MC Yearly Consensus - 1959

[Eleven]

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 thread is locked, 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. The 400 Blows
2. Ballad of a Soldier
3. Hiroshima, mon amour
4. Ben-Hur
5. The World of Apu

[Eleven]

1. Rio Bravo
2. The 400 Blows
3. North by Northwest
4. Shadows
5. Some Like it Hot

HMs: Pickpocket, Black Orpheus, Nazarin, Hiroshima, mon amour.

[MadMan]

1. Rio Bravo
2. North By Northwest
3. Sleeping Beauty
4. House On Haunted Hill

[Watashi]

1. The 400 Blows
2. North by Northwest
3. Pickpocket
4. Anatomy of a Murder
5. Sleeping Beauty

[Derek]

1. Human Condition I: No Greater Love (Masaki Kobayashi)
2. North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock)
3. Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks)
4. Pickpocket (Robert Bresson)
5. Human Condition II: The Road to Eternity (Masaki Kobayashi)
______________________________ _____

6. The 400 Blows (Francois Truffaut)
7. The World of Apu (Satyajit Ray)
8. Some Like it Hot (Billy Wilder)
9. Anatomy of a Murder (Otto Preminger)
10. Night Train (Jerzy Kawalerowicz)

[Kurious Jorge v3.1]

1. Hiroshima mon Amour (Resnais)
2. Night Train (Kawalerowicz)
3. Good Morning (Ozu)
4. Ballad of a Soldier (Chukhrai)
5. Black Orpheus (Camus)
------------------
6. Floating Weeds (Ozu)
7. "When Angels Fall" (Polanski)
8. North by Northwest (Hitchcock)
9. Two Men in Manhattan (Melville)
10. The 400 Blows (Truffaut)

Amazing year.

[Russ]

1. Plan 9 from Outer Space
2. Imitation of Life
3. North by Northwest
4. Anatomy of a Murder
5. Black Orpheus

[ledfloyd]

this is an amazing year.

1. Rio Bravo
2. Hiroshima, Mon Amour
3. The 400 Blows
4. Some Like it Hot
5. North by Northwest

maybe i'll see pickpocket in the next couple days. i wish the apu films were on dvd.

[Yxklyx]

1. North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock)
2. Black Orpheus (Marcel Camus)
3. Night Train (Jerzy Kawalerowicz)
4. Shadows (John Cassavetes)
5. The Diary of Anne Frank (George Stevens)

6. Compulsion (Richard Fleischer)
7. The 400 Blows (Francois Truffaut)
8. Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder)
9. Ben-Hur (William Wyler)
10. The World of Apu (Satyajit Ray)

[Philosophe_rouge]

Very good year

1. Some Like it Hot
2. Imitation of Life
3. Rio Bravo
4. North by Northwest
5. Sleeping Beauty

[ledfloyd]

leaving shadows off the list was hard.

[Mysterious Dude]

1. The 400 Blows
2. Ballad of a Soldier
3. The World of Apu
4. Ben Hur
5. Imitation of Life

6. Pickpocket
7. Tiger Bay
8. Hiroshima Mon Amour
9. Bucket of Blood
10. Some Like It Hot

[soitgoes...]

1. North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock)
2. The Human Condition I (Masaki Kobayashi)
3. Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder)
4. The World of Apu (Satyajit Ray)
5. Ride Lonesome (Budd Boetticher)
-------------------------------------------
6. Ballad of a Soldier (Grigori Chukhrai)
7. À double tour (Claude Chabrol)
8. Fires on the Plain (Kon Ichikawa)
9. The Lamp (Roman Polanski)
10. Our Man in Havana (Carol Reed)

[EyesWideOpen]

1. Anatomy of a Murder
2. North by Northwest
3. Some Like it Hot
4. The 400 Blows
5. A Bucket of Blood

[baby doll]

1. Pickpocket (Robert Bresson)
2. Anatomy of a Murder (Otto Preminger)
3. Imitation of Life (Douglas Sirk)
4. Les Quatre cents coups (François Truffaut)
5. The Tiger of Eschnapur & The Indian Tomb (Fritz Lang)
6. Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks)
7. Hiroshima mon amour (Alain Resnais)
8. Floating Weeds (Yasujiro Ozu)
9. NazarÃ*n (Luis Buñuel)
10. Shadows (John Cassavetes)

[Eleven]

5. The Tiger of Eschnapur & The Indian Tomb (Fritz Lang)

I was blown away by the first half, and if I can get to the second during this week, they may make their ways onto my ballot.

