MC Yearly Consensus - 1962

[Spinal]

Submit your five favorite films from this year and in a week I will give you a top ten. IMDb dates will be used.

The point system is as follows

1st Place-5 points
2nd Place-4 points
3rd Place-3.5 points
4th Place-3 points
5th Place-2.5 points

There will be no restrictions on short films. A minimum of three films must be listed. You may edit your post freely up until the time that the voting is closed, which will be in about a week. I will give at least 24 hours warning before tallying votes.

You may begin now.

IMDB Power Search (http://www.imdb.com/list)

[Spinal]

1. Winter Light
2. Lawrence of Arabia
3. An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
4. My Life to Live
5. The Exterminating Angel

[Melville]

1. Lawrence of Arabia
2. Carnival of Souls
3. Window Water Baby Moving (Brakhage)
4. La Jetee
5. My Life to Live

[Boner M]

Freaking amazing year.

1. My Life to Live
2. The Exterminating Angel
3. Carnival of Souls
4. An Autumn Afternoon
5. Heaven And Earth Magic

6. Winter Light
7. La Jetee
8. L'Eclisse
9. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
10. Cleo From 5 to 7

HM: Mamma Roma, The Trial, Le Doulos, Lawrence of Arabia, The Manchurian Candidate

Need to see: Pitfall, Window Water Baby Moving, Ride the High Country

[Melville]

Need to see: Window Water Baby Moving
Here it is (NSFW):

Window Water Baby Moving (http://video.google.ca/videosearch?q=window%20water%2 0baby%20moving&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&sa=N&tab=wv#)

[Boner M]

Here it is (NSFW):

Window Water Baby Moving (http://video.google.ca/videosearch?q=window%20water%2 0baby%20moving&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&sa=N&tab=wv#)
Oh wait, I have seen that. Strangely, I didn't know it was Brakhage. At any rate, I find it hard to rate/list his films and this is no exception.

[Melville]

At any rate, I find it hard to rate/list his films and this is no exception.
I recommend putting it at number 4.

[Boner M]

I recommend putting it at number 4.
I see what you're doing here.

[Melville]

I see what you're doing here.
I'm nothing if not transparent.

[balmakboor]

Ah, the year of my birth. I'll be offering some input in a bit.

[Mysterious Dude]

1. The Four Days of Naples
2. The Miracle Worker
3. Cleo from 5 to 7
4. Mamma Roma
5. Salvatore Giuliano

[Philosophe_rouge]

Great year

1. Jules et Jim
2. Lawrence of Arabia
3. Cleo 5 a 7
4. Vivre Sa Vie
5. Winter Light

----

6. To Kill a Mockingbird
7. The Manchurian Candidate
8. Lolita
9. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
10. Le Jetee

[Melville]

Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824, James Hogg) ***½
Dream of the Red Chamber (1791, Cao Xueqin) ***
I just read the Hogg book too. Cool. Did you read the full 2000-page version of Dream of the Red Chamber, or did you read an abridged version?

[Spinal]

Here it is (NSFW):

Window Water Baby Moving (http://video.google.ca/videosearch?q=window%20water%2 0baby%20moving&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&sa=N&tab=wv#)

Well, that was intimate.

[ledfloyd]

1. Jules et Jim
2. To Kill a Mockingbird
3. Lolita

[Grouchy]

1. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
2. The Trial
3. The Exterminating Angel
4. Carnival of Souls
5. Ride the High Country

Funny how only #5 is in color.

[BirdsAteMyFace]

1. Carnival of Souls
2. Lawrence of Arabia
3. To Kill a Mockingbird
4. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

So much to see, so little time.

[Pop Trash]

1. Jules and Jim
2. La Jetee
3. To Kill a Mockingbird
4. The Manchurian Candidate
5. An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

6. The Trial
7. Days of Wine and Roses
8. Ivan's Childhood
9. My Life to Live
10. What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

Amazing year! With a rewatch of some of these, I'd imagine this list would be re-arranged.

[soitgoes...]

1. Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean)
2. Winter Light (Ingmar Bergman)
3. Harakiri (Masaki Kobayashi)
4. An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge (Robert Enrico)
5. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford)
---------------------------------------------------------
6. Long Day's Journey Into Night (Sidney Lumet)
7. Cleo from 5 to 7 (Agnès Varda)
8. La Jetée (Chris Marker)
9. To Kill a Mockingbird (Robert Mulligan)
10. Trial of Joan of Arc (Robert Bresson)
11. Mamma Roma (Pier Paolo Pasolini)
12. The Intruder (Roger Corman)
13. The Trial (Orson Welles)
14. My Life to Live (Jean-Luc Godard)
15. Knife in the Water (Roman Polanski)
16. Ride the High Country (Sam Peckinpah)
17. Panic in Year Zero! (Ray Milland)
18. Sanjuro (Akira Kurosawa)
19. Mafioso (Alberto Lattuada)
20. Le Doulos (Jean-Pierre Melville)

Such a great year.

[Russ]

1. Carnival of Souls
2. An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
3. La Jetee
4. What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
5. To Kill a Mockingbird

[Derek]

Currently my vote for the greatest year of cinema evah!

1. The Trial (Orson Welles)
2. La Jetée (Chris Marker)
3. My Life to Live (Jean-Luc Godard)
4. L'Eclisse (Michelangelo Antonioni)
5. The Manchurian Candidate (John Frankenheimer)
****************************** *****
6. Jules et Jim (Francois Truffaut)
7. Hatari! (Howard Hawks)
8. Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean)
9. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence (John Ford)
10. Advise and Consent (Otto Preminger)

HMs: The House is Black (Farough Farrokhzad)
Her Lonely Lane (Mikio Naruse)
The Trial of Joan of Arc (Robert Bresson)
Lolita (Stanley Kubrick)
Cosmic Ray (Bruce Conner)
The Exterminating Angel (Luis Buñuel)
Ivan's Childhood (Andrei Tarkovsky)
To Kill a Mockingbird (Robert Mulligan)
Knife in the Water (Roman Polanski)
Ride the High Country (Sam Peckinpah)
21 Two Weeks in Another Town (Vincente Minnelli)
An Autumn Afternoon (Yasujiro Ozu)

[Watashi]

1. Winter Light
2. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
3. La Jetee

[Weeping_Guitar]

1. Jules and Jim
2. Lawrence of Arabia
3. Winter Light
4. Cleo from 5 to 7
5. La Jetee

----------------------------

Ivan’s Childhood
To Kill a Mockingbird
My Life to Live
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
La Commare Secca
The Manchurian Candidate
L'Eclisse

[balmakboor]

1. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
2. La Jetee
3. Lolita
4. To Kill a Mockingbird
5. An Autumn Afternoon

[baby doll]

1. L'eclisse (Michelangelo Antonioni)
2. Vivre sa vie: Film en douze tableaux (Jean-Luc Godard)
3. The Exterminating Angel (Luis Buñuel)
4. La Jetée (Chris Marker)
5. Le Procès (Orson Welles)
6. The Manchurian Candidate (John Frakenheimer)
7. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford)
8. Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean)
9. Window Water Baby Moving (Stan Brakhage)
10. Advise and Consent (Otto Preminger)

[Boner M]

U gotta see Heaven & Earth Magic, soori.

[baby doll]

U gotta see Heaven & Earth Magic, soori.Thanks for the recommendation.

[Mysterious Dude]

I just read the Hogg book too. Cool. Did you read the full 2000-page version of Dream of the Red Chamber, or did you read an abridged version?I'm afraid it was just the abridged version. I didn't learn it was abridged until I was almost done with it. I fail at Chinese literature. :sad:

[Izzy Black]

1. Vivre sa Vie (Godard, France)
2. L'Eclisse (Antonioni, Italy)
3. Cléo de 5 Ã* 7 (Varda, France)
4. La Jetée (Marker, France)
5. The Trial (Welles, France/Italy/Germany)

[baby doll]

3. Cléo de 5 Ã* 7 (Varda, France)
5. The Trial (Welles, USA)Two things: isn't Varda's film '61? And The Trial most definitely isn't an American film.

[Izzy Black]

Two things: isn't Varda's film '61? And The Trial most definitely isn't an American film.

That was a quick response. Replied before I edited The Trial.

