The 1960 Mini-List

[swo17]

As a reminder/to clarify, I will be posting results tomorrow morning. If you have submitted a list and not received a confirmation from me, please let me know tonight

[swo17]

The 1960 List



##. Film (Director) points/votes(top 5 placements, aka likely votes in decade list)/highest ranking

01. Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock) 407/19(13)/1(x4)
02. The Apartment (Billy Wilder) 371/17(13)/1(x4)
03. La dolce vita (Federico Fellini) 309/15(10)/1(x3)
04. L'avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni) 291/15(8)/1
05. À bout de souffle (Jean-Luc Godard) 261/13(8)/1
06. Le Trou (Jacques Becker) 240/13(5)/1(x2)
07. Rocco e i suoi fratelli (Luchino Visconti) 207/13(5)/2(x2)
08. The Virgin Spring (Ingmar Bergman) 195/11(3)/2
09. Peeping Tom (Michael Powell) 173/11(2)/1
10. Letter Never Sent (Mikhail Kalatozov) 149/9(2)/2(x2)
11. Les Yeux sans visage (Georges Franju) 144/10(2)/3
12. Les Bonnes Femmes (Claude Chabrol) 143/8(4)/1
13. Zazie dans le métro (Louis Malle) 128/7(1)/1
(tie) Elmer Gantry (Richard Brooks) 128/8(1)/3
15. Tirez sur le pianiste (François Truffaut) 122/9(1)/5
16. Devi (Satyajit Ray) 117/10(1)/2
17. The Bad Sleep Well (Akira Kurosawa) 108/8(2)/5(x2)
18. When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (Mikio Naruse) 94/7/6(x2)
19. Plein soleil (René Clément) 93/6(1)/5
20. Night and Fog in Japan (Nagisa Ōshima) 90/6(1)/3
21. The Cloud-Capped Star (Ritwik Ghatak) 88/6(1)/4
22. Innocent Sorcerers (Andrzej Wajda) 86/4(3)/2
23. La maschera del demonio (Mario Bava) 75/5(2)/4(x2)
24. Late Autumn (Yasujirō Ozu) 72/4(2)/1
25. Spartacus (Stanley Kubrick) 67/5(1)/5
26. Comanche Station (Budd Boetticher) 65/4/8(x2)
27. Adua e le compagne (Antonio Pietrangeli) 60/4(2)/4
28. Home from the Hill (Vincente Minnelli) 57/3(1)/3
29. Die 1000 Augen des Dr. Mabuse (Fritz Lang) 55/5/6
30. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (Karel Reisz) 54/6/8
31. House of Usher (Roger Corman) 49/3(1)/2
32. Strangers When We Meet (Richard Quine) 48/4/11(x2)
33. Il bell'Antonio (Mauro Bolognini) 47/3/6(x2)
34. The Housemaid (Kim Ki-young) 45/3/7
35. Classe tous risques (Claude Sautet) 44/4/7(x2)
36. The Little Shop of Horrors (Roger Corman) 41/3(1)/5
37. Where the Boys Are (Henry Levin) 40/3/10
38. Cruel Story of Youth (Nagisa Ōshima) 39/3/6
39. Era notte a Roma (Roberto Rossellini) 37/2(1)/1
(tie) Tall Story (Joshua Logan) 37/3/8
41. Heller in Pink Tights (George Cukor) 35/3/6
(tie) The Naked Island (Kaneto Shindō) 35/3/11
43. The White Dove (František Vláčil) 34/6/9
(tie) The Sun's Burial (Nagisa Ōshima) 34/3/12
45. Arnulf Rainer (Peter Kubelka) 33/3(1)/4
(tie) Exodus (Otto Preminger) 33/4/8
47. Tunes of Glory (Ronald Neame) 32/3/9
(tie) Afraid to Die (Yasuzō Masumura) 32/3/12
49. The Young One (Luis Buñuel) 30/2/10
50. Bells Are Ringing (Vincente Minnelli) 28/2/7

ALSO-RANS

The Time Machine (George Pal) 27/2/6
L'Amérique insolite (François Reichenbach) 27/3/14
Wild River (Elia Kazan) 26/2/8
L'amour existe (Maurice Pialat) 26/2/11
Cinderfella (Frank Tashlin) 25/2/7
Take Aim at the Police Van (Seijun Suzuki) 25/2/10
Dolci inganni (Alberto Lattuada) 24/2/13
Messalina Venere imperatrice (Vittorio Cottafavi) 23/2/11
The Magnificent Seven (John Sturges) 22/2/13
The Bellboy (Jerry Lewis) 22/3/13