[origami_mustache]

1. The Human Condition Part I: No Greater Love
2. Hiroshima mon amour
3. Pickpocket
4. The 400 Blows
5. The Human Condition II: The Road to Eternity

6. Some Like It Hot
7. Shadows
8. Ballad of a Soldier
9. Ben-Hur
10. North By Northwest

[Melville]

1. Imitation of Life
2. Some Like it Hot
3. The 400 Blows
4. North by Northwest

[Boner M]

1. The 400 Blows
2. North By Northwest
3. Pickpocket
4. A Bucket of Blood
5. Rio Bravo

[Derek]

Maybe this will finally motivate me to watch The Human Condition trilogy this week.

It's definitely worth the time, though I still haven't seen the third part since Netflix made them unavailable soon after I rented the second. At least I have KG to bail me out now.

[Kurious Jorge v3.1]

It's definitely worth the time, though I still haven't seen the third part since Netflix made them unavailable soon after I rented the second. At least I have KG to bail me out now.

Coming to Criterion by the end of the year.

[Derek]

Coming to Criterion by the end of the year.

Great news! I guess I'll hold off and rewatch the first two before going on to the third.

[Raiders]

1. Pickpocket
2. Ride Lonesome
3. A Bucket of Blood
4. Rio Bravo
5. Anatomy of a Murder

Sorry Disney.

[dreamdead]

1 Hiroshima, Mon Amour
2 The 400 Blows
3 Pickpocket
4 Imitation of Life
5 Shadows

[Weeping_Guitar]

1. The 400 Blows
2. North by Northwest
3. Some Like It Hot
4. Rio Bravo
5. Sleeping Beauty

[Kurosawa Fan]

1. Black Orpheus
2. Some Like it Hot
3. Anatomy of a Murder
4. Ballad of a Soldier
5. Compulsion

[Grouchy]

1. Rio Bravo
2. Pickpocket
3. Hiroshima, mon amour
4. The 400 Blows
5. North by Northwest

[monolith94]

1. Sleeping Beauty
2. Hiroshima, mon amour
3. The 400 Blows
4. Some Like it Hot
5. Darby O'Gill and the Little People

HMs: North By Northwest,Ben-Hur

[Sven]

1. Black Orpheus

I remember making you watch that. Most excellent that you regard it in such high esteem. I feel like I've affected someone's life for the better.

[Duncan]

1. The 400 Blows
2. Floating Weeds
3. North by Northwest
4. Sleeping Beauty

[Kurosawa Fan]

I remember making you watch that. Most excellent that you regard it in such high esteem. I feel like I've affected someone's life for the better.

Indeed you have. Now post your list with said film on top so we can try to get it into the top ten. I'm nearly depressed at its poor showing thus far.

[Sven]

Indeed you have. Now post your list with said film on top so we can try to get it into the top ten. I'm nearly depressed at its poor showing thus far.

I've not really had the intention on participating in these yearly tallies, but because you specially requested it, here I go:

(using other lists as my only source of eligible pictures)
1. Black Orpheus
2. Some Like It Hot
3. The Indian Epic

[Eleven]

Top Songs of 1959:

1. "The Battle Of New Orleans," Johnny Horton
2. "Mack The Knife," Bobby Darin
3. "Personality," Lloyd Price
4. "Venus," Frankie Avalon
5. "Lonely Boy," Paul Anka
6. "Dream Lover," Bobby Darin
7. "The Three Bells," Browns
8. "Come Softly To Me," Fleetwoods
9. "Kansas City," Wilbert Harrison
10. "Mr. Blue," Fleetwoods

source: musicoutfitters.com

[Yxklyx]

Top Songs of 1959:

1. "The Battle Of New Orleans," Johnny Horton
2. "Mack The Knife," Bobby Darin


Something beat out Mack the Knife? What is The Battle Of New Orleans?

[Sycophant]

Something beat out Mack the Knife? What is The Battle Of New Orleans?It's a badass country song about the Battle of New Orleans.

[Spinal]

It's a badass country song about the Battle of New Orleans.

Great song. Deserving of its placement.