As for Cleo:

Country Date
UK 1962
France 11 April 1962
France May 1962 (Cannes Film Festival)
West Germany 8 June 1962
USA 4 September 1962 (New York City, New York)
Finland 19 October 1962
Sweden 18 February 1963
Greece 17 November 2000 (Thessaloniki International Film Festival)


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055852/releaseinfo

[baby doll]

Sweded:

1. L'eclisse (Michelangelo Antonioni)
2. Cléo de 5 Ã* 7 (Agnès Varda)
3. Vivre sa vie: Film en douze tableaux (Jean-Luc Godard)
4. The Exterminating Angel (Luis Buñuel)
5. La Jetée (Chris Marker)

[Raiders]

1. My Life to Live (Godard)
2. The Trial (Welles)
3. Lawrence of Arabia (Lean)
4. The Intruder (Corman)
5. The Exterminating Angel (Bunuel)

-----------------------------------

6. Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (Aldrich)
7. La jetee (Marker)
8. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (Ford)
9. Ride the High Country (Peckinpah)
10. Long Day's Journey Into Night (Lumet)
11. Advise & Consent (Preminger)
12. Harakiri (Kobayashi)

[dreamdead]

1. My Life to Live
2. Cleo from 5 to 7
3. Winter Light
4. L'Eclisse
5. The Trial

[Stay Puft]

1. Harakiri
2. La Jetée
3. My Life to Live

Hmmm... haven't seen much from this year. I fail.

[origami_mustache]

great year

1. Ivan's Childhood
2. Mamma Roma
3. The Exterminating Angel
4. Harakiri
5. L'Eclisse

6. Cosmic Ray
7. Boccaccio '70
8. La Jetée
9. Winter Light
10. Jules and Jim
11. Window Water Baby Moving

[Yxklyx]

1. Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean)
2. L' Eclisse (Michelangelo Antonioni)
3. Cleo from 5 to 7 (Agnès Varda)
4. The Manchurian Candidate (John Frankenheimer)
5. What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (Robert Aldrich)

6. Harakiri (Masaki Kobayashi)
7. The Music Man (Morton DaCosta)
8. Knife in the Water (Roman Polanski)
9. Cape Fear (J. Lee Thompson)
10. To Kill a Mockingbird (Robert Mulligan)

Not seen: The Exterminating Angel

[Yxklyx]

Arghh! Cleo was moved from '61 to '62 recently - will edit.

[Robby P]

1. Ride the High Country
2. Carnival of Souls
3. The Trial
4. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
5. The Manchurian Candidate

[Spinal]

1. Winter Light

That's pretty much it.

Watch two more films! You can be done with La Jetee and An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge in under an hour.

[Lazlo]

1. Lawrence of Arabia
2. L’Eclisse
3. The Manchurian Candidate
4. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
5. Winter Light

[soitgoes...]

Everyone, Harakiri is the best thing I've seen in all of the chanbara genre. Yes, even better than anything Kurosawa made. It's only third on my list because of the greatness of the two above it. It pains me that this and Winter Light can't get 5 points too. Anyways, check it out if you haven't yet. You won't be disappointed.

[Stay Puft]

Everyone, Harakiri is the best thing I've seen in all of the chanbara genre. Yes, even better than anything Kurosawa made.

Right with you there. This and Samurai Rebellion are two of my favorites. Kobayashi rules.

[MadMan]

1. The Manchurian Candidate
2. Lawrence of Arabia
3. King Kong vs. Godzilla
4. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
5. The Music Man

Hmmm, interesting.

[monolith94]

1. Jules et Jim
2. Ivan's Childhood
3. The Trial
4. Lawrence of Arabia
5. Knife in the Water

[Duncan]

1. La Jetee
2. My Life to Live
3. Winter Light
4. Lawrence of Arabia
5. L'Eclisse

Damn. This and 1967. Best years ever.

[Kurious Jorge v3.1]

1. La Jetee
2. Jules and Jim
3. Cleo from 5 to 7
4. Ivan's Childhood
5. L'Ecclise
-------------------
6. My Life to Live
7. Lawrence of Arabia

[Ezee E]

1. Lawrence of Arabia
2. To Kill A Mockingbird
3. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
4. Lolita
5. La Jetee

I'm surprised I haven't seen the ugly Dog Star Man appear yet.

