Little Did They Know...
Consider this: we're as far from 1960 as 1960 was from 1900. I don't know, seems like a big deal.
The late 50s/early 60s was an amazing time for world cinema, though it took Hollywood about a decade to catch up. Anyway, Jesse Walker has just released his top ten film list from 1960.
https://jessewalker.blogspot.com/2020/12/one-cheer-for-mr.html
Here it is:
1. The Apartment
2. Cruel Story Of Youth
3. Psycho
4. La Dolce Vita
5. The Little Shop Of Horrors
6. Le Trou
7. Peeping Tom
8. The Virgin Spring
9. The Young One
10. The Housemaid
Lot of horror on this list.
For years I've considered The Apartment (closely followed by Sunset Boulevard) to be Billy Wilder's most overrated film. Still do, I guess, but I've come to appreciate it more, and I can't argue with it being on a top ten list, though #1 is too high. (I've seen it recently. Has it become a Christmas film?)
Had a chance to see Cruel Story Of Youth recently, but missed it. I'll get around to it one of these days. Also haven't see Le Trou and The Housemaid.
After a bunch of glorious Technicolor thrillers, Hitchcock started the 60s with a low-budget black and white horror film that could have been a long episode of his TV show but turned out to be a blockbuster. And it's quite good. Top ten good, even.
La Dolce Vita, as I've noted before, was a turning point for Fellini--and not necessarily a good one. He was moving from realistic films to full-blown (and often tiresome) surrealism. But it still has enough of the old magic, mixed with a modern feel--new to him--to hold up. (Was also a huge hit--maybe because people heard it was dirty.)
Considering how quickly and cheaply it was made, it's a minor miracle that The Little Shop Of Horrors is so good.
Peeping Tom is an intriguing (and good-looking) film, but perhaps overrated because it unfairly destroyed Michael Powell's career.
The Virgin Spring is not one of my favorite Bergmans. He was about to have a breakthrough in style and subject matter, but this wasn't it.
The Young One is minor (and English) Bunuel. I need to see it again, but right now it would make my top twenty.
Here's Jesse's honorable mentions:
11. Testament Of Orpheus
12. Shoot The Piano Player
13. Comanche Station
14. Purple Noon
15. Village Of The Damned
16. Rocco And His Brothers
17. Tunes Of Glory
18. The Thousand Eys Of Dr. Mabuse
19. Jigoku
20. Breathless
Following the trend of the top ten, this list features second-class work from first-class directors, such as 11, 16 (I don't mind Rocco, but do we need to see ALL his brothers) and 18.
12 should be top ten--Truffaut made three classics in a row at the start of his career, and this one is the most fun. 13 is pretty good--in the last ten years I've caught up with Boetticher's westerns which are minor but enjoyable. 14 and 15 would make my top twenty. 17 (which I saw again last month) has a memorable performance from Alec Guinness, but mostly leaves me cold. 19 is another memorable horror film, probably top twenty. 20 is as emblematic a nouvelle vague film as exists, but I might rate it even lower than Jesse.
Other films I like, at least in part:
L'Avventura (if you see just one Antonioni--which might be a good idea--this is the one), The Bad Sleep Well, The Bellboy, Devi, Eyes Without A Face (a horror film Jesse missed), Saturday Night And Sunday Morning, Zazie Dans Le Metro (perhaps too much of a good thing)
Other films of note:
The Alamo, All The Fine Young Cannibals, Beat Girl, The Beatniks, Because They're Young, Bells Are Ringing, Les Bonnes Femmes, Breath Of Scandal, The Brides Of Dracula, BUtterfield 8, Can-Can, Carry On Constable, Cash McCall, Cinderfella, The City Of The Dead, College Confidential, The Day They Robbed The Bank Of England, Elmer Gantry, The Entertainer, Exodus, From The Terrace, G. I. Blues, The Gallant Hours, Gangster Story, Heller In Pink Tights, The Hole, House Of Usher, Inherit The Wind, It Started In Naples, Let's Get Married, Let's Make Love, The Magnificent Seven, Make Mine Mink, The Millionairess, Murder Inc., Never On Sunday, Night And Fog In Japan, North To Alaska, Ocean's 11, Pepe, Please Don't Eat The Daisies, Pollyanna, The Rat Race, Sergeant Rutledge, Sex Kittens Go To College, Spartacus, Stop Look And Laugh, Strangers When We Meet, The Sundowners, Sunrise At Campobello, Swiss Family Robinson, Tall Story, Visit To A Small Planet, The Three Worlds Of Gulliver, The Time Machine, Two Women, The Wackiest Ship In The Army, Where The Boys Are, Who Was That Lady?, The World Of Suzie Wong
posted by LAGuy @ 11:06 AM
5 Comments:
12 should be top ten--Truffaut made three classics in a row at the start of his career, and this one is the most fun.
I should watch it again. The one time I saw it, it was a TV broadcast with hard-to-read subtitles; it is possible that the circumstances unfairly downgraded it in my mind.
I've actually seen most of Jesse's picks this time and mostly like them.
I think Cruel Story of Youth is lesser Oshima but should watch again. For 1960 I liked the similarly nihilistic Sun's Burial better, but really neither gives much indication of where he'd go that decade. For his realistic films I think Night and Fog in Japan was the best.
1. Make Mine Mink;
2. L'Avventura;
3. Psycho;
4. The Sun's Burial;
5. La Dolce Vita;
6. Black Sunday;
7. Eyes Without a Face;
8. Breathless;
9. The Bad Sleep Well;
10. The 1,000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse;
Night and Fog in Japan is definitely an interesting movie—after I saw it, I went down a rabbit hole reading up on the postwar Japanese left—but I like Cruel Story a lot better. I haven't seen Sun's Burial.
No one's going to champion Elmer Gantry? Maybe a bit dated, but a dynamic lead performance, and a pretty sexy Shirley Jones.
There's also The Entertainer. I'm not sure what Olivier was like on stage, but I'm glad we've got his performance on film.
Also Zinneman's Sundowners is pretty good.
I like Elmer Gantry, would make my honorable Mentions. Haven't seen Sundowners unfortunately.
I also went down the 60s Japanese politics at one point, mostly tracking the interests and experiences of a few writers and manga artists I really like on (especially Abe and Otomo). Someday I'd like to translate Naoki Yamamoto's manga about the Red Army but my Japanese skills have atrophied from lack of use and it's pretty difficult (and 8 volumes long). Oshima's a funny entry point because he's both so contemporary (in the 60s many of his film plots are just weird fantastical meditations on news stories, kind of a surreal version of Law and Order SVU), and he's deliberately so obscure. I wonder if his politics came across as confusingly to contemporary Japanese people (I think Katsuichi Honda called him a reactionary at some point). That said most of my favorites are also pretty indecipherable, at least to me (Death By Hanging, Japanese Summer: Double Suicide, The Ceremony and especially Three Resurrected Drunkards).
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