The 1964 Mini-List

[swo17]

Added. Are there any of these in particular you think people here would like?

[the preacher]

Added. Are there any of these in particular you think people here would like?

Nope, they are all destined to be orphans.

Whoever voted for Il demonio in 1963 can find a close relative now with O Crime de Aldeia Velha.
Noir fans should know that Geomeun meori is widely considered the most 'noiristic' film in the history of Korean cinema.
Ana Mariscal's El camino, adaptation of the homonymous novel by Miguel Delibes, is undoubtedly the best Spanish film of its time directed by a woman.

[therewillbeblus]

Whoever voted for Il demonio in 1963 can find a close relative now with O Crime de Aldeia Velha

I'll try to get a viewing in before deadline, thanks!

[alacal2]

King and Country

Passionate, angry and sorrowful indictment of war, this seems to be fairly low down in the Losey canon and never even made 'orphan' status on the board's Wars List. It packed a huge punch with me and seems ripe for re-evaluation and restoration (Indicator perhaps?). Brilliant performances by Bogarde and Courtenay (that won him Best Actor at Venice). Relentless close-ups make for an immersive ecperience. Losey described it as "a class conversation in which the officer is educated by the boys's simplicity'. I can't shake off the mud and the rain.

[Black Hat]

Can we please add Yoru no henrin and Comizi d'amore, thanks!

[swo17]

I've added the first one, but I have the Pasolini as 1965

[Black Hat]

Ah, Letterboxd has it as '64.

[therewillbeblus]

Whoever voted for Il demonio in 1963 can find a close relative now with O Crime de Aldeia Velha

You may have saved one of your orphans with a one-word writeup! I really liked this, though it's crucial that you mentioned it in reference to Il demonio, because they're so closely tied and yet coming from opposite angles of examination. While the ostracized main character is the core focus in Il demonio, she's practically nonexistent here, and by the time we reach the halfway mark of O Crime de Aldeia Velha, it sinks in that this film is all about the townsfolk who are often kept in the peripheries. O Crime de Aldeia Velha examines them struggling with their powerlessness and the resulting insecurity over intangible stressors and unexplained occurrences in a faux-collectivist community, whereas those same vehicles of harm were pitched as cold alienating fences in Il demonio. Obviously those oppressors were experiencing that unbearable sense of impotence and fear, but Il demonio had little interest in exploring their points of view, just seeing them as the oppressors for the purpose of exploring the psyche of the oppressed. This film's interest lies in exploring fear in depth on the behalf of those doing the alienating vs. the mental health of the target. That’s happening here a bit I guess, but it’s not the subject until the film is over halfway through, and even then she’s used as a relatively thin canvas for someone struggling just as the townspeople were like cardboard cutouts of abusers in the previous film! So they’re very similar stories but with entirely different vantage points of honed interest. I could see this being a strong double bill to form a kind of Rashomon approach to subjectivity on the part of the filmmakers between movies, vs characters within one.

In fact, I recommend viewing them that way- and I really think this film works as well as it does if one watches it following Il demonio, and I don't imagine it would work quite as well in the reverse. I feel like one needs to first empathize with the victim before entertaining empathizing with those victimizing, but I really appreciated how these principals aren’t cookie-cutter evil like Il demonio, instead recognizing that their hostility is borne from understandable anxiety. Even some of the conscientious and gentle characters approach the target with convictions that ‘other’ her- they just want to make sense of a senseless world.

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Though the finale’s pivot into the victim’s subjectivity -as she’s burned to death by a collectivist group of Christians ironically operating like a cult of witches- is harrowing and essentially discredits all of their dignified motives via the exploitation of their irredeemable actions in one cutting setpiece! Absolutely brilliant, and one of the more chilling witch-horror sequences I've seen; maybe the most unsettling.

[the preacher]

Glad you liked it.

[TMDaines]

Can you add Il magnifico cornuto and Son?

[ryannichols7]

I gotta admit on my "to watch" list not as many titles jump out at me as they did for the previous two years. I've dragged a little more but pushed on, ten days in. here are some thoughts on what I've watched..

A Hard Day's Night: I last saw this as a kid and thought it was just The Beatles being chased by a bunch of shrill, screaming girls. as an adult, it's an absolute riot of a good time, being one of the most purely fun and energetic films I've ever seen. Trainspotting is a movie I hold very near and dear and since I last saw AHDN I became very acquainted with it, so it was nice to see the movie it basically took the entire formula from. it does get a bit scattershot at times, with Richard Lester seemingly throwing every trick in the book on display, but like Man With a Movie Camera, this is one of those rare instances of that technique actually working. not to mention the film is hilarious and the songs are incredible, but you knew that. also a phenomenal movie to test out a brand new 4K UHD/OLED setup with.

Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors: worked for me a lot better than Color of Pomegranates cause I could see a little more of what Parajanov was going for here, but like that film, "figuring it out" totally isn't necessary as much as just taking in how bold and audacious every shot is. I think this would make a phenomenal double feature with Letter Never Sent, another film featuring the snowy wilderness and cinematography that goes way out on a limb for the sake of pure cinema, which is what I felt this was.

A Jester's Tale: fourth Karel Zeman film and probably my second favorite (after Invention for Destruction) - I feel Journey to the Beginning of Time is too primitive and Baron Munchausen was too scattershot. this felt just right, a very focused and enjoyable story, with the director's trademark wonder on full display. I think it's a much funnier film than I've seen previous from Zeman, and I admit it's really funny to see the anti-war themes so prevalent in the other Czechoslovak New Wave films invade his work here as well.

Three Outlaw Samurai: my first exposure to director Hideo Gosha and one I've been curious about since its initial Criterion release in..2012? so a decade of curiosity and now following through on it, gotta love these projects. anyway, it gets a little too hyperviolent and takes a lot from other samurai films, while giving us really cardboard cutout-y characters, so it all feels a bit empty. but it looks incredibly gorgeous (if like me, you bow at the altar of Japanese 2.35 usage, this is essential viewing) and moves quickly, so its fun enough.

All These Women: had really low expectations due to the whole narrative of this being Bergman's worst film. it is incredibly kooky and really all over the place, but I will admit plenty of bias here. doing Federico Fellini's filmography in full (something I need to finish) made this all the more amusing, as you get to see Ingmar Bergman of all people do a Fellini send up, taking cues from...Tex Avery? it's laughably pretentious and utterly ridiculous in parts, also reminding me of Agnes Varda's 101 Nights but at least I found this to actually be quite funny at times. the fact that Bergman made this in between The Silence and Persona, two of his heaviest films, is a grade A act of trolling. call me crazy but I'd sooner rewatch this than The Virgin Spring or Through a Glass Darkly any day - at least I actually have fun watching this. also a total treat to see Sven Nykvist leap into color and use it so brilliantly, if nothing else you'd be insane to not call it a pretty film.

as for stuff I won't revisit these next few weeks but will vote for and should urge you to do so (Dr. Strangelove and Red Desert probably do not need my praise): Pale Flower is going to be my #1 for sure, and was my #1 for the decade until I finally saw Tokyo Olympiad last year. to me, I'm not sure any film combines style and substance so effortlessly. it looks cool, it feels cool to watch it, but it's also emotionally affecting and really helps you get inside the mind of some incredibly interesting characters. an incredible document of tension, addiction, and uncertainty, and one of my all time favorite lead performances from Ryo Ikebe (who is equally brilliant in Ozu's supremely underrated Early Spring). it's a Criterion release I never see anyone discuss anymore or kids pick up in their hauls on reddit, but its easily one of my favorite films they ever put out. it's a movie on the surface about gaming, but below it is a game of human nature - two people with a ton of passion, both refusing to show it, and looking for the will to live. I could go on and on about it, truly, and have elsewhere (I don't think Letterboxd linking is encouraged but I have a long essay on there if anyone wants to PM me about it).

I watched Onibaba, Yearning, and Diamonds of the Night for the initial 60s project and really loved all three, have been looking forward to my second visits to each and may try and fit them in before the deadline so I have more substantial things to say. on the other hand, I didn't enjoy Woman in the Dunes at all, but due to the high praise of the movie and the fact that it was giving me a headache from the onset (Toru Takemitsu's blistering score is something you really gotta be in the mood for), I will aim to revisit it as well, especially since my girlfriend (mysticmatahari, who I'm trying to encourage to participate!) wants to see it. Ray's Charulata continues his sixties hot streak with maybe the best marital melodrama this side of The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice, and was my favorite of his films up until seeing The Big City.

sorry twbb but Marnie will not be revisited in time for the project (I did get the 4K box volume 2, so it'll be revisited at some point) but that isn't my kind of Hitchcock movie I guess, though I admit I really love

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the subtle ending the film has. it sets you up for something way more extreme and goes in the exact opposite direction!

I'll be back with more overwroughtness soon. dustybooks is going to be loaning me his copy of TAMI Show which I've never seen and really look forward to.

[swo17]

Can you add Il magnifico cornuto and Son?

Done. Why do you like these films?

[dustybooks]

I'm annoyed with myself for failing to write up the last few 1963 films I saw here, so I'll probably bump that thread as well if it doesn't annoy everyone, but just to ensure I'm really "up to date," I'll post about my first few '64 titles first.