[Yum-Yum]

1. Imitation of Life
2. Some Like It Hot
3. A Bucket of Blood
4. Suddenly, Last Summer
5. North by Northwest

[Ezee E]

1. Ben-Hur
2. Some Like It Hot
3. North by Northwest
4. Anatomy of a Murder
5. The 400 Blows

Jees, impressive year.

[Spinal]

Time Man of the Year for 1959:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/more/1101600104_400.jpg

Dwight D. Eisenhower

[MadMan]

I would have voted for Ike back then. He's the last great president this country has seen. So far anyways.

[koji]

1. Pickpocket (Bresson)
2. Fires on the Plain (Ichikawa)
3. Some Like It Hot (Wilder)
4. The 400 Blows (Francois Truffaut)
5. Anatomy of a Murder (Otto Preminger)
****************************** ************
6. Room at the Top (Jack Clayton)
7. Floating Weeds (Yasujiro Ozu)
8. Hiroshima Mon Amour (Alain Renais)
9. Pork Chop Hill (Lewis Milestone)
10. The Fugitive Kind (Sidney Lumet)

[koji]

I'm looking foward to seeing the Human Condition. We should have a "do-over" after that comes out on DVD. :lol:

[Spinal]

The following television programs debuted in 1959:

Rawhide
Bonanza
The Twilight Zone
The Untouchables

The #1 TV show in the Nielsen ratings for 1959:

Gunsmoke

[Eleven]

24 hours to get a ballot in and then results.

[Eleven]

Starting up results in a sec.

[Eleven]

#9 (tie)

http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/3073/sleepingbeautyeo2.jpg

Sleeping Beauty

Director: Clyde Geronimi

Country: USA

A beautiful princess born in a faraway kingdom is destined by a terrible curse to prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and fall into a deep sleep which can only be awakened by her true love's first kiss.

The first Disney animated feature to be created for the 70mm format. Much of the musical score is based on Tchaikovsky's ballet of the same title. This was the last Disney feature to have cels inked by hand. In active production from 1951 until the end of 1958, it set a record, later tied by The Black Cauldron, for being the Disney animated film with the longest production schedule.

“The picture is so nihilistic that its happy ending feels more coma-dream than fairy-tale resolution, something like the conclusion to Taxi Driver; in its sensuous, expressionistic world, the wicked are omnipotent and inescapable.� --Bill Chambers

[Eleven]

#9 (tie)

http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/8017/blackorpheuscz9.jpg

Black Orpheus

Director: Marcel Camus

Country: Brazil / France / Italy

A retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth, set during the time of the Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro.

Earned the Palm d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, as well as named Best Foreign Film at the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes. Directly based on the play Orfeu da Conceição by Vinicius de Moraes. A young boy (Carlinhos Pandeiro de Ouro) who dances across the screen playing pandeiro grew up to win a national pandeiro-playing contest and play his instrument around the world. Marpessa Dawn, the actress who played Eurydice, was not actually from Brazil, but rather Pittsburgh.

“Taking the ancient Greek myth of a youth who travels to the land of the dead to bring back the woman he loves, and transporting it to the slums of modern day Rio de Janeiro, this bittersweet romantic tragedy has charmed audiences the world over with its beauty, color, and—above all—its music. In fact, so important is Black Orpheus’ musical dimension that you might say the film’s roots aren’t in images but in sounds.� --David Ehrenstein

[dreamdead]

Sigh. I look at that image of Sleeping Beauty and realize I need to watch this film again. And BO has always been marginalized in my queue. I'll work on that...

[Eleven]

#8

http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/9269/anatomyofamurdersc6.jpg

Anatomy of a Murder

Director: Otto Preminger

Country: USA

An army lieutenant shoots a bar owner for allegedly raping his wife. A trial ensues, in which his attempts to convince the jury that the lieutenant is innocent of first degree murder because of he was the victim of an "irresistible impulse." The plot is complicated by the nature of the criminal and defendants, none of whom is purely good or evil, but who all have a complex relationship to the law and to society.

Won Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival. James Stewart's father was so offended by the film, which he deemed "a dirty picture", that he took out an ad in his local newspaper telling people not to see it. Upon its original release, the film was banned in Chicago, Illinois. Music by Duke Ellington.