[Duncan]

I'm surprised I haven't seen the ugly Dog Star Man appear yet. It's in my top 100, but it's not in my top 5 of this year.

[balmakboor]

I'm surprised I haven't seen the ugly Dog Star Man appear yet.

I've never found it ugly. Kinda tedious yes. Ugly no. Quite the opposite actually.

[Kurosawa Fan]

1. Chushingura
2. The Trial
3. Sanjuro
4. The Manchurian Candidate
5. Lawrence of Arabia

[MadMan]

Yxklyx I didn't know you were a fan of The Music Man. I normally hate musicals but that one is such a delightful and happy film. I haven't seen it in ages, and I think its due for a rewatch. The song "Gary, Indiana" is pretty darn catchy.

[Yxklyx]

Yxklyx I didn't know you were a fan of The Music Man. I normally hate musicals but that one is such a delightful and happy film. I haven't seen it in ages, and I think its due for a rewatch. The song "Gary, Indiana" is pretty darn catchy.

Yeah, the Music Man is pretty great. More people here should see it. You've got lots of snappy dialogue - the lead actor is a tour de force. Some excellent singing and music - very intelligently constructed musical numbers using environmental rhythms. Quickly paced and very funny. My favorite moments are the song accompanied by a girl practicing scales on the piano and the big shindig at the library.

[Teh Sausage]

01. The Trial
02. Winter Light
03. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
04. My Life to Live
05. La Jetee

Not a fan of Jules and Jim, and I haven't seen Lawrence of Arabia in years.

[The Mike]

1. Cape Fear
2. The Manchurian Candidate
3. Carnival of Souls
4. Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
5. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

[Spinal]

Last day.

[Spinal]

Really tough competition this time. A pair of really famous films received more than 20 points and still did not make the final cut.

[Spinal]

#10

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/COS_10.jpg

Carnival of Souls

Director: Herk Harvey

Country: USA

A group of teenagers lose control of their car which plunges off a bridge into a river. They must be dead, think the local townsfolk but out creeps a survivor who attempts to carry on with life as she knows it.

The original cut of the film ran 84 minutes but was cut down to 75 minutes by drive-in owners in order to accommodate more showings. The backdrop is the Saltair Amusement Park outside Salt Lake City. The Saltair that appears in the film actually burned down in the early 70s. In the early 80s another version of Saltair was rebuilt, although it's a much smaller design.

"Carnival has all the clunkiness expected of a prohibitively low-budget first effort ... So why has it survived? For one thing, despite readily apparent flaws, it's an effective, deeply unsettling film that looks and feels like virtually nothing else. Harvey and [John] Clifford had their eye on the arthouse as much as the drive-in, aiming for, in Clifford's words, 'the look of a Bergman and the feel of a Cocteau.' The weird thing is how close they came." - Keith Phipps

[Spinal]

#9

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/149693157_47e3bea389_o.jpg

Cléo From 5 to 7

Director: Agnès Varda

Country: France

While waiting for the result of a biopsy, the French singer Cléo visits a fortune teller, drinks coffee, buys a new hat with her housekeeper, is visited by her lover and her composers, visits her model friend and meets (and has a brief affair with) a military man.

The film actually covers Cléo from 5:00 to 6:30. The final chapter for the film ends at 6:30. Jean-Luc Godard, Anna Karina, and Jean-Claude Brialy all make uncredited cameo appearances as the actors in the silent film shown to Cléo and her friend.

"All throughout, Varda captures the fairy-tale essence of early '60s Paris with a vivacity and richness that rivals Godard's Breathless. Unlike her New Wave compatriots, whose talents were reared in part at film schools, Varda was trained in the field of photography and consequently films the city with a completely unique vision." - Eric Henderson

[Spinal]

#8

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/Jules_wideweb__470x3672.jpg

Jules and Jim

Director: François Truffaut

Country: France

In Paris, 1900, Jules and Jim fall in love with the same woman, Catherine. But Catherine loves and marries Jules. After WWI, when they meet again in Germany, Catherine starts to love Jim.

In Godard's A Woman is a Woman, Jeanne Moreau appears as herself. This becomes obvious because Jean-Paul Belmondo's character, while meeting her at a café, asks her: "How is Jules And Jim coming?" Based on the semi-autobiographical novel by Henri-Pierre Roché.