The Brides of Dracula (Terence Fisher) 21/2/14
La ciociara (Vittorio De Sica) 21/2/15
Bad Luck (Andrzej Munk) 20/2/10
Romeo, Juliet and Darkness (Jirí Weiss) 19/3/10
Les scélérats (Robert Hossein) 19/3/15
Il rossetto (Damiano Damiani) 14/2/17
On n'enterre pas le dimanche (Michel Drach) 12/2/17
Cimarron (Anthony Mann) 9/3/20
School for Scoundrels (Robert Hamer) 8/2/20
The City of the Dead (John Moxey) 6/2/23(x2)

ORPHANS

Film (Director) highest ranking

The Angry Silence (Guy Green) 16
Autumn Has Already Started (Mikio Naruse) 14
Die Bande des Schreckens (Harald Reinl) 16
Battle of Blood Island (Joel Rapp) 25
Beat Girl (Edmond Gréville) 20
The Blind Menace (Kazuo Mori) 22
Brother (Kon Ichikawa) 1
The Brute (Zoltán Fábri) 19
The Criminal (Joseph Losey) 17
Everything Goes Wrong (Seijun Suzuki) 21
5 Branded Women (Martin Ritt) 23
The Flesh and the Fiends (John Gilling) 4
The Fugitive Kind (Sidney Lumet) 23
The Full Treatment (Val Guest) 22
Goodbye, See You Tomorrow (Janusz Morgenstern) 18
Higher Principle (Jiří Krejčík) 18
Inherit the Wind (Stanley Kramer) 15
Integration Report I (Madeline Anderson) 8
Intimidation (Koreyoshi Kurahara) 18
Jigoku (Nobuo Nakagawa) 25
Kapò (Gillo Pontecorvo) 22
Killing in Yoshiwara (Tomu Uchida) 2
Kirmes (Wolfgang Staudte) 11
The League of Gentlemen (Basil Dearden) 19
Lines: Vertical (Norman McLaren & Evelyn Lambert) 13
Macario (Roberto Gavaldón) 8
Mein Kampf (Erwin Leiser) 17
The Millionairess (Anthony Asquith) 21
The Musicians (Kazimierz Karabasz) 14
Nacht fiel über Gotenhafen (Frank Wisbar) 6
Never on Sunday (Jules Dassin) 21
The Ninth Circle (France Štiglic) 20
Primary (Robert Drew) 21
The Savage Innocents (Nicholas Ray) 16
Sergeant Rutledge (John Ford) 4
The Sleeping Beast Within (Seijun Suzuki) 15
Smashing the 0-Line (Seijun Suzuki) 11
Stone Into Steel (Paul Dickson) 15
Le Testament d'Orphée ou ne me demandez pas pourquoi (Jean Cocteau) 20
Tutti a casa (Luigi Comencini) 9
The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll (Terence Fisher) 10
La Vérité (Henri-Georges Clouzot) 10
The Warped Ones (Koreyoshi Kurahara) 6
The Wild, Wild Rose (Wang Tian-Lin) 5
The World of Suzie Wong (Richard Quine) 25

21 lists submitted

[DarkImbecile]

A damn fine list for a damn fine year. Thanks your work on this, swo! Long live the single-year lists!

[Rayon Vert]

Thanks swo!

My top 6 landed in the top 8.

1. Le Trou
2. Rocco and His Brothers
3. Psycho
4. La Dolce Vita
5. The Virgin Spring
6. L’Avventura

[DarkImbecile]

1. Psycho
2. La dolce vita
3. Rocco and His Brothers
4. The Apartment
5. L'avventura
6. Letter Never Sent
7. The Virgin Spring
8. Classe tous risques
9. Le trou
10. The Bad Sleep Well

I’ve decided to limit myself to submitting only a top 10 for these lists, as I (in a pathetic display of not being domino harvey) hadn’t seen enough films that I ranked highly for a full top 25. Deciding where the cutoff should be and submitting a list of 18 or 22 felt unnecessarily arbitrary.

Bolded titles are those I watched for the first time for this project

[Rayon Vert]

8. Classe tous risques

That's my no. 7. Insanely good. Surprised it didn't rank higher - maybe it hasn't been seen by enough people.

[DarkImbecile]

I’d guess that’s true; I was lucky to see it for the first time at a Nouvelle Vague series one of the theaters in Santa Fe was holding several years ago, and a surprisingly packed audience was very responsive and engaged throughout.