“Probably the finest pure trial movie ever made.� --UCLA law professor Michael Asimow

[Eleven]

#7

http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/1730/imitationoflifeyq6.jpg

Imitation of Life

Director: Douglas Sirk

Country: USA

Lora Meredith, a white widowed single mother with dreams of becoming a famous actress, takes in Annie Johnson, a black widowed single mother who becomes a nanny for Lora's daughter. Although Lora eventually becomes a successful stage and screen star, she sacrifices a healthy relationship with her daughter. In addition, Annie's light-complexioned daughter Sarah Jane causes her mother much pain and heartache as she attempts to pass for white and shuns both her heritage and her mother's love.

It was Universal-International's top-grossing film of 1959, and it remained Universal's most successful film until the release of Airport in 1970. Remake of John Stahl’s 1934 film of the same title. Lana Turner took no salary and worked for 50% of the film's profits, which earned her over $2 million (setting a record for an actress at the time). Sirk’s last Hollywood film.

“Sirk demonstrates a Jamesian eye for nuances of inauthenticity, and he attacks the ideology of love: his lovers act as if they had the right to control the beloved. His characters redeem themselves only in emotional collapse. In its stylistic mastery and unremitting pessimism, Imitation of Life summed up Sirk's career.� --Chris Fujiwara

[Eleven]

#6

http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/9417/hiroshimamonamourwm6.jpg

Hiroshima mon amour

Director: Alain Resnais

Country: France / Japan

The story of a French actress who performs the role of a nurse in a film being shot in post-war Hiroshima. There she meets a Japanese man, and they become lovers. Using flashbacks intercut into the present day love story - the couple's meetings in hotel rooms, restaurants, etc. - the woman tells of her experiences during the Second World War in France, where she was involved with a young German soldier during the German occupation, and the consequences when the war came to an end.

The producers stipulated that one main character must be French and the other be Japanese, and also required that the film be shot in both countries employing film crews comprising technicians from each. Eiji Okada (playing Lui) did not know any French and was coached in pronouncing each syllable and memorized that order. Jean-Luc Godard described the film's inventiveness as "Faulkner plus Stravinsky" and celebrated its originality, calling it "the first film without any cinematic references."

“Appropriately for a film about the anxiety of irresolution, the end doesn’t tie up loose ends as much as it suggests a new and sober starting point. It’s a moment of realization that feels neither tragic nor affirmative, just crushingly exact. But there is another endpoint, a spiritual one, and it comes early…We are looking at shots of a rebuilt Hiroshima, a tourist attraction less than fifteen years after it had been levelled, probably filled with people like Riva’s actress, unconsciously and mistakenly expecting to see their own personal tragedies rendered insignificant in the shadow of a monumental tragedy. Resnais’ beautifully calibrated images move in sinuous counterpoint to Duras’––and Riva’s––verbal music.� --Kent Jones

[Eleven]

#5

http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/2733/riobravonp3.jpg

Rio Bravo

Director: Howard Hawks

Country: USA

A small-town sheriff in the American West enlists the help of a cripple, a drunk, and a young gunfighter in his efforts to hold in jail the brother of the local bad guy.

The film was made as a response to High Noon. There are only two close-ups in the movie: Joe firing his gun and Dude's hands trying to roll a cigarette. Montgomery Clift turned down the role of Dude, because he didn't want to work again with John Wayne and Walter Brennan, as well as due to their politics. Remade as El Dorado and Rio Lobo, and inspired John Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13.

“A work of extraordinary psychological insight and aesthetic perception…Hawks has made his film so that the insight can pass unnoticed without disturbing the audience that has come to see a Western like all the others.� --Jean-Luc Godard

[Philosophe_rouge]

Happy Imitation of Life made it, like all the other choices I've seen too. YAY!

[Eleven]

#4

http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/9476/pickpocketcg9.jpg

Pickpocket

Director: Robert Bresson

Country: France

Michel takes up picking pockets as a hobby, and is arrested almost immediately, giving him the chance to reflect on the morality of crime. After his release, though, his mother dies, and he rejects the support of friends Jeanne and Jacques in favour of returning to pickpocketing (after taking lessons from an expert), because he realises that it's the only way he can express himself.

Inspired by Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. Directors Theo Angelopoulos, Richard Linklater, and Paul Schrader included the film on their ballots for the 2002 Sight & Sound top films poll.

