of the Living Dead (George Romero)
Woman in the Dunes (Hiroshi Teshigahara)
The Velvet Underground & Nico (Andy Warhol)
Culloden (Peter Watkins)
The War Game (Peter Watkins)
One, Two, Three (Billy Wilder)
Ed’s list again raises the bar, and again I say we are absolutely thrilled to have it here at WitD.
Films like INTIMATE LIGHTING, FUNERAL PARADE OF ROSES, BLIND BEAST, LOVE IS COLDER THAN DEATH, NOW HEAR THIS, THE NUN and THE FACE OF ANOTHER remind me what I neglected to list here, at least on runner-up. They all deserve to be.
I have not seen SCORPIO RISING or MOTHLIGHT, nor SAMUEL BECKETT’S FILM, nor 9 VARIATIONS.
I must see them ASAP.
Thanks again so very much.
Sam, I never saw “Kes” unfortunately, as I notice here how highly you regard it. I’ll have to put it on netflix.
1 Once Upon A Time in the West
2 8 1/2
3 2001: A Space Odyssey
4 Bonnie and Clyde
5 Persona
6 Belle de Jour
7 Contempt
8 High and Low
9 Au Hasard Balthazar
10 The Graduate
11 Ride the High Country
12 Carnival of Souls
13 Jules and Jim
14 The Silence
15 Dr. Strangelove
16 Repulsion
17 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
18 Z
19 Hud
20 Psycho
21 West Side Story
22 The Producers
23 My Night at Maud’s
24 Lawrence of Arabia
25 The Apartment
Almost Made it:
The Birds
Victim
Alice’s Restaurant
The Lion in Winter
Weekend
Billy Liar
Shoot the Piano Player
The Exterminating Angel
Take the Money and Run
Goldfinger
Masque of the Red Death
Midnight Cowboy
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
A Man For All Seasons
Joe: Thanks very much for that fine list!
I’m sorry to inform you that KES can’t be obtained on netflix, as it’s a Region 2 release. This is another plug for the acquisition of all-Region players. Of course at some point I’d be more than willing to screen it for you.
Thanks again!
This was the toughest decade, and I needed to revise my listing a number of times. I have too many runner up choices, so I won’t list any.
1. Faces
2. L’Aventura
3. Contempt
4. Dr. Strangelove
5. The Exterminating Angel
6. La Jetee
7. My Night at Maud’s
8. 8 1/2
9. The Producers
10. The Silence
11. Once Upon A Time in the West
12. Army of Shadows
13. Au Hasard Balthazar
14. Le Samorai
15. Yojimbo
16. Cul-de-Sac
17. The Leopard
18. La Dolce Vita
19. Persona
20. The Apartment
21. Women in the Dunes
22. Chimes at Midnight
23. The Conformist
24. La Notte
25. Hud
Nice going Bill. Yeah, I also will forego listing beyond the 25. I’d be typing here forever. This is some decade. I’ll get Sue to compile a list later this week. I loved the 50’s results, but like others was surprised at the placement of several titles. And as you well know I am with you on West Side Story, even if your colleague takes you to task on it.
1 Le Samourai
2 Andrei Rublev
3 Contempt
4 8 1/2
5 A Hard Day’s Night
6 Point Blank
7 West Side Story
8 The Manchurian Candidate
9 Advise and Consent
10 Persona
11 The Exterminating Angel
12 Au Hasard Balthazar
13 Lola
14 Spartacus
15 L’Aventura
16 The Hustler
17 The Innocents
18 2001
19 Jules and Jim
20 Masculin Feminin
21 The Good the Bad and the Ugly
22 Psycho
23 Lawrence of Arabia
24 My Night at Maud’s
25 High and Low
1 The Round-Up
2 The Wild Bunch
3 Persona
4 The Producers
5 Le Trou
6 Night of the Living Dead
7 Once Upon A Time in the West
8 Playtime
9 Loves of a Blonde
10 My Night at Maud’s
11 Easy Rider
12 Lolita
13 L’Aventura
14 Splendor in the Grass
15 West Side Story
16 Umbrellas of Cherbourg
17 Contempt
18 The Color of Pomogranates
19 The Conformist
20 Au Hasard Balthazar
21 La Dolve Vita
22 Rocco and His Brothers
23 The Graduate
24 The Apartment
25 This Sporting Life
Bill, Peter and David:
I am simply overwhelmed by these listings. Everyone here has their own aesthetics, but each list in a cinematic wonderment!
I can’t say how appreciative we are to have themhere.
He’s done it, faithful readers, the world record for being overwhelmed in one calendar year formerly held by Dr Quentin J.Cronk of Kitzbuehl Switzerland, who, thanks to seven avalanches causing snow to bury his house in 1979, set the previous record which had stood for 30 years. Yet he spent 0nly a mere 70 days totally overwhelmed in the months of Jan, Feb, Mar, Nov and Dec. Sam has successfully used his unparalleled beatitude tossing to be in a complete state of overwhelmment from January 2nd to the present, and he’s still going strong.
Likewise, if the bar has been raised as often as it is said to here, you’d need a pole 3½ miles long to vault over it, that is if you’re lucky enough to avoid any passing satellites as you sail over.
All lists are extremely welcome, and Ed Howard has provided a list of eclectic taste and some intelligence that will leave several scratching their heads and I’m all for that. Yet let’s keep things firmly rooted on terra firma, Sammy, old boy. Take a leaf out of the girls’ book in 10 Things I Hate About You, as when one asked, referring to how you can be both underwhelmed and overwhelmed, whether you can be just whelemed and the other replied, quite seriously, “I think you can in Europe“.
Consider me whelmed.
Doug’s List:
1. West Side Story
2. The Hustler
3. The Graduate
4. Spartacus
5. Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
6. Psycho
7. Birdman of Alcatraz
8. Lolita
9. Cape Fear
10. To Kill A Mockingbird
11. Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
12. The Birds
13. Goldfinger
14. Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors
15. My Fair Lady
16. Fall of the Roman Empire
17. Diamonds Are Forever
18. Fail Safe
19. It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World
20. Doctor Zhivago
21. The Pawnbroker
22. To Sir With Love
23. The Dirty Dozen
24. Cool Hand Luke
25. Hud
Susan’s list:
1. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
2. The Miracle Worker
3. Doctor Zhivago
4. Gospel According to St. Matthew
5. West Side Story
6. To Kill A Mockingbird
7. Romeo and Juliet
8. Oliver!
9. 8 1/2
10. Lolita
11. A Hard Day’s Night
12. The Lion in Winter
13. Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
14. Petulia
15. Lawrence of Arabia
16. Jules and Jim
17. The Pawnbroker
18. Alfie
19. Sons and Lovers
20. El Cid
21. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
22. Born Free
23. Help
24 Fellini Satyricon
25 Mary Poppins
1 Faces
2 The Producers
3 Le Samorai
4 Persona
5 The Wild Bunch
6 Au Hasard Balthazar
7 Playtime
8 La Jetee
9 Carnival of Souls
10 Battle of Algiers
11 Dr. Strangelove
12 High School
13 Easy Rider
14 Bonnie and Clyde
15 The Silence
16 Sons and Lovers
17 Lawrence of Arabia
18 The Graduate
19 Psycho
20 Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
21 Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
22 A Hard day’s Night
23 The Apartment
24 Woman of the Dunes
25 Z
Wow. This is gonna be tough. But I plan on participating! Give me a couple days or so…
James:
We would absolutely LOVE to have your participation here!!!!!!!!!!!
2001 A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 1968)
Woman in the Dunes (Teshigahara, 1964)
Last Year at Marienbad (Alain Resnais, 1961)
The Silence (Bergman, 1963)
Persona (Bergman, 1966)
8½ (Fellini, 1963)
The Apartment (Wilder, 1960)
Mouchette (Bresson, 1967)
Yojimbo (Kurosawa, 1961)
La Jetee (Marker, 1962)
Mahanagar (Satyajit Ray, 1963)
Onibaba (Kaneto Shindô, 1964)
Rosemary’s Baby (Polanski, 1968)
Knife in the water (Polanski, 1962)
Red Beard (Kurosawa, 1965)
Lawrence Of Arabia (Lean, 1962)
Woodstock (1970)
Closely Observed Trains (1966)
Kes (Loach, 1969)
Yellow Submarine (1968)
Thanks very much for the attention you have given this superlative list Kris! We are thrilled to have it here!
1. Lolita
2. Spartacus
3. The Pawnbroker
4. 8 1/2
5. Kes
6. The Apartment
7. 2001: A Space Odyssey
8. The Graduate
9. Days of Wine and Roses
10. Persona
11. Umbrellas of Cherbourg
12. Contempt
13. Nuremberg Trials
14. Lawrence of Arabia
15. Au Hasard Balthazar
16. Psycho
17. The Illustrated Man
18. This Sporting Life
19. Alfie
20. Darling
21. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
22. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
23. Midnight Cowboy
24. West Side Story
25. Once Upon a Time in the West
Dan:
Thank you so much for making your maiden blogging appearance here, and I am admittedly thrilled and grateful to hear you have been reading. Your list is quite excellent and exhibits a wonderful balance.
You made one error with No. 21, which repeats No. 8., but that’s easy enough to amend.
Needless to say, I applaud your love of Hitchcock and Kubrick! Thanks again.