"A woman is a woman to Godard, but Truffaut saw deeper. Catherine is autonomous, using her sex as leverage to claim a man's sense of freedom. Truffaut doesn't typecast Catherine as a feminist or a repudiation of one. She is wild, passionate, maybe even a little mad, but always straight—which is to say, she is more real than anyone in the film's carnival of souls." - Ed Gonzalez

[Spinal]

#7

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/leclisse.jpg

L'Eclisse

Director: Michelangelo Antonioni

Country: Italy

In a suburb of Rome, the translator Vittoria breaks her engagement with her boyfriend after a troubled night. She goes downtown and meets the broker Piero on a bad day for the Stock Market.

Won the Special Jury Prize at Cannes. It is considered the final part of the trilogy containing also L'Avventura and La Notte.

"... conceivably the best [film] in Antonioni's career, but significantly it has the least consequential plot ... Alternately an essay and a prose poem about the contemporary world in which the 'love story' figures as one of many motifs, [L'Eclisse] is remarkable both for its visual/atmospheric richness and its polyphonic and polyrhythmic mise en scene (Antonioni's handling of crowds at the Roman stock exchange is never less than amazing)." - Jonathan Rosenbaum

[Spinal]

#6

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/winter_us5-1.jpg

Winter Light

Director: Ingmar Bergman

Country: Sweden

A widowed priest is troubled by lack of faith. He tries to find meaning again, discussing his predicament both with those that have a lot of faith and those that might have lost it.

When she saw the completed film, Ingmar Bergman's then wife Kabi Laretei said, "Yes, Ingmar, it's a masterpiece. But it's a dreary masterpiece." Bergman considered it his favorite of his own films.

"The film's visual style is one of rigorous simplicity. [Sven] Nykvist does not use a single camera movement for effect. He only wants to regard, to show. His compositions, while sometimes dramatic, are mostly static. He uses slow push-ins and pull-outs to underline dialogue of intensity." - Roger Ebert

[Spinal]

#5

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/trial_-_orson_welles_copy.jpg

The Trial

Director: Orson Welles

Country: France/Italy/West Germany/Yugoslavia

Josef K wakes up in the morning and finds the police in his room. They tell him that he is on trial but nobody tells him what he is accused of. In order to find out about the reason of this accusation and to protest his innocence, he tries to look behind the facade of the judicial system.

Welles considered this the best of his films. Welles reportedly dubbed a few lines of Anthony Perkins' dialogue. Perkins later said he could never figure out which lines they were.

"The world of the movie is like a nightmare, with its hero popping from one surrealistic situation to another. Water towers open into file rooms, a woman does laundry while through the door a trial is under way, and huge trunks are dragged across empty landscapes and then back again. The black-and-white photography shows Welles' love of shadows, extreme camera angles and spectacular sets." - Roger Ebert

[Spinal]

#4

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/LibertyTomStoddard.jpg

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

Director: John Ford

Country: USA

Senator Ranse Stoddard returns to the city of Shinbone in the Wild West, to go to the funeral of his friend, Tom Doniphon. To a journalist, who's wondering what the senator is doing in Shinbone, he tells how his career started as 'the man who shot Liberty Valance'.

Earned an Academy Award nomination for Costume Design. This was John Ford's last film in black and white. Several reasons have been put forward for the film being in black and white. One is that since both John Wayne and James Stewart were playing characters thirty years younger than they actually were, the movie needed to be in black and white because they would never have got away with it in color.

"Anticipating Peckinpah and Eastwood, John Ford’s Hamlet-like Western, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, deconstructs the legends of the Old West as a place where good always triumphed over evil and civilization overcame barbarism, a myth that he helped to create. [It] looks at how myths are created and, in its complex vision of the passing of an era, both pines for the lawless open spaces and eagerly anticipates the railroads bringing paved roads, schools, and law enforcement." - Howard Schumann

[Spinal]

#3

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/2008_06_26_vivresavie.jpg

My Life to Live

Director: Jean-Luc Godard

Country: France

An exploration of a Parisian woman's descent into prostitution comprised of a series of 12 "tableaux"-- scenes which are basically unconnected episodes, each presented with a worded introduction.