“In Pickpocket, the society whose laws Michel breaks is far more criminal than he is—not technically, not legally, but spiritually: this is Bresson’s archly comic irony, heavily veiled in nocturnal chiaroscuro. His film’s tragedy, which is finally more important, is that Michel would like to feel guilty for his crimes, and would even like to love his mother, or Jeanne. But like the humans of the future that Bresson so clearly envisioned, who are already living among us, Michel can’t feel a thing, and couldn’t love anyone if his life depended on it. The sad truth is, it doesn’t.� --Gary Indiana

[Eleven]

#3

http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/6087/somelikeithotpm0.jpg

Some Like It Hot

Director: Billy Wilder

Country: USA

When two musicians witness a mob hit, they flee the state in an all female band disguised as women. ‘Nuff said.

Named the funniest movie of all time by the American Film Institute. Marilyn Monroe wanted the film to be shot in color (her contract stipulated that all her films were to be in color), but Billy Wilder convinced her to let it be shot in black and white when costume tests revealed that the makeup that Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon wore gave their faces a green tinge. A preview audience laughed so hard in the scene where Lemmon announces his engagement that a lot of the dialogue was missed. It had to be re-shot with pauses (and the maraca gimmick) added. Upon its original release, Kansas banned the film from being shown in the state, explaining that cross-dressing was "too disturbing for Kansans."

“Wilder's 1959 comedy is one of the enduring treasures of the movies, a film of inspiration and meticulous craft, a movie that's about nothing but sex and yet pretends it's about crime and greed. It is underwired with Wilder's cheerful cynicism, so that no time is lost to soppiness and everyone behaves according to basic Darwinian drives. When sincere emotion strikes these characters, it blindsides them: Curtis thinks he wants only sex, Monroe thinks she wants only money, and they are as astonished as delighted to find they want only each other.� --Roger Ebert

[Eleven]

#2

http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/1541/northbynorthwestzr0.jpg
Where there ain't no crops.

North By Northwest

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Country: USA

A hapless New York advertising executive is mistaken for a government agent by a group of foreign spies, and is pursued across the country while he looks for a way to survive.

James Stewart wanted to star in this film, but Hitchcock claimed Vertigo’s lack of box office success was because Stewart “looked too old�; he then cast Cary Grant, four years Stewart’s senior. Hitchcock couldn't get permission to film inside the UN, so footage was made of the interior of the building using a hidden camera, and the rooms were later recreated on a soundstage. The stretch of road where the famous cropduster scene is set is the same stretch where actor James Dean died in an automobile accident. The train station scene was shot in New York City's Grand Central Terminal; among the onlookers watching the scene being filmed were future directors George A. Romero and Larry Cohen.

“North by Northwest is more than a clearing house of Hitchcock's auteur tendencies: it's neither a self-homage nor a shrine, but rather a devilishly complex pre-post-modern beast rumbling along on its style and self-knowledge with an energy more exhilarating than enervating. Its set-pieces are self-contained and wondrously illogical, and at the end comes the understanding that were you ever given a moment for contemplation, the whole confection would fall like a house of cards.� --Walter Chaw

[Sycophant]

Man. One of these days I'm going to give North by Northwest another (fourth? fifth?) chance. It's been a few years, but last I saw it, I was pretty convinced it was the worst of the ten or so Hitch films I've seen.

[Eleven]

#1

http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/5347/the400blowsyz3.jpg

The 400 Blows

Director: François Truffaut

Country: France

A young Parisian boy, Antoine Doinel, neglected by his derelict parents, skips school, sneaks into movies, runs away from home, steals things, and tries (disastrously) to return them. Like most kids, he gets into more trouble for things he thinks are right than for his actual trespasses. Unlike most kids, he gets whacked with the big stick. He inhabits a Paris of dingy flats, seedy arcades, abandoned factories, and workaday streets, a city that seems big and full of possibilities only to a child's eye.

Won Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival. The title of the film (Les Quatre cents coups) comes from the French idiom "faire les quatre cents coups", meaning "to raise hell.� Truffaut himself is seen riding next to Antoine in the centrifuge ride at the fair, and can then be seen smoking a cigarette just outside the ride. Followed by the further adventures of Antoine Doinel, including the short film Antoine and Colette, as well as the features Stolen Kisses, Bed & Board, and Love on the Run.