Here is my top 25 (in no particular order):
1. Hud (Ritt)
2. Pierrot le Fou (Godard)
3. Shock Corridor (Fuller)
4. Le Samourai (Melville)
5. Lonely are the Brave (Miller)
6. The Face of Another (Teshigahara)
7. Shoot the Piano Player (Truffaut)
8. The Silence (Bergman)
9. My Night at Maud’s (Rohmer)
10. Breathless (Godard)
11. If…. (Anderson)
12. Midnight Cowboy (Schlesinger)
13. Dillinger is Dead (Ferreri)
14. Blast of Silence (Baron)
15. Harakiri (Kobayashi)
16. The Trial (Welles)
17. Medium Cool (Wexler)
18. Army of Shadows (Melville)
19. High and Low (Kurosawa)
20. Dr. Strangelove (Kubrick)
21. 8 1/2 (Fellini)
22. Z (Costra-Gavras)
23. David and Lisa (Perry)
24. Repulsion (Polanski)
25. L’Eclisse (Antonioni)
left off:
Cassavetes because my favorite of his is ‘Husbands’ from 1970, same for Peckinpah my favorite of his is either ‘Straw Dogs or ‘Crosses of Iron’ both from the 70’s. my favorite Wilder (from the 60’s) is ‘One Two Three’ which misses the cut. three more Polanski’s just miss the cut (‘Rosemary’s Baby’, ‘Knife in the Water’, and ‘Cul-de-Sac’), a few great british films just missed the cut; ‘The Collector’ (Weyler), ‘This Sporting Life’ (Anderson), ‘Look Back In Anger’ (Richardson) ‘Saturday Night and Sunday Morning’ (Reisz), ‘Darling’. also i have a soft spot for ‘In Cold Blood’ (Brooks), ‘Black Sunday’ (Bava), “Django’, and Corbucci’s ‘the Great Silence’.
i could have put several more Godard on here as I love almost all his sixties films a lot, same for Melville. No Renais as ‘Hiroshima Mon Amour’ was ’59, my favorite of his.
I should also see more asian cinema overall, and Antonioni as well. I like all the 60’s Bergman’s too but couldn’t pick my absolute favorite.
never seen Kes, unfortunately, as it’s on many lists here, will do. also never seen ‘the swimmers’ never had the chance.
Long time reader, first time poster. I think this is the first decade I know enough about to actually participate.
1. Psycho
2. Dr. Strangelove
3. The Manchurian Candidate
4. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
5. Peeping Tom
6. In the Heat of the Night
7. The Wild Bunch
8. La Dolce Vita
9. Au Hasard Balthazar
10. Easy Rider
11. Last Year at Marienbad
12. The Birds
13. The Apartment
14. Juliet of the Spirits
15. 8 1/2
16. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
17. 2001: A Space Odyssey
18. Once Upon a Time in the West
19. Lawrence of Arabia
20. Bonnie and Clyde
21. The Graduate
22. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
23. To Kill a Mockingbird
24. Cool Hand Luke
25. Inherit the Wind
These are some great lists, but I can’t believe no one has picked “The Magnificent Seven”. I admit it’s not quite as amazing as “Seven Samurai”, but it’s a good film in its own right. To be honest, most people I know have never seen the Kurosawa original, but they’ve all seen Sturges’ remake.
Another film I noticed missing is “True Grit”. This is one of my favorite films of all time. Please…. somebody put it on a list! 🙂
Don’t forget:
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf
Rosemary’s Baby
A Bout de Souffle (Breathless)
Spartacus
Mary Poppins
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
The Lion in Winter
Long Day’s Journey into Night
Repulsion
Planet of the Apes
Judgement at Nuremberg
The Killing of Sister George
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane
Lets kick this up a notch. While a lot of these would be interchangeable (and I give myself away for being much more interested in experimental work) I’ve done my best to rank them in “appropriate” order. The 60s are like my favorite decade of movies so this is a real tough list to make…there are literally 50 other titles I might include on another day. Oh well. Here goes nothing…
1. Dog Star Man (Stan Brakhage, 1961-64)
2. Wavelength (Michael Snow, 1967)
3. 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (JLG, 1967)
4. Playtime (Jacques Tati, 1967)
5. L’avventura (Michaelangelo Antonioni, 1960)
6. Au Hasard Balthazar (Robert Bresson, 1966)
7. The House Is Black (Forugh Farrokhzad, 1963)
8. Scorpio Rising (Kenneth Anger, 1964)
9. Andrei Rublev (Andrei Tarkvosky, 1966)
10. Mothlight (Stan Brakhage, 1963)
11. Week-End (JLG, 1967)
12. Blow Job (Andy Warhol, 1963)
13. Persona (Ingmar Bergman, 1966)
14. Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (Russ Meyer, 1968)
15. Tom, Tom The Piper’s Son (Ken Jacobs, 1969)
16. The Flicker (Tony Conrad, 1965)
17. Flaming Creatures (Jack Smith, 1963)
18. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
19. L’Eclisse (Michaelangelo Antonioni, 1962)
20. Le Samourai (Jean Pierre Melville, 1967)
21. La Jetee (Chris Marker, 1962)
22. Zapruder Film (Abraham Zapruder, 1963)
23. The War Game (Peter Watkins, 1965)
24. The Chelsea Girls (Andy Warhol, 1966)
25. Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (William Greaves, 1968)
2001: A Space Odyssey – Kubrick
Andrei Rublev – Tarkovsky
L’Eclisse – Antonioni
Branded To Kill – Suzuki
Play Time – Tati
L’Avventura – Antonioni
Faces – Cassavettes
8 1/2 – Fellini
Contempt – Godard
Breathless – Godard
Persona – Bergman
La Dolce Vita – Fellini
The Apartment – Wilder
Le Samourai – Melville
Salesman – Maysles
Yojimbo – Kurosawa
High School – Wiseman
Blowup – Antonioni
Medium Cool – Wexler
Gate of Flesh – Suzuki
I Fidanzat – Olmi
Dr. Strangelove – Kubrick
La Notte – Antonioni
Psycho – Hitchcock
Bonnie and Clyde – Penn
James:
What a tremendous, ecclectic, and authoritative list!!!! I am stunned!!! I won’t say ‘overwhelmed’ as Allan will aim satiric barbs at me if I do!!
The Brakage at #1 is amazing, but you have definitely gone quite high here. I am thrilled that you have the Bresson at #4, I love that #12 Warhol (LOL!!!) the Russ Meyer and Jacobs and the Zapruder JFK film!!!! I have to hand it to you James!!!
We are lucky to have your list here!!! Thank You, Sir!
Burt:
Thanks very very much for yet another fantastic list at the site!!! Today has been quite the banner day here at WitD for a number of reasons. We appreciate having an avid cineaste like yourself here.
All masterworks, Sir, quite agreed.
Glad to shake things up, as always. Its a beyond great decade for American experimental work so its hard to look past that for me. I, of course, love many of the classic Hollywood films of the time as well, but I’ll happily take Brakhage, Snow, Warhol, and Jacobs.
And Zapruder? Is there a more talked about (and stunning) filmic document from the period? Or ever? Seems like a funny one to name, but its a landmark of its own kind.
I’m loving all these lists! Glad to be a part of it!
Oh, and one correction that I meant to make and forgot…its Abraham Zapruder. I typed Anthony for some reason and forgot to correct it…
I will make that correction James, and again, I am absolutely beside myself myself with excitement to have someone of your cinematic passion and expertise at WitD. I will be adding your site to our blogroll right now! Thanks.
Dan, thanks very much. I deleted the earlier submission and added the new one.
First time ever at this site. It’s very impressive!
1 La Jetee
2 Persona
3 Kes
4 When A Woman Ascends the Stairs
5 Playtime
6 L’Aventura
7 Au Hasard Balthazar
8 Faces
9 Andrei Rublev
10 Le Samourai
11 Contempt
12 The Silence
13 Lawrence of Arabia
14 West Side Story
15 Belle de Jour
16 Beckett
17 8 1/2
18 My Night at Maud’s
19 2001: A Space Odyssey
20 The Apartment
21 Carnival of Souls
22 Z
23 Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
24 Viridiana
25 Cul-de-Sac
Glad to see so many film lovers with this kind of exquisite taste all in one place. What outstanding lists.
1 Gospel According to St. Matthew
2 La Notte
3 Playtime
4 Scorpio Rising
5 Faces
6 Weekend
7 Harakiri
8 Mothlight
9 Le Samourai
10 Contempt
11 Kes
12 Mouchette
13 Au Hasard Balthazar
14 The Silence
15 The Wild Bunch
16 Andrei Rublev
17 8 1/2
18 If
19 Belle de Jour
20 2001: A Space Odyssey
21 My Night at Maud’s
22 Psycho
23 Army of Shadows
24 The Graduate
25 A Man For All Seasons
1. Lawrence of Arabia
2. Mary Poppins
3. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
4. Planet of the Apes
5. Psycho
6. Spartacus
7. Once Upon a Time in the West
8. Doctor Zhivago
9. 2001: a space odyssey
10. West Side Story
11. The Graduate
12. Bonnie and Clyde
13. The Manchurian Candidate
14. The Battle of Algiers
15. Swiss Family Robinson
16. To Kill a Mockingbird
17. The Wild Bunch
18. The Apartment
19. Goldfinger
20. 8 1/2
21. Dr. No
22. Rosemary’s Baby
23. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
24. A Hard Day’s Night
25. Persona
totally agree with the first comment – true (and hilarious), the list is laughable; not to mention that some foreign names and titles are messed up.