[domino harvey]

I've seen it, and like the other five Sautet films I've sat through, it's mediocre bordering on bad. It has a Criterion release, I imagine anyone who wants to see it has or can

My list:

01 A bout de souffle
02 Les bonnes femmes
03 the Virgin Spring
04 L’Avventura
05 the Apartment
06 Psycho
07 Zazie dans le metro
08 Elmer Gantry
09 Rocco and His Brothers
10 La dolce vita
11 Messaline
12 Le trou
13 Tall Story
14 L’amerique insolite
15 I dolci inganni
16 Where the Boys Are
17 Il rossetto
18 Exodus
19 Heller in Pink Tights
20 Cinderfella
21 Strangers When We Meet
22 Les scélérats
23 On n'enterre pas le dimanche
24 Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
25 Cimarron

Apologies to whoever had the World of Suzie Wong at 25 -- it was there for me until I saw Il rossetto and it got bumped off!

Also, I think this may be the first list I've ever submitted a full ballot for where I had no orphans?

And thanks swo for taking my offhand remark and completely rearranging the entire list project system around it. With great power something something Zendaya

[domino harvey]

Also, I would have voted for Inherit the Wind if I'd registered that it was eligible-- not sure how I left it off both of my prelim round ups, but I also don't feel too bad about forgetting the only Stanley Kramer movie I'd ever vote for

[therewillbeblus]

8. Classe tous risques

That's my no. 7. Insanely good. Surprised it didn't rank higher - maybe it hasn't been seen by enough people.

It was one of the few films I watched for this project and I didn't like it at all- but it did prompt me to do some quick revisits of all the better Ventura films of the 50s/60s!

[therewillbeblus]

Apologies to whoever had the World of Suzie Wong at 25 -- it was there for me until I saw Il rossetto and it got bumped off!

That was me, but I would've bumped it for Le Trou had I waited a few hours before submitting my list (I wound up getting to it yesterday after all, but didn't think I would, and it would've made the top half of my list). Oh well, doesn't look like it needed any help from me!

[Rayon Vert]

I'm putting it out there again that domino and twbb are the same person.

[DarkImbecile]

[therewillbeblus]

Well I guess I'll post my list then (surely lots of overlap with domino, but my top five most resembles DarkImbecile's!)

1. La Dolce Vita
2. The Apartment
3. L’Avventura
4. Les Bonnes Femmes
5. Psycho
6. Zazie dans le Metro
7. Breathless
8. Tall Story
9. Elmer Gantry
10. Where the Boys Are
11. The Virgin Spring
12. The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse
13. Strangers When We Meet
14. Letter Never Sent
15. Peeping Tom
16. America As Seen By a Frenchman
17. On n’enterre pas le dimanche
18. Messalina
19. Rocco and His Brothers
20. Cimarron
21. Il rossetto
22. Les scélérats
23. 5 Branded Women - ORPHAN
24. Exodus
25. The World of Suzie Wong - ORPHAN

[DarkImbecile]

Wait… does this mean I’m therewillbeblus?

[domino harvey]

“I am Number 25 on our 1960 List!”

[Toland's Mitchell]

The top 10 looks eerily similar to my personal top 10. Swo, I swear I submitted how I actually felt, not a prediction.

Mine:

1. The Apartment
2. The Virgin Spring
3. Psycho
4. La Dolce Vita
5. Shoot the Piano Player
6. Peeping Tom
7. Breathless
8. Le Trou
9. Letter Never Sent
10. Rocco and His Brothers

And I had L'Avventura ranked either 11 or 12. It appears I'm not alone, as there is noticeable overlap in RV's and DI's lists too.

A damn fine list for a damn fine year.

I’ve decided to limit myself to submitting only a top 10 for these lists, as I (in a pathetic display of not being domino harvey) hadn’t seen enough films that I ranked highly for a full top 25. Deciding where the cutoff should be and submitting a list of 18 or 22 felt unnecessarily arbitrary.

Bolded titles are those I watched for the first time for this project

I considered keeping it at 10 but ended up with a list of 22 or 23 films. I cut it off once I listed every 1960 film I rated 8/10 or higher. Ditto on Letter Never Sent and Le Trou, also first-time watches for me during the project. Totally agree with your "damn fine list for damn fine year" comment.

I've long held the opinion that 1962 was the strongest year of cinema of the 60s, but after this project and seeing the final list, I gotta say it's pretty damn close between '60 and '62.

[Rayon Vert]

Yeah '62 looks pretty stellar too.