The Pumpkin Eater (Clayton): I really love Room at the Top and also The Innocents, plus the cast here is tremendous so I had high hopes... but unfortunately it didn't play well for me, fixated on so many of the common themes of aging as being a sort of early death for women in this era with a strange focus on compulsive breeding added on. Anne Bancroft is great as always, but while Harold Pinter's script makes some gestures toward empathy and complexity, I never really felt I had a handle on who her character was or what she wanted. I enjoy seeing Peter Finch, too, but the flashback structure also renders his arc basically incomprehensible, a forced tragedy along the lines of Blue Valentine if anything.

The World of Henry Orient (Hill): Saw this once before back in 2004 when I used to tune into TCM every night of the week and loved its atmosphere, humor and sweetness. It only registers with me now how profound it is as an image of childhood friendship, and of the consequences of neglectful parenting -- a subject that, as some of my posts here may or may not have made clear, I'm probably unhealthily obsessed with. I had a jolting emotional reaction to two moments in particular:

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the line "One thing about unwanted children -- they soon learn to take care of themselves" and then, the very ending, which has such a winning quality of acceptance toward the passage of time that I wish was more common in depictions of growth and specifically the growth of young girls.

A wonderful, wonderful film.

The Best Man (Schaffner): A rather tiresome dilution of Advise and Consent, another inside-baseball politics movie focused here on a presidential primary race that's being fought out on the convention floor. I won't lie, I was entertained as I love this sort of intrigue and this era in general, but the connections to the earlier film extend even to the presence of Henry Fonda as a fallen-from-grace moderate savior and the use of a scandal over homosexuality as a major plot point. It's pretty forgettable but I thought Cliff Robertson, as the cutthroat opponent to Fonda and a sort of Joe Manchin figure, was excellent.

Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte (Aldrich): One of the most frustrating uses of a great cast I've ever seen, though having seen Baby Jane I can't say I didn't know what I was getting into. It never gets any better than the ridiculously lurid and gory opening sequence, which is funny since that's the scene that doesn't have the sniping back and forth of the two leads. I do think it's interesting to see Olivia de Havilland elevate her use of the duplicitous persona from The Heiress to cartoon-level. It's nutty to me that this was nominated for so many Oscars.

The T.A.M.I. Show (Binder): I'm a stalwart for '50s rock & roll but for me 1964 is maybe the moment of Utopian perfection for pop music, and this film shows why. Even with flaws like Chuck Berry being irritatingly cut off by Gerry & the Pacemakers and Smokey Robinson struggling with a headcold throughout (especially evident on "Mickey's Monkey"), nearly everyone here is at the top of their game and deliriously fun to watch, and a few of them (especially Marvin Gaye and Lesley Gore) appear to be having as much fun as the audience. Obviously James Brown's sequence is the one for the ages, but for me as a Beach Boys fan it's especially fun to see them intact in their original lineup and sounding extremely tight and enthusiastic just a couple of months ahead of Brian's retirement from the road. And the ratio of legends to non is truly alarming: just the two lesser Epstein-managed British Invasion bands plus the Barbarians, who I actually enjoy a lot (and for the garage band mythologists it's great to see Moulty drumming with his visible prosthetic). Everyone else, wow. My only problem is I wish I was there!

Since these are all American films I'll add that I watched Kwaidan for the first time last night and really liked it, but I'm not quite ready to elaborate just yet!

[swo17]

Speaking for everyone, it will not be annoying if you bump the 1963 thread

[bottlesofsmoke]

I loved Le Tigre aime la chair fraiche, I haven’t had this much fun watching a movie in a while. I’d seen Marie-Chantal contre le docteur Kha before and what I liked about that film was it managed to be both an effective spy film and funny, but not in the spoofy, silly way that so many 60s spy-comedies do. Well Le Tigre was like a much more potent version of that, I lost count of the amount of times I chuckled or laughed out loud, yet it is still a thrilling movie with several wonderful set pieces of suspense and action. I’m not getting my hopes up too greatly for the sequel - the bar is set high - but I’m still excited to see it.

Also swo, could you add Yasuzo Masumura‘s Manji / Swastika to the list? I believe it was brought up in the main 1960s thread. It’s likely to make my list. Masumura is really the perfect director for Tanizaki, and Manji exists at a perfect intersection of the writer’s interest in destructive sexual obsession and the director’s penchant for taboo-pushing, lurid visuals, and potent atmosphere. This film does that great melodrama thing, progressively spiraling out of control and growing increasingly intense and claustrophobic by taking advantage of the genre, it can be intentionally over-the-top and not worrying about how to reign it in for realisms sake. There’s a lot of interesting psychological material to unpack as well. I think fans of Masumura, melodrama, and other films based on Tanizaki, especially Odd Obsession and Irezumi, might be interested.

