1964

Hamlet (Director: Grigori Kozintsev)

Nominees: I Am Cuba, Charulata, A Hard Days Night, Dr. Strangelove, The Train, Goldfinger, Pale Flower, Nothing But a Man, Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Seven Days in May, Onibaba, Night of the Iguana, Nobody Waved Goodbye, Yearning, Marnie, Woman in the Dunes

Oscars pick: My Fair Lady
Nominees: Becket, Dr. Strangelove, Mary Poppins, Zorba the Greek

Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is a fantastic picture, a witty anti-war satire that shows what happens when the inmates and warmongers and the ineffectual run the asylum. Of the Academy's nominated features, it should have won the Oscar without a second thought. My Fair Lady was the top dog - a decent film, but it wasn't the overall best, or even the best musical... or even the second-best musical for that matter. To riff on Danny Peary's comments on the season: the bittersweet French romance The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and The Beatles A Hard Days Night showed off a greater imagination, stronger camerawork, and featured superior music to My Fair Lady.

My Picture of the Year, however, is the Russian filming of Hamlet (Gamlet). Director Grigori Kozintsev restores the political aspects that Oliver removed in his version of the play, tightens up, and takes out other scenes. He really gets into Hamlet's interior thoughts. Dialogue that was often spoken out loud in other plays and movies, is interpreted as inner monologues. Hearing these words in Russia was strange, but it didn't take long for me to get used to it. No, it's not as pretty and poetic – but the emotional cadences remain. Some famous lines are lost, but all told it didn't hurt the overall effect.

Visually it's a stunner. Kozintsev said that it was his aim to "make visible the poetic atmosphere of the play." And in this, he succeeds brilliantly. The castle itself is more wide open than in other versions, but it still feels like a prison. The beautifully staged and photographed appearance of Hamlet's ghostly father is marked by shadow, crumbling architecture, and flowing capes.

Performances are all strong, and actress Anastasiya Vertinskaya was an amazing Ophelia. There was a tangible sense of fragility in her that made Ophelia's final scenes heartbreaking.

The rich and noteworthy score was written by the great Russian composer Dmitry Shostakovich.

Despite a few things that are not purely Shakespearean, this was the best filming of Hamlet I've ever seen. There were no lulls, no moments when I wasn't completely enthralled by what was happening on screen.

A close contender to Hamlet was I Am Cuba. This hard-to-find movie is one that I’ve wanted to see for ages. So I was jacked to find it at FilmStruck. It’s pure communist propaganda, but visually impressive: Stunning photography, lighting, and camera movement were seen throughout. It earns its stars for what it achieves at a cinematic level alone.

Acting!
Attenborough showed his range in '64: Reserved in Seance, OTT, and cartoonish in Batasi at the start... but stick with it. He's really quite remarkable.

Actress was tough because I really liked Seberg, but Mukherjee is so, so extra special. And she shows incredible growth as an actress. As wonderful as she was in the Big City (1963), she's much more subtle here. She's not doing the standard expression thing ('I'm concerned, so I'll crinkle my brow'), but giving us the inner struggle - the way she moves, that look in her eyes that shows there's something, some idea or thought going on behind them. In a piece about the actress, Karen Bali wrote... "Madhabi makes the central role of Charu her own. It is without a doubt one of the greatest performances of Indian Cinema. She lives the role. She is Charulata. To date, Madhabi in Charulata remains the benchmark for what an ideal Tagore heroine should be..."

Best Actress: Madhabi Mukherjee, Charulata
Honorable Mentions:
Jean Seberg, Lilith * Mariko Kaga, Pale Flower * Anne Bancroft, The Pumpkin Eater * Pamela Franklin, The Third Secret * Nobuko Otowa & Jitsuko Yoshimura, Onibaba * Deborah Kerr & Ava Gardner, Night of the Iguana * Ingrid Bergman, The Visit * Sophia Loren, Marriage, Italian Style * Kim Stanley, Seance on a Wet Afternoon * Constance Towers, The Naked Kiss

Best Actor: Richard Attenborough, Guns at Batasi & Seance on a Wet Afternoon
Honorable Mentions: Tom Courtenay, King & Country * Anthony Quinn, Zorba the Greek, The Visit * Peter Sellers, Dr. Strangelove * Peter O'Toole, Becket * Richard Burton, Becket, Night of the Iguana * Soumitra Chatterjee, Charulata * Peter Ustinov, Topkapi * Ivan Dixon, Nothing but a Man *  Christopher Plummer, The Fall of the Roman Empire * Innokentiy Smoktunovskiy, Hamlet

Supporting Actor: Sterling Hayden and George C. Scott, Dr. Strangelove

Supporting Actress: Anastasiya Vertinskaya, Hamlet







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1962

Harakiri (Director: Masaki Kobayashi)

Nominees: To Kill a Mockingbird, Cléo from 5 to 7, The Trial, The Exterminating Angel, The Miracle Worker, The Devil's Trap, Kanchenjungha, The Inheritance, Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam, The Graceful Brute, Ivan's Childhood, The Given Word