[domino harvey]

7/10 titles in my Top 10 for the 60s overall come from this year and naturally make up the top seven titles on my ballot for this list

[swo17]

In lieu of posting my entire list, here is just the portion representing films seen for the first time, or that shot up in my estimation during a revisit:

03 Night and Fog in Japan
04 The Cloud-Capped Star
07 Cinderfella
11 Strangers When We Meet
13 Dolci inganni
14 La maschera del demonio
15 Les scélérats
16 Die Bande des Schreckens
17 Mein Kampf
18 Heller in Pink Tights
19 Afraid to Die
20 Tall Story
21 The Millionairess

I did vote for the Sautet film towards the bottom. The ending is a little bit of a fizzle but Ventura and Belmondo are still tragically cool in it, and the film looks marvelous on the BFI Blu-ray. I think it's a little unfair to lump this in with his later films (which don't do much for me either) as he was just starting out and presumably still finding his voice at this point

[Rayon Vert]

7/10 titles in my Top 10 for the 60s overall come from this year and naturally make up the top seven titles on my ballot for this list

Looking over my 60s list (which stands to change, of course, with the extension of these yearly lists), there's a strong imbalance with the even years over the odd years:
Even=34, odd=16

The disproportion is even more marked in the top 25:
Even=23, odd: 2 (!)

1966 is the runner-up to 1960, and fares especially well in terms of higher rankings (and yes there's a donkey involved). I'm tempted to call that one a historic year for cinema. (I'm not even including Persona).

(I've got a single film for 1963 and 1965, respectively, and they're from the same director, which is easy to guess. Which probably just means there are still massive, glaring holes in my 60s film viewings!)

[domino harvey]

17 Mein Kampf

Glad you enjoyed this (and I was curious who voted for it). It will probably not surprise you to learn that Chabrol was a huge fan, given that his doc on Vichy France decades later was clearly made in the same spirit and style

[swo17]

I know this is a cliché by now, but it was really haunting how closely the Nazi propaganda machine resembles much current political discourse. I haven't seen the Chabrol doc (which means that no one recommended it very highly during that director list?) but will probably take a look

[Red Screamer]

Thanks swo and everyone who participated. This was fun and I think the list was a complete success in terms of opening up the discussion to a wider range of titles.

01 Peeping Tom
02 A bout de souffle
03 Home from the Hill
04 Sergeant Rutledge [orphan]
05 Psycho
06 The 1000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse
07 The Cloud-Capped Star
08 Late Autumn
09 L’avventura
10 The Young One [orphan]

15 L’amore existe [also ran]
18 The Bellboy [also ran]

I’m not the biggest Powell fan but Peeping Tom is a shocking, inventive film that perfectly synthesizes all of his obsessions, stylistic strengths, and uncomfortable quirks. On the other hand, Psycho is a masterpiece but has never quite become one of my favorite Hitchcocks, especially in light of The Birds which remakes a handful of Psycho’s motifs and takes them in wild, avant-garde directions (ie the shower scene montage with stabs of violin music becomes the bird attack montage with swirls of electronic noise).

Cinderfella would have made my list if its stellar beginning and ending weren’t separated by a middle full of proto-MRA ranting and sloppy musical numbers. OK fine, maybe the sloppy musical numbers are kind of great. But Lewis is going to dominate my year lists from here on out so I wasn’t sad about letting this one slide off the deep end of my list.

The Cloud-Capped Star was the best film I saw for the first time this round and makes a strong contender for the greatest soundtrack in cinema history.

Now for the gripes: I really thought this would be the list where I have no orphans. Silly me!

The Young One is a Buñuel classic waiting to be rescued from its mislabeled Lionsgate DVD. It might not be in the top tier of his work so I can see why it would get outshined in the decades list but putting a spotlight on this kind of great film is what the year lists should be for.

Maybe I have a soft spot for the artificial weirdness of late Ford. That’s the only explanation for why Sergeant Rutledge, a hushed, expressionistic pastel-and-fog western that’s one of his most painterly color works, received no other votes. It’s a film where the tonal mismatches Ford is infamous for add considerably to the film’s social commentary and emotional horror. Hunter is in a feelgood liberal message movie that he’s the star of while the judge and his jolly wife are in a mocking marriage farce (seeming like picnickers at a lynching), while Strode is trapped in a grand Greek tragedy that the white characters are, at best, blissfully unaware of. “We are fools to fight the white man’s war,” a dying friend tells Strode. Strode tries to reassure him with the same justification he tells himself: “It ain’t the white man’s war, we’re fighting to make us proud.” And there is the terrifying contradiction.

[Rayon Vert]

The Cloud-Capped Star was the best film I saw for the first time this round and makes a strong contender for the greatest soundtrack in cinema history.

I agree with this statement in full!