“That The 400 Blows is a record—even an exorcism—of personal experience is first alluded to in Antoine’s scribbling of self-justifying doggerel on the wall while being punished. On a larger scale, we can see the film as Truffaut’s poetic mark on the wall, or his attempt to even the score; by the last scene, the sea washes away Antoine’s footprints as the film 'cleans the slate'—although that final image remains indelible.� --Annette Insdorf

[Eleven]

Results:

1. The 400 Blows (66)
2. North By Northwest (61.5)
3. Some Like It Hot (47.5)
4. Pickpocket (36)
5. Rio Bravo (35.5)
6. Hiroshima mon amour (29)
7. Imitation of Life (27)
8. Anatomy of a Murder (26.5)
9t. Black Orpheus (19)
9t. Sleeping Beauty (19)

Almost there:

The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (14)
Ballad of a Soldier (14)
A Bucket of Blood (12.5)
Ben-Hur (11)

Fun Fact:
The 400 Blows and North By Northwest received 17 mentions each.

[baby doll]

Man. One of these days I'm going to give North by Northwest another (fourth? fifth?) chance. It's been a few years, but last I saw it, I was pretty convinced it was the worst of the ten or so Hitch films I've seen.I don't know about worst (have you seen Saboteur or To Catch a Thief or The Man Who Knew Too Much [1956]?), but it's a minor work to be sure.

[Sycophant]

I don't know about worst (have you seen Saboteur or To Catch a Thief or The Man Who Knew Too Much [1956]?), but it's a minor work to be sure.
Oh, good point. It would be the second worst, because I flat out disliked [i]The Man Who Knew Too Much[i]. The other two you mention I haven't seen.

[Kurious Jorge v3.1]

bah! Hiroshima mon amour owns this year.

[Sven]

High five, KF!

[ledfloyd]

bah! Hiroshima mon amour owns this year.
i like rio bravo better, but hiroshima is way too low. i'll give people the benefit of the doubt and assume they haven't seen it. overall though, great year. i've seen the top 8 and think they're all top notch.

[Yxklyx]

This was a pretty poor top 10 from my view. I mean they're all fine movies but...

1. The 400 Blows (66) - #7
2. North By Northwest (61.5) - #1
3. Some Like It Hot (47.5) - #8
4. Pickpocket (36) - #20
5. Rio Bravo (35.5) - #16
6. Hiroshima mon amour (29) - #18
7. Imitation of Life (27) - #13
8. Anatomy of a Murder (26.5) - #15
9t. Black Orpheus (19) - #2
9t. Sleeping Beauty (19) - not seen

[soitgoes...]

I've seen 26 total films from 1959, and I'm surprised that only 2 from my top 10 made it in this top 10. Hiroshima mon amour, Imitation of Life, Anatomy of a Murder, and Black Orpheus are all movies I admit I need to see, but The Human Condition I, The World of Apu, Ride Lonesome, and Fires on the Plain are movies you guys need to check out.

[Kurosawa Fan]

High five, KF!

*high fives*

:pritch:

[ledfloyd]

I've seen 26 total films from 1959, and I'm surprised that only 2 from my top 10 made it in this top 10. Hiroshima mon amour, Imitation of Life, Anatomy of a Murder, and Black Orpheus are all movies I admit I need to see, but The Human Condition I, The World of Apu, Ride Lonesome, and Fires on the Plain are movies you guys need to check out.
if the boetticher, human condition and apu film were on dvd i would watch them right now! i'll put fires on the plain on my to see list.

[MadMan]

So far Dial M For Murder is the worst Hitchcock film I have ever seen. I've only viewed 11 films of his though.

[MacGuffin]

So far Dial M For Murder is the worst Hitchcock film I have ever seen. I've only viewed 11 films of his though.

I probably agree with this. At least the conclusion was satisfying though. The rest, however, was simply not energetic in the least. Overly talky, and obviously from a play not translated well to the screen. It wasn't all that visually appealing either, I don't believe.

[Philosophe_rouge]

I enjoy Murder, but it's not really anything special. My least favourite is Family Plot. UGH

[Eleven]

Topaz, anyone? Except for one sequence, Torn Curtain? I'm generally lenient with his late period stuff, but those are tough to slog through.

At least Family Plot has Black and Dern, and Dial M (#236 on the IMDb 250??!) is simply competent filmmaking, which is to say it could have been done by the Master in his sleep, and is absolutely not worth having any strong feelings about one way or the other.

[Sven]

The worst Hitchcock is so obviously Suspicion that it's not even an issue. Case closed forever. Also, Mr. and Mrs. Smith is quite lame.