Earned the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival. This film differed from other films of the French New Wave in that it was photographed with a heavy Mitchell camera, as opposed to the light weight cameras used for earlier films.

"A milestone 'everything is permissible' moment in narrative film, Godard's fourth feature is a rocket from Pandora's Box." - Nick Pinkerton

[Spinal]

#2

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/la_jetee-757728.jpg

La Jetée

Director: Chris Marker

Country: France

In a devastated Paris in the aftermath of WWIII, the few surviving humans begin researching time travel, hoping to send someone back to the pre-war world for food, supplies and maybe a solution to their dire position.

Comprised entirely of still shot photography, except for a shot of a woman opening and blinking her eyes. The film was inspired by a scene from Vertigo. The title is a near-homophone of 'there I was' (lÃ* j'étais).

"La Jetée uses a novel presentation to emphasize the snapshot nature of memory. [The] images are extraordinarily beautiful and put together with great style, suggesting movement and emotion by allowing us to linger on them and fill them with our own experiences of nostalgia and déjÃ* vu. The longing for the past, the sentimental simplicity of childhood, tugs at the Man—an escape from the lightless, seemingly lifeless present. But like all people who yearn for the past, the Man cannot truly live there." - Marilyn Ferdinand

[Spinal]

#1

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/lawrence-of-arabia-18.jpg

Lawrence of Arabia

Director: David Lean

Country: UK

As a young intelligence officer in Cairo in 1916, Thomas Edward Lawrence is given leave to investigate the progress of the Arab revolt against the Turks in World War I. In the desert, he organizes a guerrilla army and--for two years--leads the Arabs in harassing the Turks with desert raids, train-wrecking and camel attacks. Eventually, he leads his army northward and helps a British General destroy the power of the Ottoman Empire.

Won seven Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Color Cinematography. Nominated for three other awards including Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor (Peter O'Toole) and Best Supporting Actor (Omar Sharif). Although 227 minutes long, the film has no women in speaking roles. Almost all movement in the film goes from left to right. Lean said he did this to emphasize that the film was a journey.

"The film's genius is its marriage of intimate portrait and big-screen epic. T.E. Lawrence, a repressed 29-year-old British mapmaker, becomes a desert Napoleon, worshiped as a self-proclaimed demigod. His story is an atavistic Revenge of the Nerds, every angry adolescent's dream come true." - Rita Kempley

[Spinal]

1. Lawrence of Arabia 57
2. La Jetee 49
3. My Life to Live 46
4. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance 38
5. The Trial 34
6. Winter Light 33.5
7. L’Eclisse 30.5
8. Jules and Jim 29
9. Cleo from 5 to 7 28.5
10. Carnival of Souls 28

Also rans:
The Manchurian Candidate 26.5
To Kill a Mockingbird 20.5
The Exterminating Angel 19

[Bosco B Thug]

Carnival of Souls

"Harvey and [John] Clifford had their eye on the arthouse as much as the drive-in, aiming for, in Clifford's words, 'the look of a Bergman and the feel of a Cocteau.' The weird thing is how close they came." - Keith Phipps Cool.

[Philosophe_rouge]

Such an amazing year, I'm a little sad to see Jules et Jim ranked so low as it's one of my very favourites, but I'll see both The Trial and L'Eclisse before saying much else. I'm also thrilled to see Cleo 5 a 7... I love this year.

[baby doll]

Lawrence of Arabia would be in my top ten for the year, but I have to concede that Lean looks a bit old fashioned and square next to Antonioni, Brakhage, Buñuel, Marker, Godard and Varda. Like The Sound of Music, it's one of those movies that feels older than it really is.

I have a similar feeling about Bergman and Truffaut, who made art films for people who don't like art films. I despised Winter Light when I watched it a few years ago for its portentous tone which permits no humor or subtlty. As with The Seventh Seal and Through a Glass, Darkly, Bergman has no interest in storytelling except to illustrate an extremely obvious thesis in the dullest manner humanly imaginable. Truffaut made some wonderful films--Les Quatre cents coups, Tirez sur le pianiste, Baisers volés, L'Argent de poche--but I don't think Jules et Jim is one of them. The male leads are interchangable, and the film spends way too much time trying to convince us how free-spirited and bohemian and loveable they are. One does backflips to convince us it's Art, while the other is forever reminding us how youthful and romantic it is.