Oscars pick: Lawrence of Arabia
Nominees: The Longest Day, The Music Man, Mutiny on the Bounty, To Kill a Mockingbird

David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia can sometimes get as dry as the desert its set in. The film lasts nearly 4 hours, and it feels like it, with wide-angle long shot sequences that stretch out beyond reason. But it does tell its tale –set during WWI- on a grand scale. And it frequently sparks to life with humor, adventure, and sharp character interaction, AND Peter O’Toole is impressively charismatic. Nevertheless, I don’t find it the unassailable best picture of the year as many do; it can get repetitive (twice Lawrence has a breakdown, is resolute in wanting out, but is suddenly made to change his mind) and sometimes O’Toole just stares and flashes those pretty blue eyes in lieu of acting.

A film I preferred was the transcendent Harakiri, a brutal but brilliant indictment of the Bushido code.

It's a film that cuts deep emotionally and challenges you intellectually. It asks you to be an active viewer, to puzzle out the mystery and the implications behind it - what it means to this society, and to governments, and ideologies and humanity as a whole. It's scathing, and says "to hell with the rhetoric and sloganeering... let us see the unvarnished truth behind the bullshit!"

It runs long but doesn't feel long. There's not an unnecessary scene because it all matters, everything speaks to the themes of honor (true honor, not the facade put up by those in power), of what it means to be a parent, what it means to be a human being.

Harakiri is a film of visual widescreen beauty, with images that are meaningful and tell the story as much as the dialog. It's incredibly acted - carried by Tatsuya Nakadai somber performance. All in all, it's a towering cinematic achievement in a year filled with fantastic pictures.

Note: Here's a list of other movies I liked. Spotlight on '62

Best Actress: Anne Bancroft, The Miracle Worker
Honorable Mentions:
Leslie Caron, The L-Shaped Room * Irene Papas, Electra & Antigone * Anna Karina, Vivre sa vie * Meena Kumari, Sahib bibi aur Ghulam * Sayuri Yoshinaga, Foundry Town * Corinne Marchand, Cleo from 5 to 7 * Bette Davis, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane * Janet Margolin, David and Lisa

Best Actor: Tatsuya Nakadai, Harakiri (pictured top)

Honorable Mentions:
Leonardo Villar, The Given Word * Toshirō Mifune, Sanjuro * Gregory Peck, To Kill a Mockingbird * James Mason, Lolita * James Stewart & John Wayne, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance * Anthony Perkins, The Trial * Robert Mitchum, Cape Fear * Peter O'Toole, Lawrence of Arabia * Soumitra Chatterjee, Abhijan * Per Oscarsson, The Doll

Supporting Actress: Angela Lansbury, The Manchurian Candidate 
Runners up: Patty Duke, The Miracle Worker, Mary Badham, To Kill a Mockingbird & Margaret Johnston, Night of the Eagle

Supporting Actor: Peter Sellers, Lolita (pictured above)

  

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1963

8½ (Director: Federico Fellini)
Nominees: The Big City, The Birds, Contempt, This Sporting Life, America, America, Muriel, Hud, From Russia with Love, An Actors Revenge, High and Low

Oscars pick: Tom Jones
Nominees: America, America, Cleopatra, How the West Was Won, Lilies of the Field

It seems every year my beloved Fellini is surpassed by slightly superior efforts, but in 1963 there was not a shadow of a doubt. The year belonged to him. As much as I like my nominees, none of them quite approach the epic genius of Federico’s masterpiece.

8½ is an exhilarating viewing experience and it fits my film/artistic sensibilities to a “T”. It’s surreal and challenging, but not so completely enigmatic that I found it impossible to understand. Like most Fellini films it is deeply personal: In trying to make a movie, Federico hit a block - and so he made the movie about struggling to make a movie.

The picture is a banquet for the eyes and imagination; some images were created simply for the pleasure of their aesthetic value alone -- which has confounded critics over the years (the casting of old women as Priests. There was no secret symbolism attached to it as some supposed, Fellini just like the way they looked). While other images were done for clear reasons - to illustrate the mindset and character of the people in a scene - as in a driving sequence, where the male passenger is hidden in shadow, and the female driver next to him is immersed in light.

In truth though, I'll let others beat this thing into submission with their reductionisms. I prefer to bathe in the glorious madness of it all.  The movie has one foot set in inspired meaning. It addresses the nature of the creative process and the struggle to find meaning when you're at a crossroads - and that deserves thoughtful consideration, true. But the other foot is there for unfettered artistic minds. It’s an exaltation of imagination and creativity, and one should just let go and drink that all in.

Italian film historian Peter Bondanella called 8½, "art film colossal" – and considered it equitable to poetry, with cadence and meter. On the end scene, he wrote that "Fellini wants his audience to experience an image designed to produce an emotion, not to analyze an idea designed to make an intellectual argument."

Here’s Roger Ebert’s defense of the film at RogerEbert.com.