It’s Kozintzev, for instance, not Kotnisev, Grigiri Kozintzev, one of the magor russian directors, and Mepris (and not Mephris), can go on… but won’t
Is that the best that you can do Aily?? To cite two ‘spelling errors? and VERY minor ones at that!?
And you completely misread the ‘laughable’ comment, which was aimed at ONE choice on my list, MY FAIR LADY.
Any person who spells the word MAJOR as MAGOR as you did here should not be lecturing people on how to spell.
01 Once Upon a Time in the West
02 The Sound of Music
03 The Apartment
04 Black God, White Devil
05 Doctor Zhivago
06 Doctor Strangelove
07 Jason and the Argonauts
08 To Kill a Mockingbird
09 Psycho
10 The Good, the Bad & the Ugly
11 The Battle of Algiers
12 A Man for All Seasons
13 Andrei Rublev
14 The Leopard
15 Bonnie and Clyde
16 Mary Poppins
17 The Night of the Living Dead
18 The Great Escape
19 Lawrence of Arabia
20 Au Hasard, Balthazar
21 Spartacus
22 La Dolce Vita
23 Yojimbo
24 Viridiana
25 Breakfast at Tiffany’s
First posting. Couldn’t resist. My rankings are fairly arbitrary, and there are a fair few classics I haven’t seen, but reading these lists has made me want to uncover lots of new gems!
1. Rosemary’s Baby (Roman Polanski)
2. Play Time (Jacques Tati)
3. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Mike Nichols)
4. Au hasard Balthazar (Robert Bresson)
5. Topkapi (Jules Dassin)
6. Les parapluies de Cherbourg (Jacques Demy)
7. Kes (Ken Loach)
8. Lady in a Cage (Walter Grauman)
9. Baisers volés (François Truffaut)
10. Masculin feminin: 15 faits précis (Jean-Luc Godard)
11. The Servant (Joseph Losey)
12. Breakfast at Tiffany’s (Blake Edwards)
13. In the Heat of the Night (Norman Jewison)
14. Repulsion (Roman Polanski)
15. Judex (Georges Franju)
16. Bande á part (Jean-Luc Godard)
17. To Kill a Mockingbird (Robert Mulligan)
18. Il vangelo secondo Matteo (Pier Paolo Pasolini)
19. Andrey Rublyov (Andrei Tarkovsky)
20. Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn)
21. Midnight Cowboy (John Schlesinger)
22. Peeping Tom (Michael Powell)
23. Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte (Robert Aldrich)
24. King and Country (Joseph Losey)
25. The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock)
Apologies Sam! Pure technical glitch with that first posting. I fully intended to do 25 from the start!
My Absolute Best Top-10 Movie List
Of The 1960’s:
1. “SECONDS” (1966) John Frankenheimer
2. “PHYCHO” (1960) Alfred Hitchcock
3. “LA SIRENE DU MISSISSIPI” (1969)
Francois Truffaut
4. “A HARD DAY’S NIGHT” (1964) Richard
Lester
5. “LE SAMURAI” (1967) Jean-Pierre
Melville
6.”2001:A SPACE ODYSSEY” (1968)
Stanley Kubrick
7. “THE KILLERS” (1964) Don Siegel
8.”WILD RIVER” (1960) Elia Kazan
9.”A BOUT DE SOUFFLE” (1960) Jean-Luc
Godard
10.”REFLECTIONS IN A GOLDEN EYE”(1967)
John Huston
Best Regards,From
Parikia,Paros – Greece…
Dimitrios S. Maounis.
Tim, Les Yeux Sans Visages (Eyes Without a Face) is a 1959 film, not 1960, so it couldn’t quality for the poll. Got another choice?
Coming to this a bit late, but it looks like fun, so I’ll give it a go:
For me, 8 1/2 is the champion of the decade, and it still holds as my favorite film , and the film I hold in the highest of regards (aka I think of it not only as a favorite of mine, but I think it’s the greatest film ever made).
the other 24 (In no particular order):
Jules and Jim (Truffaut)
The Silence (Bergman)
Psycho (Hitchcock)
La Dolce Vita (Fellini)
2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick)
Le Samourai (Melville)
Bonnie and Clyde (Penn)
Playtime (Tati)
Knife in the Water (Polanski)
Faces (Cassavetes)
Shock Corridor (Fuller)
Persona (Bergman)
The Apartment (Wilder)
The Wild Bunch (Peckinpah)
Dr. Strangelove (Kubrick)
Winter Light (Bergman)
Naked Kiss (Fuller)
The Leopard (Visconti)
Black Sunday (Bava)
Through a Glass Darkly (Bergman)
Once Upon a Time in the West (Leone)
One, Two, Three (Wilder)
Hud (Ritt)
America, America (Kazan)
I’m sure there’s a ton I’m leaving off, but that’s all I can think of off the top of my head.
Hello Kevin!
Thanks very much for imparting this wealth of cinematic knowledge and passion here at Wonders in the Dark. Your list is magisterial, but I would have expected no less from you. I can well understand your special love for 8 1/2, which is perhaps more than any other film ’emblematic’ of the foreign film influence of the 60’s.
Much appreciated, Kevin!
man relooking at my list i see i included ‘Ashes and Diamonds’, a great film obviously but it came out in ’58. i apologize.
in it’s place i’ll insert ‘the silence’ (bergman).
OK Jamie, thanks very much. I will revise right now. We much appreciate you participating here.
1. Battle Of Algiers
2. Marketa Lazarova
3. Boy
4. A Woman Who Ascends the Stairs
5. The Round-Up
6. West Side Story
7. The Graduate
8. Scorpio Rising
9. Last Year at Marienbad
10. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
11. Kes
12. 8 1/2
13. Les Bonnes Femmes
14. The Conformist
15. Persona
16. The Bad Sleep Well
17. Au Hasard Balthazar
18. The Silence
19. Dr. Strangelove
20. The Apartment
21. An Autumn Afternoon
22. High School
23 Le Samourai
24. Playtime
25. Jules and Jim
1. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick)
2. 8 1/2 (Fellini)
3. Persona (Bergman)
4. Lawrence of Arabia (Lean)
5. Jules and Jim (Truffaut)
6. Psycho (Hitchcock)
7. High and Low (Kurosawa)
8. Knife in the Water (Polanski)
9. The Producers (Brooks)
10. Bonnie and Clyde (Penn)
11. Belle de Jour (Bunuel)
12. Faces (Cassavettes)
13. West Side Story (Wise, Robbins)
14. Dr. Strangelove (Kubrick)
15. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Demy)
16. Who’s That Knocking at My Door (Scorsese)
17. Blow-Up (Antonioni)
18. The Graduate (Nichols)
19. Playtime (Tati)
20. Night of the Living Dead (Romero)
21. The Apartment (Wilder)
22. The Wild Bunch (Peckinpah)
23. Repulsion (Polanski)
24. Midnight Cowboy (Schlesinger)
Note: “Kes” should be at No. 13.
1000 apologies Allan! Please replace Les yeux sans visage with A bout de souffle (Godard).
Thanks Tim, I will make the proper change. Your list is really superlative I must say asnd we are lucky to have it here. I am presently showing my Region 2 DVD of KES to a friend who has never seen it. I told him to prepare for a masterpiece of cinema.
I’m glad we both agree.
Tim, A Bout de Souffle is also 1959, Sam should have noticed this, please can we have yet another.
Okay, I couldn’t have screwed this up much more royally. I apologise profusely. I think Walter Grauman’s film “Lady in a Cage” is trying to get me to vote for it. Hopefully that makes the cut!
Yup, 1964, I’ll amend accordingly
The movie “A Bout de Souffle”
was released in France on the 16th of March 1960,and in the US on the 7th of February 1961.
Therefore,it’s correctly put in the list of the best films of the 1960s!
Cheers,from Greece.
Tim, you did not screw up anything. A BOUT DE SOUFFLE is admittedly counting for the 50’s here, but, it can go either way as the release date seems to be questionable as Dimitrios has brought up.
This is my favorite filmic decade. Although, ironically Hollywood hit a slump about three or four years mid-decade which was among its creative nadirs (rivaled by the 80s, where memorable blockbusters provided some relief from the tepidity of the higher end, and matched, sadly, much of the present decade).
But when Hollywood was down, the European cinema (and to a certain extent, the Japanse) was reaching the greatest artistic heights of the postwar era, and when Hollywood came back, it was with a vengeance, reinventing American film style (with no small thanks to the influence of those European films…)
Anyway, I can’t do my top 50 list right now. Too many titles to choose from. I’ll come back later and tackle this.
Movie Man, how many entries did you make? I owe you my life!
At times I can only say, Movieman, take it! My sick bag needs recycling for the 400th time as the Sultan of Sycophancy lays it on thicker than five coats of polyfilla.
Yep, Movie Man, our resident Charles Manson deciple has spoken. Why try and show appreciation here when we can do all we can to drive people away. Makes perfect sense.
Sam your appreciation is much appreciated. A couple of rewarding words go a long way, or so the book ‘Don’t Shoot the Dog’ (about animal training) says.I think that makes repeated visits more likely. Very Pavolivian. Wolf, wolf.