[domino harvey]

I loved Le Tigre aime la chair fraiche, I haven’t had this much fun watching a movie in a while. I’d seen Marie-Chantal contre le docteur Kha before and what I liked about that film was it managed to be both an effective spy film and funny, but not in the spoofy, silly way that so many 60s spy-comedies do. Well Le Tigre was like a much more potent version of that, I lost count of the amount of times I chuckled or laughed out loud, yet it is still a thrilling movie with several wonderful set pieces of suspense and action. I’m not getting my hopes up too greatly for the sequel - the bar is set high - but I’m still excited to see it.

It’s nowhere near as good as the first film, but it is in color and has Chabrol Hitchcocking it on-screen as a shark doctor (?!))

[swo17]

Also swo, could you add Yasuzo Masumura‘s Manji / Swastika to the list?

Added. Surprised I initially missed it

[therewillbeblus]

Also swo, could you add Yasuzo Masumura‘s Manji / Swastika to the list? I believe it was brought up in the main 1960s thread. It’s likely to make my list. Masumura is really the perfect director for Tanizaki, and Manji exists at a perfect intersection of the writer’s interest in destructive sexual obsession and the director’s penchant for taboo-pushing, lurid visuals, and potent atmosphere. This film does that great melodrama thing, progressively spiraling out of control and growing increasingly intense and claustrophobic by taking advantage of the genre, it can be intentionally over-the-top and not worrying about how to reign it in for realisms sake. There’s a lot of interesting psychological material to unpack as well. I think fans of Masumura, melodrama, and other films based on Tanizaki, especially Odd Obsession and Irezumi, might be interested.

Woah, I don't know how I missed it either- thanks for pointing out the blind spot! It's definitely a mess, but appropriately so- and has one of my favorite Masumura endings ever, perhaps only bested by The Wife Confesses'. My writeup from the 60s thread:

Manji is a twisted affair of psychosexual dynamics with an emphasis on the social component, especially during the final act as we arrive at a Pinteresque alternative to The Servant. Instead of the fragility of social roles leading to identity-diffusion via segregation, the group conforms to one goal masked under the guise of the only Truth they can tangibly know: that of potent emotion. As each person subscribes to an umbrellaed action, smiling but clearly not content (and not just because of what they're subscribing to!), we sense a surreal Lynchian dynamic of mismatched elated dispositions and aching psychological insides. It's a form of surrender securing these people together; if you're already vacuous and surrendering to your crises of self, might as well be in a collective!

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The final punchline -that one cannot bring themself to accept that they belong or are wanted even in death, when finality seals those concerns!- is an oily reflection of existential demise, reminding me of The Blackcoat's Daughter's twist on its genre.

[dustybooks]

swo, I'm curious if the Maysles' footage of the Beatles' initial trip to America may count for this. It was released in part as a telefilm called What's Happening! in 1964 (which I don't think has ever been on video, except probably as bootlegs) but this was recut decadeslater into the form in which it's now available on DVD, under the title The Beatles: The First U.S. Visit. But that film holds a copyright of 1991. I would vote for it if it's eligible -- and on the offchance anyone here who cares one iota about the Beatles hasn't seen it, I recommend it wholeheartedly, especially if you ever for a second thought A Hard Day's Night and I Wanna Hold Your Hand were exaggerations -- but understand if it's not.

[swo17]

I'll say What's Happening! is eligible for 1964, and if I were personally voting for it, I think I would consider "The First U.S. Visit" to merely be a variant edit of it

[swo17]

Update: I have internet access where I'm at this week but not a computer to work on. Please make any requests for titles to be added to the ballot by end of the day Thursday the 4th. I'll start that poll and also the 1965 thread this weekend.

[dustybooks]

Swo, if it's not too late could you add One Potato, Two Potato (Larry Peerce)? It's one I just saw last night and will be voting for.

[swo17]

Added. How does it compare to The Incident?

[dustybooks]

Added. How does it compare to The Incident?

I've not seen that yet! And I'll have more thoughts soon -- watched it just before falling asleep last night -- but I'll just say I was extremely surprised by how hard-hitting One Potato was. It has a certain charmingly homespun quality while being extremely professional and believable, and I was quite stunned by just where it went. Despite having a particular social purpose -- which it lays out explicitly -- its dramatic stakes are believable enough that I think it's aged well, better than I would have expected had I known what it really was about going in. (If you know "interracial romance in 1964," you're in good shape.)

[lzx]

Going by its name, I had thought that The Leather Boys would be an exploitation flick with a clumsy portrayal of homosexuality, but was pleasantly surprised to discover it's one of the better kitchen sink dramas I've seen, featuring some beautiful and expressionistic camerawork as well as a few thrilling motorcycle sequences. The gay character doesn't come across as dated, and I actually enjoyed Rita Tushingham's performance in this more than her breakout role three years prior. AGFA and Shout Factory put it out on Blu, and it's also available on Kanopy and (though cropped) Tubi.