[Yxklyx]

I really don't understand the love for The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. I thought it was very mediocre - and yet it has an imdb rating over 8.

[Kurosawa Fan]

I really don't understand the love for The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. I thought it was very mediocre - and yet it has an imdb rating over 8.

Obviously you are wrong. :P

[Philosophe_rouge]

I really don't understand the love for The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. I thought it was very mediocre - and yet it has an imdb rating over 8.
I pretty much agree.

[balmakboor]

I haven't seen Liberty Valance for a while, but I remember thinking afterwards that I had just seen THE western. I really should take another look. Damn, so many movies, so few free evenings in life.

[Yxklyx]

I haven't seen Liberty Valance for a while, but I remember thinking afterwards that I had just seen THE western. I really should take another look. Damn, so many movies, so few free evenings in life.

How can a Western be shot entirely on a stage - which is what it looked like.

[balmakboor]

How can a Western be shot entirely on a stage - which is what it looked like.

Please don't tell me that's why you don't like it. Sheesh.

[baby doll]

Despite all the submerged homoeroticism and sadomasochism (just how many times is Jimmy Stewart humiliated by John Wayne?), I think The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is one of the best old fashioned, unreconstructed westerns I've seen (albeit no Rio Bravo) for Ford's mise en scène.

[Derek]

Despite all the submerged homoeroticism and sadomasochism (just how many times is Jimmy Stewart humiliated by John Wayne?), I think The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is one of the best old fashioned, unreconstructed westerns I've seen (albeit no Rio Bravo) for Ford's mise en scène.

Odd that you'd stress it's old-fashionedness when Ford is clearly interested in analyzing the myth-making involved in many of his earlier films. It's certainly old-fashioned in relation to many of the other great films in '62, but its downright modern in terms of Ford.

[baby doll]

Odd that you'd stress it's old-fashionedness when Ford is clearly interested in analyzing the myth-making involved in many of his earlier films. It's certainly old-fashioned in relation to many of the other great films in '62, but its downright modern in terms of Ford.As in The Searchers, the idea is that Wayne's character isn't fit to live among civilized people but they still need him to protect them from Lee Marvin's whip.

[Grouchy]

Odd that you'd stress it's old-fashionedness when Ford is clearly interested in analyzing the myth-making involved in many of his earlier films. It's certainly old-fashioned in relation to many of the other great films in '62, but its downright modern in terms of Ford.
Exactly. It's one of the most deconstructive and analytical westerns of its time period. Certainly nothing like The Searchers and no, that isn't its theme, baby doll. Its theme is the legend vs. accurate history debate and the process by which a myth is built.

[Yxklyx]

Please don't tell me that's why you don't like it. Sheesh.

How many Westerns are shot in a studio (which is what everything looked like to me)? Hardly any, the Ox Bow Incident I believe was and that's the only one I can think of and that's not really a Western either. I was just objecting to categorizing Valance as a Western and then calling it the best Western on top of that.

[Derek]

How many Westerns are shot in a studio (which is what everything looked like to me)? Hardly any, the Ox Bow Incident I believe was and that's the only one I can think of and that's not really a Western either. I was just objecting to categorizing Valance as a Western and then calling it the best Western on top of that.

Huh? So Liberty Valence isn't a Western because it's not shot on location? What kind of absurd requirement is that? What genres are allowed to be shot in a studio then?

[baby doll]

Exactly. It's one of the most deconstructive and analytical westerns of its time period. Certainly nothing like The Searchers and no, that isn't its theme, baby doll. Its theme is the legend vs. accurate history debate and the process by which a myth is built.So my interpretation is wrong because I make reference to the plot and characters? Maybe had I been more vague and abstract, I would've come closer to what the film is getting at. Obviously I don't mean to quarrel with your reading of the film (it's right there in the dialogue: "When fact becomes legend, print the legend"), but I'm not sure how our various interpretations are incompatible. Of course, you're trying to make the point that the film is deconstructing the myth of the west, and I'm not sure what's being deconstructed when it's still John Wayne who saves the day.