Ha Bobby. You are a gentleman, a scholar and a streetwise guy!
Charles Manson disciple? Nice. Yet I think I’d even prefer that to being a Uriah Heep disciple.
To the Sultan of Sycophancy and the Helot of Helter-Skelter (and, I suppose, the Nebakanezer of Noir – yes, I had to look up the spelling on that one), I tried to make a top 50, but the ranking killed me. If I’m ranking favorites, I think it screws with your system of “bests” – for example, I can’t justify Charade as a “better film” than 8 1/2, but I generally prefer it. And if I’m trying to be more objective about it (which, by the way, I think is possible) I’d have to re-watch so many of the classics which I haven’t seen, something I plan to do in the coming months though by the time I’m done you’ll have moved on to the 70s, 80s, 90s…
So instead let me volunteer my top three (I tried to do five, but even that was too hard) admittedly skewing towards “favorites” but which I think can also be justified as among the very best. Weigh them as you will:
Lawrence of Arabia
Masculin Feminin
Easy Rider
I finally fnished.
1. The Wild Bunch
2. Andrei Rublev
3. L’Eclisse
4. Scorpio Rising
5. La Dolce Vita
6. Through A Glass Darkly
7. Au Hasard Balthazar
8. Faces
9. Maque of the Red Death
10. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
11. West Side Story
12. Carnival of Souls
13. Repulsion
14. Ride the High Country
15. 8 1/2
16. Spartacus
17. Lawrence of Arabia
18. Contempt
19. Knife in the Water
20. Bonnie and Clyde
21. Mouchette
22. 2001
23. L’Aventura
24. A Streetcar Named Desire
25. The Lion in Winter
Can we have an alternate for no 24, Jim, that was 1951, not the 1960s…
I would guess it’s too late for lists to matter, but I don’t mind… I just enjoy making lists in general and since I just found this blog (which is outstanding) I thought I’d throw up a list of my own anyway.
1. Psycho (Hitchcock)
2. Mafioso (Lattuada) — I wish more people would see this!
3. Le Samourai (Melville)
4. Dr. Strangelove (Kubrick)
5. Army of Shadows (Melville)
6. Persona (Bergman)
7. Once Upon a Time in the West (Leone)
8. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (Ford)
9. The Graduate (Nichols)
10. The Manchurian Candidate (Frankenheimer)
11. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (Hill)
12. Easy Rider (Hopper)
13. Le Doulos (Melville)
14. The Apartment (Wilder)
15. The Leopard (Visconti)
16. Experiment in Terror (Edwards)
17. Blow-Up (Antonioni)
18. Lawrence of Arabia (Lean)
19. Breathless (Godard)
20. Bonnie and Clyde (Penn)
21. The Birds (Hitchcock)
22. High and Low (Kurosawa)
23. The Great Escape (Sturges)
24. Judgment at Nuremberg (Kramer)
25. Underworld, U.S.A. (Fuller)
Oh God no, Dave, you are not late at all with this list!!!
The poll will run almost another full month!!!
This is a magnificent list, and I agree with you on the Lattuada. I own the Criterion.
We will have a poll for every decade up to the present, with the 70’s contest scheduled to launch after the 60’s is tabulated and reported here.
Thanks again!!!!
Dave- three Melvilles! I love it. I said I could name almost all his 60’s films into this list and I’d be fine. ‘Army of Shadows’ is so underrated.
How about we do side lists of our favorite directors films from the 60’s? I mean after all Godard did like 15 films in those 10 years and they all could have made my top 25. I like him that much. Kind of like Woody Allen from 1978-1989.
Hey Jamie!
While we probably can’t logistically tabulate such a list, we can certainly proudly display individual submissions on this thread.
You are not the only huge Godard fan here–I know Ed Howard and Movie Man have been generating thought-provoking and scholarly posts at the sites for months. While I’ll admit that my cup of tea is Bresson, Bergman and Bunuel during this period, I have started to examine Godard more seriously as of late. Your passion here is most exciting. Thank You.
Jamie –
I’ve recently become a HUGE Melville fan. I had watched Army of Shadows a first time and remember not thinking all that highly of it, but for some reason it stuck in my mind and I had to go back and re-watch it. And, of course, I loved it. At times I think it might be my favorite of his films, but Le Samourai is amazing as well.
Jamie, I agree about Godard — I might feel bad about leaving some other films off but otherwise I could easily fill a tops of the 60s list with nothing but his work. If you asked me the classic desert island question and said I could bring along the complete works of any one filmmaker to watch from then on, he’d certainly be it. Even beyond the 60s, I’ll have at least 2-3 Godard films on every decade list from then on, for the 70s, 80s, 90s and 00s. As well-known and loved as he is, I think he’s *still* somewhat underrated, especially once you get beyond the most famous 60s films.
One of my missions should be to draw my attention to the late 70’s, 80’s and 90’s Godards that Ed has been promoting with superlative reviews at Only the Cinema.
Dave, can we have another on instead of Breathless, as we count that as 1959? Merci beaucoup.
Sure… just remove Breathless, bump everything behind it up a slot, and add The Good, the Bad and the Ugly as #25. I can re-post the new list if you need me to.
No need to re-post Dave. Much appreciated.
Dave
No problem I have revised your ballot for the tabulation.
Sam, I agree on the greatness of Bergman, and Bresson. I actually just revisited ‘Diary of A Country Priest’ (twice as a matter of fact) last week. Now in regards to Bunuel I admit I’ve only seen about three of his most well known pictures (and they are all from the seventies). Perhaps you, as a fan, can recommend a few of the sixties titles that you like the most and I’ll queue them up.
Great site though, it has become a constant stop on my bi-weekly internet film scouring. Keep up the great work.
Ed Howard, I also made the voyage over to ‘Only the Cinema’ this afternoon for the first time. Great site I must say. It’s rare that a Godard fan can visit a site and read reviews of ‘2 or 3 things’, ‘Origins of the 21st Century’ (a short I’ve sadly never been able to find), ‘First Name: Carmen’, and the under-appreciated ‘Numero Deux’. I completely agree with your ‘island canon’ pick. He’s perfect just based on the share volume of film there would be to watch–and I assume someone deserted on an island would have a lot of time on their hands. It also goes without saying that I think he is the single greatest intellectual mind cinema has ever (and probably will ever see), and it’s not just emotionless pondering either. ‘Contempt’, ‘Our Music’, and ‘My Life to Live’ are all very emotional experiences. This is a part of his range most critics do not think he has. I cannot say enough about my feelings for his work.
Godard is most certainly under-appreciated as there are like three tiers to his career; the most commonly seen 60’s films (‘Breathless’, ‘Contempt’, and ‘Band of Outsiders’), then the ‘well known’ (in film circles) post 60’s films (‘Carmen’, ‘Tout va Bien’, ‘Hail Mary’, ‘for Ever Mozart’, ect., even some 60’s film could be put here for there intellectual weight that alienates many viewers: such as ‘2 or 3 Things’, ‘Le Gai Savior’, ‘La Chinoise’ ect), then the third tier is the ‘rest’. Now this last segment offers a wealth of riches (‘One PM’, ‘Numero Deux’, Meeting WA’, ‘Histories du Cinema series’), but even to an ardent Godard fanatic like myself are hard to find on VHS let alone American DVD. This insures that he’ll remain in relative obscurity to most film viewers. I have many friends who profess a love for film who have never seen a single Godard picture. What can I say? Oh well.
But Ed, as I said to Sam, keep up the great work.
Dave, great stuff on the new found Melville appreciation. As I said with Godard, he too is criminally under-appreciated. He seems to be only liked by extreme cinephiles or directors, and thats it. I’ve seen 10 of his 13 pictures (oddly enough the total that Bresson made in his lifetime as well), so if you know where I can find his first feature, ‘Le Silence de la Mer’, ‘Two Men in Manhattan’, and ‘Magnet of Doom’ (this one I really seek as it’s a Melville road movie!). I would recommend ‘Leon the Priest’ aka ‘The Forgiven Sinner’ if you ever get a chance.
Finally in closing, in regards to 60’s films what I love the most is how the crime genre was transposed and altered. These are my favorite types of films and 60’s New Wavers did them better then any other time–and did them more conceptually then any other time. This is also why I love Godard and Melville so much, and why my favorite Truffaut is ‘Shoot the Piano Player’. Perhaps my list of favorite 60’s films should have been just these kinds of films…. on second thought I’ll get to work on this and post soon.
stay tuned/
Here’s the new list (in no particular order again)
1. Dillinger is Dead (Ferreri) A perfect film in my opinion.
2. Peirrot le Fou (Godard)
3. Le Samourai (Melville)
4. Le Doulos (Melville)
5. Shoot the Piano Player (Truffaut)
6. Le Deuxieme Souffle (Melville)
7. Blast of Silence (Baron)
8. Band of Outsiders (Godard)
9. Made In USA (Godard)
10. The Ipcress File (Furie) Still my favorite James Bond film, err…
11. Mafioso (Lattuada)
12. Mickey One (Penn) Hard to find, wish criterion would release it.
13. Le Voleur (Malle) I wanted to include this hard to find gem because his ‘Elevator to the Gallows’ (1958) is too early.