[Qrazy]

I enjoy Murder, but it's not really anything special. My least favourite is Family Plot. UGH

I thought you spoke fondly of it in the film discussion thread? My mistake. I agree it's fairly bad.

[Philosophe_rouge]

I thought you spoke fondly of it in the film discussion thread? My mistake. I agree it's fairly bad.
No, it's the only Hitchcock film I outright dislike. I did single it out though.


The worst Hitchcock is so obviously Suspicion that it's not even an issue. Case closed forever. Also, Mr. and Mrs. Smith is quite lame.
I kinda like Mr. and Mrs. Smith, sorta

[Derek]

Topaz, anyone? Except for one sequence, Torn Curtain? I'm generally lenient with his late period stuff, but those are tough to slog through.

Topaz is easily the worst I've seen, though I'm honestly not much of a fan of the '56 version (haven't seen the original) of The Man Who Knew Too Much either. Torn Curtain isn't so great, but it has a couple good scenes that make it passable.

[MadMan]

I probably agree with this. At least the conclusion was satisfying though. The rest, however, was simply not energetic in the least. Overly talky, and obviously from a play not translated well to the screen. It wasn't all that visually appealing either, I don't believe."Murder" gets a 50 from me though. Simply because yes it is unspectacular, boring, yet competently made as Eleven pointed out.

[Sycophant]

I haven't seen Murder since I was in high school, but I remember finding it terribly thrilling and technically top-notch.

Of course, I was easier then. I'll have to revisit it. Maybe one of these days, I'll splurge on that sexy WB Hitchcock box set.

[Eleven]

Oh yeah, The Paradine Case. That one's so forgettable I forgot all about it.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Saboteur and Marnie are tops on my list of bad Hitchcock.

[Raiders]

Marnie... tops on my list of bad Hitchcock.

I'm not saying anything, but you know. You know I'm not happy.

[Kurosawa Fan]

I'm not saying anything, but you know. You know I'm not happy.

:cool:

Perhaps in the future I'll limit it to just Saboteur. Then again I seem to remember a comment about Bob Dylan a while back... on second thought, it'll stay.

[Raiders]

:cool:

Perhaps in the future I'll limit it to just Saboteur. Then again I seem to remember a comment about Bob Dylan a while back... on second thought, it'll stay.

You mean this post?


... In unrelated news, Bob Dylan is the greatest musical artist of all-time.

Indeed.

[Grouchy]

Topaz, anyone? Except for one sequence, Torn Curtain? I'm generally lenient with his late period stuff, but those are tough to slog through.

At least Family Plot has Black and Dern, and Dial M (#236 on the IMDb 250??!) is simply competent filmmaking, which is to say it could have been done by the Master in his sleep, and is absolutely not worth having any strong feelings about one way or the other.
This I can fully agree with.

[Kurosawa Fan]

You mean this post?



Indeed.

LIES! You've already stated for the record your preference for Lou Reed! You aren't backing your way out of Marnie bashing.

[MadMan]

Lou Reed over Bob Dylan? That's just crazy talk, man.

[Raiders]

LIES! You've already stated for the record your preference for Lou Reed! You aren't backing your way out of Marnie bashing.

I gave a nod to Velvet Underground, of which Reed is a primary influence, but I wouldn't put him in particular over Dylan. Leonard Cohen however, I would.

[Sven]

I kinda like Mr. and Mrs. Smith, sorta

I'm a moderate to huge fan of both of its stars, but it makes no sense and lacks any kind of tension (ironic!).

[Philosophe_rouge]

I'm a moderate to huge fan of both of its stars, but it makes no sense and lacks any kind of tension (ironic!).
Heh, this may be true, but I felt a lot of tension because I had a really bad DVD. Knowing if my DVD player would blow up provided that added spice

[MadMan]

Thanks to TCM I have a chance to watch Jamica Inn. Should I watch it? I think that same night they're also showing the 1934 version of The Man Who Knew Too Much, which I will definiently be seeing.

[monolith94]

I gave a nod to Velvet Underground, of which Reed is a primary influence, but I wouldn't put him in particular over Dylan. Leonard Cohen however, I would.
Really? Leonard Cohen?

I'd go with the B-52s.

[Spinal]

Really? Leonard Cohen?

I'd go with the B-52s.

When, oh when, will someone tell the Fred Schneider story?

[Kurosawa Fan]

I'd go with the B-52s.

:|