14. Point Blank (Boorman)
15. Cul-de-sac (Polanski)
16. Brainstorm (Conrad)
17. Class Tous Risques (Sautet)
18. Underworld USA (Fuller) I considered this over ‘Naked Kiss’ and I don’t consider ‘Shock Corrider’ in this genre.
19. Purple Noon (Clement) I love this film, some say it lacks substance… but what beautiful inanity it is!
20. The Detective (Douglas)
21. In Cold Blood (Brooks)
22. In the Heat of the Night (Jewison)
23. Love is Colder then Death (Fassbinder)
24. High and Low (Kurosawa)
25. Take the Money and Run (Allen)
Just missed the cut:
The Killers (Seigel) I like the original infinitely better.
Breathless (Godard) Since that is being considered 1959
Performance (Roeg) I assumed this would count as 1970
Bonnie and Clyde (Penn) I like ‘Mickey One’ better, and I wanted the Godard ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ anyways. Besides doesn’t ‘Pierrot le Fou’ suffice?
Harper (Smight) just misses.
Madigan (Siegel) close, but I opted for ‘The Detective’ over this. I do think this is Siegels best.
Have not seen:
Topkapi (Dassin)
Tokyo Drifter (Suzuki)- I’m pretty unfamiliar with most of his stuff
Kaleidoscope (Smight)
Gambit (Neame)
The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre (Corman) I’ve wanted to see this for a long time
Danger: Diabolik (Bava)
The Unfaithful Wife (Chabrol)
The Sinister Urge (Wood Jr) I have heard the Rob Zombie album though(!)
The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse (Lang)
Very nice list, Jamie… crime films seem to be my “weak spot” as well, as I am always drawn to them so I really appreciate your list. My exposure to non-English films is not nearly as great as lot of folks on the blog, so it’s nice for me to see lists like this so that I have an idea of some films I need to look for.
Jamie, I am stunned by these two mega-submissions, including your list revision, which will be properly sorted. You mentioned DIARY OF A COUNTRY PRIEST, which is a masterpieces and one of my favorite films of all-time (and one I have ceaselessly promoted to friends and colleagues)
That Godard round-up is fantastic, and it’s exciting to see you covering the turf, as well as discovering Ed Howard’s site, which leaves most people breathless. He is the quintessential Godard man, with Movie Man a close second.
Movie Man, Jon Lanthier’s Power Strip, and R.D. Fich’s The Movie Projector all are exceedingly excellent sites too, and they can be accessed at the Blogroll.
Allan and I are happy you found Wonders in the Dark, and we much appreciate your insights and thorough submissions!
Likewise Dave, thanks much. We appreciate your own infectious enthusiasm and stellar list.
And Jamie, DILLINGER IS DEAD is quite the #1 choice there.
You are not alone with SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER, which has slowly inched up to the masterpiece category in the last two decades. It is a great film without question.
Thanks for all the compliments too, both Jamie and Dave. Much appreciated!
Thanks guys. I also meant to add that if you have any other films that are post modern/cerebral in nature in the crime/gangster/noir genre that i missed (these are pretty obscure so i’m sure there are a lot i haven’t seen) i’d appreciate it. i always am looked to see these types of films.
i’m also looking for films that feature extended intellectual conversations as the entire film. think ‘my night and mauds’ and ‘my dinner with andre’.
from 60’s to now would be fine too. thanks in advance.
The top 10 films for me are artistically, cerebrally and entertainingly satisfying, these are three qualities a truly great film should meet. The runner-ups are in alphabetical order.
1 Bonnie and Clyde Penn
2 Dr. Strangelove Kubrick
3 Army of Shadows Melville
4 The Apartment Wilder
5 Psycho Hitchcock
6 Knife In The Water Polanski
7 Repulsion Polanski
8 They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? Pollack
9 Cool Hand Luke Rosenberg
10 The Pawnbroker Lumet
11 The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence Ford
12 Shock Corridor Fuller
13 The Wild Bunch Peckinpah
14 Graduate,The Nichols
15 The Manchurian Candidate Frankenheimer
16 Jules and Jim Truffaut
17 La Guerre est Finie Resnais
18 Seconds Frankenheimer
19 Yojimbo Kurosawa
20 Belle de Jour Bunnel
21 The Damned Visconti
22 Blowup Antonioni
23 Lonliness of the Long Distance Runner Richardson
24 Americanization of Emily Hiller
25 Dutchman Harvey
Runner Ups
8 1/2 Fellini
A Hard Day’s Night Lester
Charade Donan
Commanche Station Boetticher
Cul-de-Sac Polanski
Days of Wine and Roses Edwards
Divorce, Italian Style Germi
Don’t Look Back Pennebaker
Faces Cassavetes
Good, The Bad & The Ugly, The Leoni
Hud Ritt
If Anderson
In Cold Blood Brooks
La Femme Infidele Charbrol
Madamoseille Richardson
Medium Cool Wexler
Midnight Cowboy chlesinger
Mississippi Mermaid Truffaut
Rosemary’s Baby Polanski
Seconds Frankenheimer
The Birds Hitchcock
The Collector Wyler
The Naked Kiss Fuller
To Kill a Mockingbird Mulligan
Z Costa- Garvas
You guys have a great site here. First comment, and a whopper. This decade is the richest in history. I have a number of follow-up choices, but I’ll just list the 25 you ask for in order:
1 Battle of Algiers
2 The Producers
3 Chimes at Midnight
4 Viridiana
5 The Gospel According to Saint Matthew
6 Kes
7 The Music Man
8 Loves of a Blonde
9 Persona
10 Women in the Dunes
11 L’Aventura
12 My Night at Maud’s
13 Contempt
14 Au Hasard Balthazar
15 8 1/2
16 The Conformist
17 West Side Story
18 A Man For All Seasons
19 If
20 The Hunt
21 Bonnie and Clyde
22 Jules and Jim
23 Billy Liar
24 Night of the Living Dead
25 Point Blank
I thought that The Conformist was the 70s? I’m pretty sure that it was released in 1970 in both Italy and the United States. If not, then I need to amend my list because this is a favorite of mine as well.
Bill Rodriguez… great list and it reminds me of a number of films I need to get to — Chimes at Midnight, Jules and Jim, Point Blank among them.
Jamie: I would recommend John Boorman’s POINT BLANK in that genre, and then of course more Melvilles. The 70’s will feature what I regard as his greatest film, LE CIRCLE ROUGE. I must again thank you for your much-appreciated boundless enthusiasm at this site.
John Greco: What a terrific list and runner-up scroll. I can’t thank you enough for the time and effort you have expended here. As far as teh choices, they are of course top-rank. It’s nice to see some true definitive love there for BONNIE AND CLYDE. I have never seen your #25 choice. I will have to investigate this.
Hey Bill. Welcome to WitD! And thanks very much for your first submission, and an exceptional list. It’s clear you have an authoritative grasp of cinema. This is our gain for sure.
Hi Dave.
THE CONFORMIST is considered a 1969 release, but I’ll leave our time expert Allan to explain this. i do believe it opened in Italy in that year, but again I’ll await Allan’s final word. In any case several others here have listed it.
Your own list was truly great, but we will always be reminded at what we may have forgotten. I know I will never be satisfied with my own list! LOL!
‘The Conformist’ opened in the United States AND Italy on October 22, 1970.
I know this because I also wanted to put it on my list.
Sam thanks for ‘Point Blank’ I thought I had included it on my list, if not I should have it’s a great film. I too love ‘Le Circle Rouge’ it’s one of the 5 Melville’s or so that if I’ve watched it the most recent, I’ll say it’s my favorite of his.
I watched ‘Youth of the Beast’ (Suzuki) last night for the first time, the exact kind of film I like. I need to look into the yakuza films more, it was great!
Dave and Jamie, THE CONFORMIST is indeed a 1970 release as per Allan’s side bar timeline. Both of you gentlemen were right. Of course, those who submitted the films on their lists will be advised to make another choice. Thanks.
Great news with the Suzuki, Jamie, that is surely a proper reaction to it! Great to hear what you say there with the Melville!!!!
I’d like to second Sam’s love of Melville’s Le Cercle Rouge — which I hadn’t seen until Sam recommended it to me. I definitely think it will be somewhere near the top of my 70’s list.
By the way Sam, my thoughts on Melville’s film is up on my blog if you’re interested — be warned, I wrote it around 2:00am, so it has the possibilities of being incoherent at times, haha.
But thanks for pointing me towards that film, a film I hadn’t sought out, even though I love Melville’s films. So thanks!
Well, with The Conformist, it’s the trickiest one of all, frankly. I have long been under the impression it was first shown in 1969, but only selectively in one showing, and it certainly wasn’t premiered until 1970. Now, I remember reading somewhere there was a showing in December 1969, but as I haven’t been able to confirm that and can’t recall the source, I myself have readdressed it to 1970. Those who have included it as 1969 – and I only amended the timeline in the last few weeks – can gladly place another in their list in its place, or else Angelo can move everything up one.
I’ll put it down to my error, in that though I’m fairly certain it had one 1969 showing, I can’t physically prove it. I myself will now be including it in my 1970s list in a month or two.
Sorry for any confusion, but this one really is a bugbear.
what happened to movies in ENGLISH people????
1 THE SOUND OF MUSIC
2 ROMEO AND JULIET
3 OLIVER
4 MY FAIR LADY
5 THE PAWNBROKER
6 TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
7 HUD
8 MARY POPPINS
9 THE MUSIC MAN
10 THE PRODUCERS
11 WEST SIDE STORY
12 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST MATTHEW
13 ALFIE
14 CARNIVAL OF SOULS
15 WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?
16 THE GRADUATE
17 BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID
18 THE MIRACLE WORKER
19 BECKET
20 EL CID
21 THE SUBJECT WAS ROSES
22 WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINI WOOLF?
23 HELLO DOLLY
24 TOM JONES
25 DARLING
Burning the midnight oil again eh Kevin? You have boundless energy, and your writing still is still first-rate. I will surely be over there tonight to read your commentary. I am delighted to hear that you hold this Melville masterwork in such high esteem! Thank You.
Marie: We are honored for your first appearance here, and most strongly stated opinion and most interesting list!
Marie
I agree as you will see if you check out my list.
Marie for such a strong pronouncement for English speaking films where are all the ‘angry young man’ british films? lol. a favorite genre of mine. ‘Darling’ I guess counts as an ‘angry young woman’ film.
titles like ‘saturday night sunday morning’, ‘if…’, ‘this sporting life’, ‘loneliness of the long distance runner’, ‘the collector’, ‘look back in anger’, ‘the entertainer’, and ‘billy liar’, ect.
after all when julie christie walks on screen in ‘billy liar’ thats when the sixties really started in Britain right?
for the rest of europe it was when they heard “New York Hearald Tribune!”
Aye, jamie, that’s a very good point there about the ‘angry young man British films.’ I do love that group you cite, every last one. I can’t even choose one of those as my favorite. Just to hear those titles, all of which i own, makes me want to revisit them tonight! Thanks for that!
I take Marie’s list as a nod to 60’s commercial cinema, which of course if fair enough. But I know our estemmed Voting Tabulator Rxtraordinaire Mr. Angelo D’Aminio is thrilled.
Sam, I promised this list two weeks ago, but with the flurry of submissions over the last few days, I think it’s time to dive in! I am with the others here as far as Melville is concerned!
I had to make a number of cuts to arrive at 25:
1 Weekend
2 Army of Shadows
3 In Cold Blood
4 Lord of the Flies
5 Onibaba
6 Romeo and Juliet
7 Le Samurai
8 High and Low
9 An Autumn Afternoon
10 Jason and the Argonauts
11 Once Upon A Time in the West
12 The Face of Another
13 8 1/2
14 Au Hasard Balthazar
15 Lawrence of Arabia
16 West Side Story
17 The Haunting
18 Jules and Jim
19 Belle du Jour
20 Doctor Zhivago
21 Last Year at Marienbad
22 Persona
23 The Manchurian Candidate
24 Advise and Consent
25 Dr. Strangelove
That’s quite a diversified list there Eric, and we’re thrilled to have it! Thank you Sir.
My wife Lucille beats to her own drum and I say more power to her!
1 The Miracle Worker
2 The Sound of Music
3 Psycho
4 My Fair Lady
5 Planet of the Apes
6 West Side Story
7 To Sir With Love
8 Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
9 Romeo and Juliet
10 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
11 Onibaba
12 Mary Poppins
13 The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
14 Au Hasard Balthazar
15 It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World
16 Lilies of the Field
17 The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
18 True Grit
19 Lord of the Flies
20 Kes
21 The Apartment
22 Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner?
23 The Graduate
24 Oliver!
25 Funny Girl
Sam, even here you’ve convinced her of the virtues of Bresson! Good to have Lucille’s list..
Lucille agreed to have Bresson on the list so Sam would publish it…
To Marie who asked…
what happened to movies in ENGLISH people????
Nothing, if you prefer McDonalds and KCF to a roast dinner and xenophobia to internationalism.
BTW, I love Lucille, but her taste in films is like Van Gogh’s ear for music.
No, actually, Lucille has watched the Bresson more than once, and she loves the film. Her list by and large as you can see fully reflects her own taste.
Louie’s list (and his wife Mary’s) were hand delivered to me today, and Louie is sitting here as I post.
1 The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
2 Mary Poppins
3 My Fair Lady
4 Bonnie and Clyde
5 The Sound of Music
6 West Side Story
7 To Kill A Mockingbird
8 The Great Escape
9 The Commancheros
10 The Magnificent Seven
11 The Graduate
12 A Man For All Seasons
13 The Lion in Winter
14 The Apartment
15 Cool Hand Luke
16 The Birds
17 Spartacus
18 The Wild Bunch
19 It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World
20 Birdman of Alcatraz
21 The Alamo
22 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
23 The War Wagon
24 The Green Berets
25 True Grit
Mary’s List:
1 The Sound of Music
2 My Fair Lady
3 Mary Poppins
4 In Cold Blood
5 The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
6 West Side Story
7 Onibaba
8 Lawrence of Arabia
9 To Kill A Mockingbird
10 Romeo and Juliet
11 Psycho
12 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
13 The Graduate
14 The Great Escape
15 Bonnie and Clyde
16 Oliver!
17 The Birds
18 The Wild Bunch
19. The Miracle Worker
20 Umbrellas of Cherbourg
21 2001: A Space Odyssey
22 Cast A Giant Shadow
23 Hud
24 The Greatest Story Ever Told
25 Hatari
Hooray!!!
Thank you Lucille for putting True Grit on your list. I especially thank Louis Aveta for putting BOTH films I mentioned (True Grit & The Magnificent Seven) on his list. Now I feel better!
I’ve mostly only seen American films, but I had always heard so much about “Seven Samurai” that I finally got around to actually watching it. That lead me to begin watching even more Japanese films in the past few years. (I really love KWAIDAN!) I haven’t seen many European films. That is why I don’t consider myself enough of a film connoisseur to post an entire list here.
It makes me feel a lot better about my own tastes to see a couple of films that I noticed were absent are finally filtering into some people’s lists.
My 25 for the 60’s:
1 A Man For All Seasons
2 L’Eclisse
3 In Cold Blood
4 Last Year at Marienbad
5 The Producers
6 My Night at Mauds
7 Jules and Jim
8 Battle of Algiers
9 West Side Story
10 The Music Man
11 Viridiana
12 To Kill A Mockingbird
13 Black Sunday
14 Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
15 Romeo and Juliet
16 Right the High Country
17 Au Hasard Balthazar
18 Playtime
19 Lord of the Flies
20 Lawrence of Arabia
21 The Silence
22 8 1/2
23 This Sporting Life
24 The Apartment
25 Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Hi! Sam and Allan….
Here goes my list for Best films of 1960…It basically consist of several U.S. and U.K. films…Therefore, I know (for a fact…) that several “foreign” films will be added to my list of films that I plan to watch over the Summer!
1.The Lion in Winter (UK…Anthony Harvey)
2.My Fair Lady (US…George Cukor)
3.A Man for All Seasons (UK…Fred Zinnemann)
4.Far from the Madding Crowd (UK…John Schlesinger)
5.The Greatest Story Ever Told (US…George Stevens, David Lean
6.Bonnie and Clyde (US…Arthur Penn)
7.Repulsion (UK…Roman Polanski)
8.The Pawnbroker (US…Sidney Lumet)
9.Romeo and Juliet (UK/Italy…Franco Zeffirelli)
10.Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (US…Mike Nichols)
10.Classe Tous Risques (France…Claude Sautet)
11.Alfie (UK…Lewis Gilbert)
12.Blow Up (UK…Michelangelo Antonioni
13.In Cold Blood (US…Richard Brooks)
14.Charade (US…Stanley Donen)
15.From Russia With Love (UK…Terence Young)
16. The Trial (France/US…Orson Welles)
17. The Manchurian Candidate (US…John Frankenheimer)
18.The Haunting (US…Robert Wise)
19.The Sound of Music (US…Robert Wise)
20.The Producers (US…Mel Brooks)
21.Goldfinger (UK…Guy Hamilton)
22.Mary Poppins (US…Robert Stevenson)
23.The Masque of the Red Death (UK…Roger Corman)
24.The Birds (US…Alfred Hitchcock)
25. Marnie (US…Alfred Hitchcock)
DeeDee 😉
Thanks so much Dee Dee for this excellent list. Some of the films in your upper etchelon are worthy of support, and a few have oddly received little so far.
here’s my list…..in order of release….one film per director, first film classic chosen…
1960
The Apartment
Psycho
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (GB)
Sons and Lovers (GB)
Spartacus
1961
The Innocents (GB)
Night of the Eagle (GB)
1962
The Exterminating Angel (Mex)
The Manchurian Candidate
1963
Dr. Stranglove
Jason and The Argonauts (GB)
From Russia With Love
Hud
1964
Kwaidan (Japan)
The Collector
1965
The Battle of Algiers (Alg/It)
1966
A Man for All Seasons (GB)
Persona (Swd)
1967
Bonnie and Clyde
Cool Hand Luke
1968
Rosemary’s Baby
The Swimmer
1969
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Midnight Cowboy
The Wild Bunch
And a dozen or so Best Tv Shows
1961 -1963 Thriller (67 Episodes x50mins)
1961 – 1969 The Avengers (161 Episodes x 50mins, 137 Survive, ITV)
1962 ——- Steptoe and Son
1963 – 1965 The Outer Limits (49 Episodes x50mins, ABC)
1964 – 1966 The Addams Family (1965, 64 Episodes x 25mins, I Special, ABC)
1964 – 1970 The Wednesday Play (171 Episodes xapprox. 75mins, 73 Exist, BBC1)
1964 ——- The Great War (26 Episodes x40mins, BBC2)
1965 – 1971 Out of the Unknown (49 Episodes, 20 Exist, 50mins and 60mins, BBC2)
1966 – 1969 Star Trek (80 Episodes, 1x60mins, 79x50mins, NBC)
1967 – 1968 The Prisoner (17 Episodes x50mins, ITV)
1967 – 1972 Callan (45, 44 Episodes x 50mins, 1 Special, ITV, 34 Exist)
1968 – 2003 Columbo (69 Episodes xvarious, CBS, ABC)
1968 ——- The Ceasers (6 Episodes x 50mins, ITV)
Bobby J: Thanks again for yet another decade list of great quality. There are a few that I’m surprised aren’t there i.e. Bresson, Fellini, Antonioni, but such can be said of every list.
Oddly enough, it’s your love of Boris Karloff’s THRILLER (a series I have relentlessly promoted and written about for my entire life) that really has me enthralled. I’m curious as to what are your favorite shows there. I have always listed these as tops:
Pigeons From Hell
The Incredible Dr. Markeson
The Cheaters
The Weird Tailor
Well of Doom
The Devil’s Ticket
The Grim Reaper
Waxworks
The Hungry Glass
The Premature Burial
Masquerade
Terror in Teakwood
Bobby: I did a full piece on the show here at WitD back in October:
https://wondersinthedark.wordpress.com/2008/10/31/boris-karloffs-thriller-television-horror-anthology-series-extraordinaire/
hey Sam, love your enthusiam.
Thriller at it’s best was a terrific show at its best. Unfortunately, unlike ‘The Outer Limits’, ‘The Twilight Zone’, ‘Out of the Unknown’ and ‘A Ghost Story for Christmas’, the behind the scenes chaos of it birth and production makes a classic to per episode ratio far less….and even when it did find its personality, it still kept producing Hitchcock type crime stories. Had it lost those, it would have forged its own unique niche in the anthology stakes.
The best episodes are (and when I talk about best, I’m talking of shows that frame by frame, and in terms of story, script, direction, photography, music, action and production design, are the equal of anything Universal did in their horror ’30s cycle, the Hammers, ‘The Omen’, ‘The Exocist’, ‘Rosemary’s Baby’, ‘The Haunting’, ‘Kwaidan’ and ‘The Innocents’.)
In Broadcast order….Top Tier ****
The Cheaters
The Hungry Glass
Pigeons from Hell
Masquerade
The Incredible Dr. Markesan
Dialogues with Death
Second Tier ***
Trio for Terror (3 stories of varying lengths, the first ‘The Extra Passenger’ is top notch)
A Good Imagination (an wholly hypnotic crime story, like ‘Rear Window’ but from the point of view of the murderer)
The Last of the Sommervilles
** Star Stories
The Purple Room
The Grim Reaper
The Premature Burial
As for the rest Sammy, I’d have to watch them again after all these years. Some I found partially interesting but not wholly successful
Two segments that I found interesting for other reasons are ‘Guillotine’ and ‘The Weird Tailor’ both of which, in my opinion, were remade to better effect. The first was for the show ‘Darkroom’ and the second for ‘Asylum’.
Looking back on your list, I find that only one of my top six isn’t in your top choices, namely ‘Dialogues with Death’, a show constisting of two superb separate tales (years before ‘Night Gallery’ did the same thing week-in, week-out).
Sam, if enjoy this show, you will probably also enjoy the BBC’s ‘A Ghost Story for Christmas’ – especially ‘A Warning to the Curious’. It’s a dazzler.
And also, ‘Night of the Eagle’, one of my choices for 1961.
I’d love to get my a hands on the episode from Bus Stop and Steve King mentioned in book. …..’I Kiss Your Shadow’
Sam, Bobby’s not one for the intelligentsia stuff, he’s kind of the spirit of Leslie Halliwell. Nothing that isn’t a straight story, no arty farty stuff.
Allan….lol.
It’s not I’m not into the intelligentsia, for I would consider ‘Persona’, ‘The Exterminating Angel’, ect, ect, very intellectual and even ‘The Swimmer’, ‘2001’ ect, ect are of that ilk.
I am just extremely hard on masterpieces….. I see one or two, or three or maybe 4 a year. Modern films are as good as older ones, there are just less of these from Hollywood because 1/ The Studios have Dumbed Down to reach only a teenage audiences, 2/ The makers seem to have less life experiances before they make movies, 3/ They seem to have only watched movies – the whole breadth of literature/ the theatre/ paintings ect, ect doesn’t register. It’s like watching children with cameras and no story to tell.
The reason Thriller worked so well was that, one day, when they were completely lost for material to adapt – the producer dropped a stack of ‘Weird Tales’ pulp magazines on the table.
Writers like Henry Kuttner (‘Masquerade’) were an inspiration for a whole slew of other writers including Ray Bradbury, Philip K. Dick, Robert Sheckley, William Tenn, Robert Silverberg, ect. They in turn would write on a similar theme, a varaint, a riposte and sophisticated dialoge would be taking place between their stories.
Now compare this, Spielberg was read stories by his father from the pulp ‘Amazing Stories’ and years later, when he attempted his own ‘Twilight Zone’ homage, he paid for the rights to the title. Not one story was adapted!
All the stories were his ideas. He had a huge budget. And a guaranteed two year network run. The show was a disaster. Had he read the fiction on his own, rather than having his father read them passively, it might have been another matter. Stories like ‘The Golden Man’ by PKD (from ‘If’ magazine and surely the proto-type ‘X-men’ and ‘Heroes’) might have been made.
I think it might have been Billy Wilder, who said that a director doesn’t have to write the script, but he must be able to read.
Oh, and that brings in 4/ the Director brings in hubris by thinking of himself as an autuer (sometimes he may be, tho).
As for Foreign Cinema, there are two many large gaps which are only now being remedied by LoveFilm.com and the internet. Fellini is on the books as are some others.
These are just films that were the latest ones seen.
The fact is that I fell out of love with the movies, like Emeric Pressburger, for a good decade.
I love Foreign movies.
The Only ones that I have a problem with are the purely intellectual exercises, without the aesthetics or the emotional content. So that I understand but feel nothing for the protagonist or his situation.
I just tried to expand my list to include all types and genres, all budgets (crikey, I just realised that I may have not put ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ on the list).
Allan, sometimes I look at the posters with their flagrant endosements and stars are dripping off the poster and I sigh.
But your reviews will allow me to get a grip on some that I’ve not seen before and expand my horizons.
Thanks very much for that Bobby!
The crime stories basically fizzled out midway through the first season, at the point horror master William Frye was hired to produce. It is these gothic and ghoulish tales that the series is now known for. The greatest episodes on both our list are solely from that period. I don’t agree that Roy Ward Baker’s ASYLUM improved on the original “The Weird Tailor” from THRILLER, but I can respect a contrary position. The most comprehensive volume on the show is the wonderfully-written “This is a Thriller” by Allan Warren, which among other issues and artsitic appraisals, examines the role Alfred Hitchcock had in having the show cancelled during its peak of popularity, mainly out of envy and competition for his own show.
By the way, the episode “Demon With A Glass Hand” from the original OUTER LIMITS is one of the single greatest episodes in the history of television. But that show has a number of others:
The Bellero Shield
A Feasibility Study
The Forms of Things Unknown
The Sixth Finger
The Man Who Was Never Born
The Invisibles
Soldier
Corpus Earthling
The Zanti Misfits
and a few others.
great site! it took a while but here are my picks:
1 Doctor Zhivago
2 The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
3 Oliver!
4 Mary Poppins
5 Romeo and Juliet
6 Carnival of Souls
7 Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
8 Hud
9 To Kill A Mockingbird
10 Rosemary’s Baby
11 Jules and Jim
12 8 1/2
13 West Side Story
14 The Graduate
15 Midnight Cowboy
16 The Lion in Winter
17 Splendor in the Grass
18 The Miracle Worker
19 The Innocents
20 The Birds
21 The Pawnbroker
22 Planet of the Apes
23 A Man For All Seasons
24 Lawrence of Arabia
25 Blow-Up
Hello Wendy, and thanks very much for making that long submission at WitD. Great looking list!
Sam, I think that ‘Demon’ is the best episode from the second season of ‘TOL’, equal to but not any better, in my humble opinion, than first season entries such as ‘The Sixth Finger’, ‘Forms’, ‘The Invisbles’, OBIT, ect, ect. Though Harlan Ellison, great propagandist that he is, has virtually acclaimed his segments for both TOL and Star Trek as the best.
Sam, have you ever seen ‘A Ghost Story for Christmas’, and ‘Night of the Eagle’. Both are at the level of ‘Thriller’ and both tap into that rich seam of published SF.
BTW, if you love ‘Demon with a Glass Hand’, you would love the adaption of John Brunner’s ‘The Last Lonely Man’ done for ‘Out of the Unknown’ – British Tv’s greatest SF series and the equal of TOL.
I love seeing all these different lists, because it reminds me of films that aren’t on my list but that I love or ones that I still need to make sure I see…
Bobby:
I agree that DEMON was easily the best show of the sub-par second season (only SOLDIER and the two-part INHERITORS can even compete) and that Ellison is definitely a propaganderist (LOL!) but I rank DEMON as the top overall, even though I am always ravished by the emotion in THE SIXTH FINGER (and what a great score that one had) and THE MAN WHO WAS NEVER BORN and the visceral and thematic brilliance of BELLERO and CORPUS, not to mention the Gothic and expressionistic style of FORMS.
But I’ll admit Bobby, unfortunately I have not seen either “A Ghost Story for Christmas” nor “Night of the Eagle” but I am very much intrigued!!! I will look into this.
And I need to investigate “Out of the Unknown” in its entirety, based on your most-valued and appreciated opinion. I wonder what Allan thinks of this series.
Thank You for all this.
Dave: Seeing so many opinions always helps to stimulate the resolve and serve as an excellent reference point! Thank You.
I am not alone!
Bobby, Jason and the Argonauts, was absolutely my pre-teen favorite. I still remember that Saturday ‘arvo matinee when I was first blown away by it – oh the magic of the pictures.
Great list Wendy!
Hey people, I’m also a fan of Jason and the Argonauts, and I’ve included it on my list. I had a lot of fun reading through all these ballots, and it appears that there are two “camps”. I compiled my own choices, taking into account both points of view.
1 The Gospel According to St. Matthew
2 Ride the High Country
3 My Night At Maud’s
4 Jason and the Argonauts
5 La Dolce Vita
6 The Producers
7 Charulata
8 Contempt
9 The Pawnbroker
10 Mary Poppins
11 Andrei Rublev
12 L’Eclisse
13 Persona
14 Hud
15 To Kill A Mockingbird
16 Titicut Follies
17 A Hard Day’s Night
18 West Side Story
19 Last Year at Marienbad
20 A Man For All Seasons
21 The Birds
22 Lawrence of Arabia
23 Dr. Strangelove
24 Black Sunday
25 Jules and Jim
Interesting crossover list there Robert, and thanks for expending the energy and enthusiasm to submit it!
1 The Conformist
2 The Gospel According to St. Matthew
3 Cool Hand Luke
4 The Leopard
5 Z
6 If
7 High and Low
8 La Dolce Vita
9 Jules e Jim
10 La Notte
11 Midnight Cowboy
12 Easy Rider
13 In the Heat of the Night
14 Lord of the Flies
15 Seduced and Abandoned
16 Purple Noon
17 8 1/2
18 Seven Up!
19 Divorce, Italian Style
20 Shoot the Piano Player
21 The Manchurian Candidate
22 The Pawnbroker
23 The Servant
24 Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
25 Zorba the Greek
I am working on my own decade lists, having started with the 00’s (and still working on the 00’s as there are still seven months to go), spent a year watching 90’s flicks, and I am now working on the 70’s. (Maybe someday I’ll do the 80’s, but there are too few great movies from that decade.) Next year when I tackle the 60’s, this list will undoubtedly change, but here is my current list of Favorite Films of the 60’s:
1. The Graduate (Mike Nichols)
2. 8½ (Federico Fellini)
3. Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock)
4. Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn)
5. Le Mèpris (Jean-Luc Godard)
6. Planet of the Apes (Franklin J.Schaffner)
7. Rosemary’s Baby (Roman Polanski)
8. Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone)
9. The Hustler (Robert Rossen)
10. The Good, the Bad & the Ugly (Sergio Leone)
11. Repulsion (Roman Polanski)
12. L’Avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni)
13. The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock)
14. The Apartment (Billy Wilder)
15. Point Blank (John Boorman)
16. The Manchurian Candidate (John Frankenheimer)
17. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick)
18. Doctor Strangelove (Stanley Kubrick)
19. Au Hasard, Balthazar (Robert Bresson)
20. Bullitt (Peter Yates)
21. The Great Escape (John Sturges)
22. The Army in the Shadows (Jean-Pierre Melville)
23. Take the Money and Run (Woody Allen)
24. Le Samourai (Jean-Pierre Melville)
25. Bande à Part (Jean-Luc Godard)
Finally I’m ready to submit my list of the best movies of the 1960s (at least as it currently stands). As with the 1950s poll, I limited myself to one film for each director. Let me clarify one thing. I had a rough time choosing between my top two films, “Persona” and “Jules et Jim,” which I love equally. For me Bergman’s film has a stronger intellectual appeal, while Truffaut’s has a stronger emotional appeal. If it were permitted, I would declare a tie. But since I needed to make a choice, I went with “Persona” for the top slot. One other observation: of course, I included only films I have actually seen. Many of the movies on Allan’s list I had never heard of, much less seen. So this is strictly a personal list limited by my own knowledge and experience and, of course, my own preferences for certain directors, styles, genres, and themes. As before, I haven’t yet looked at anyone else’s list. Here goes:
1. Persona (Bergman)
2. Jules et Jim (Truffaut)
3. La Dolce Vita (Fellini)
4. Bonnie and Clyde (Penn)
5.Viridiana (Bunuel)
6. Lawrence of Arabia (Lean)
7. Yojimbo (Kurosawa)
8. Play Time (Tati)
9. Andrei Rublev (Tarkovsky)
10. The Apartment (Wilder)
11. Psycho (Hitchcock)
12. Ride the High Country (Peckinpah)
13. L’Avventura (Antonioni)
14. Dr. Strangelove
15. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (Reisz)
16. Tom Jones (Richardson)
17. Army of Shadows (Melville)
18. Two Women (de Sica)
19. Late Autumn (Ozu)
20. The Servant (Losey)
21. Darling (Schlesinger)
22. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Nichols)
23. Romeo and Juliet (Zeffirelli)
24. Knife in the Water (Polanski)
25. The Trial (Welles)
The 33 runners-up as well as my reflections on what the films of the 60s–to me along with the 50s the greatest decades in cinema history–mean to me can be found in my next post at The Movie Projector next Monday. Many thanks to Allan and Sam for encouraging all of us to reconsider the decade and to seek out new movies and revisit old experiences, and to inspire us to think more deeply about what we like and why.
Just to shut Sam up, who is having kittens because my list isn’t officially up on this thread as if it would constitute a disqualification of my ballot…
Eros + Massacre (Japan 1969…Yoshishige Yoshida)
Le Mèpris (France 1963…Jean-Luc Godard)
Marketa Lazarová (Czechoslovakia 1967…Frantisek Vlácil)
Persona (Sweden 1966…Ingmar Bergman)
Chimes at Midnight (Spain/US 1966…Orson Welles)
Red Angel (Japan 1966…Yasuzo Masumura)
The Leopard (Italy/US 1963…Luchino Visconti)
The Young Girls of Rochefort (France 1967…Jacques Demy)
Au Hasard, Balthazar (France 1966…Robert Bresson)
Belle de Jour (France 1967…Luis Buñuel)
Once Upon a Time in the West (US/Italy 1968…Sergio Leone)
Kwaidan: Extended 4hr Version (Japan 1964…Masaki Kobayashi)
2001: A Space Odyssey (UK/US 1968…Stanley Kubrick)
Shame (Sweden 1968…Ingmar Bergman)
8½ (Italy 1963…Federico Fellini)
Andrei Rublev: the director’s cut (USSR 1966/2001…Andrei Tarkovsky)
Doctor Strangelove (UK 1963…Stanley Kubrick)
The Exterminating Angel (Mexico 1962…Luis Buñuel)
Psycho (US 1960…Alfred Hitchcock)
The Hour of the Furnaces (Argentina 1968…Fernando E.Solanas)
Charulata (India 1964…Satyajit Ray)
The Gospel According to St Matthew (Italy 1964…Pier Paolo Pasolini)
The House is Black (Iran 1963…Forough Farrokhzad)
An Autumn Afternoon (Japan 1962…Yasujiro Ozu)
L’Eclisse (Italy 1962…Michelangelo Antonioni)
GS:
Thanks very much for submitting your fine 60’s list, and am thrilled to hear you are working on the 70’s, which is up next.
R.D.: Not only did you provide a painstaking, exquisite listing, but your elequent reasoning, humility and integrity is again beyond reproach. You are truthfully a class act right down the line.
Allan: I’ll save my comments to you for the telephone! Ha!
1 – The Virgin Spring (Ingmar Bergman)
2 – La Dolce Vita (Federico Fellini)
3 – Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean)
4 – 2001 (Stanley Kubrick)
5 – Au Hasard Balthazar (Robert Bresson)
6 – Andrei Rublev (Andrei Tarkovsky)
6 – Dr. Strangelove (Stanley Kubrick)
7 – War and Peace (Sergei Bondarchuk)
8 – A Hard Day’s Night (Richard Lester)
9 – Mouchette (Robert Bresson)
10 – The Leopard (Luchino Visconti)
11 – Contempt (Jean-Luc Godard)
12 – El Cid (Anthony Mann)
13 – The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo)
14 – Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock)
15 – Spartacus (Stanley Kubrick)
16 – The Magnificent Seven (John Sturges)
17 – Ride the High Country (Sam Peckinpah)
18 – Zulu (Cy Enfield)
19 – Goldfinger (Guy Hamilton)
20 – Belle de Jour (Luis Bunel)
21 – Tunes of Glory (Ronald Neame)
22 – From Russia With Love (Terrence Young)
23 – A Man For All Seasons (Fred Zimmerman)
24 – King of Kings (Nicholas Ray)
25 – A Taste of Honey (Tony Richardson)