Though no other movie could mount a serious challenge for 8½'s crown, there were other jewels - including The Birds, a movie Fellini called an apocalyptic poem. The British This Sporting Life, with Richard Harris playing a violent Rugby player. There was Elia Kazan's biographical America, America, and Satyajit Ray's The Big City. I have also added Kon Ichikawa's brilliant An Actor’s Revenge and Alain Resnais' Muriel to my list of nominees.

Oh, and before I forget, I can't stand Oscar winner Tom Jones. I thought it was simply idiotic and too self-satisfied in how cute it thinks it is.

Other movies I liked in 1963: Lilies of the Field, Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment, Bandini, The Silence, The Leopard, Jason and the Argonauts, The Servant, Billy Liar, The Executioner (El Verdugo), Le Joli Mai, Legend of a Duel to the Death, The Sun in a Net, Young Aphrodites, Barnali, The Haunting, The Great Escape

Best Actor: Richard Harris, This Sporting Life
Honorable Mentions: 

Toshirō Mifune, High and Low * Paul Newman, Hud * Dirk Bogarde & James Fox, The Servant * Sidney Poitier, Lilies of the Field * Gunnar Bjornstrand, Winter Light * Marcello Mastroianni, 8 1/2 * Kinnosuke Nakamura, Bushido, Samurai Saga * Nino Manfredi, The Executioner * Tom Courtenay, Billy Liar * Maurice Ronet, The Fire Within

Best Actress: Nutan Behl, Bandini
Honorable Mentions:
Madhabi Mukherjee, The Big City * Sachiko Hidari, She and He & The Insect Woman * Julie Harris, The Haunting * Judy Garland, I Could Go on Singing * Rachel Roberts, This Sporting Life * Audrey Hepburn, Charade * Delphine Seyrig, Muriel * Ingrid Thulin, Winter Light & The Silence * Barbara Krafftówna, How to Be Loved

Supporting Actress: (Tie) Patricia Neal, Hud & Julie Christie, Billy Liar (pictured)

Supporting Actor: Melvyn Douglas, Hud

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1961

Last Year at Marienbad (Director: Alain Resnais)
Nominees: Viridiana, Yojimbo, La Notte, The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer, Mother Joan of the Angels, One Eyed Jacks, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Through a Glass Darkly, The Innocents, The Young One, Dancing in the Rain

Oscars pick: West Side Story
Nominees: Fanny, Guns of Navarone, The Hustler, Judgment at Nuremberg

A modernist work of art, a master class of form over traditional narrative. Last Year at Marienbad has been called a “film about the power of cinema”, and a story of repressed memory, or false memory. But it’s ultimately whatever you think it is.

Me? I think memory is a ghost. And this is a ghost story, fueled by an unsettling desire.

Throughout the picture, a man, credited as X, tries to persuade A, who doesn’t remember him, that they had an affair the year before. Is X’s pursuit romantic, or is it harassment?

Screenwriter Robbe-Grillett originally wrote in a rape scene and felt that X had probably never met A before. Director Resnais removed the rape and was of the opinion that the two had probably met a year earlier. This collision of contrasting ideas lends an overall disquieting tone to the film.

Memory is a ghost, it’s vague and ethereal. And this reads like a ghost story.

Maybe it’s that spooky organ music, which makes me think of Carnival of Souls. Maybe it’s the way the camera glides through hallways as if we are watching the movie through the eye of a floating spirit. Maybe it’s the use of split lenses (not split-screen work mind you) so that when we see two people in the same room, it appears as if they are NOT inhabiting the same space at all. Maybe it’s the backgrounds that suddenly change, like the Hotel itself is an apparition.

It’s in the way people move, or don’t move. The performances are disassociated, stilted; these people are more like phantoms than flesh and blood. The story X tells A is unreliable and ever changing: is that false memory or a specter’s wispy fugue state of mind?

Everything in this film keeps me off balance (and I like that): People are constantly seen in reflective surfaces, in one scene their shadows are painted in. Their clothing changes mid-conversation. They are shot draped in the deepest darkness, and in other moments, in a white glare so blinding they seem to disappear into the background...

...like ghosts.

And memory is a ghost. We are seeing what the characters are remembering - memory is faulty - remembering is like visiting an ever-fluctuating spirit world.

That’s how I see it. But whether you are of the opinion that the movie is an enigmatic artistic masterpiece, or feel it’s the pretentious work of two self-indulgent intellectuals, this is the magic of Marienbad. Each viewer works the film out for themselves, and no two people see the same exact thing.

Other pictures I liked...

West Side Story enthralled me in my youth -- and while I can see its imperfections in my adulthood, I still enjoy the Oscar winner (a modern, musical telling of Romeo and Juliet). In addition to that I’m mad over the flawed but captivating Breakfast at Tiffany's, Brando's directorial debut, the western, One Eyed Jacks, Antonioni's brilliant La Notte, the moving The Human Condition III, Bunuel's  tale of racism and pedophilia The Young One (1 of only 2 English language films he made), and Kurosawa's biting Yojimbo.

Jerzy Kawalerowicz's Mother Joan of the Angels? If you've seen Ken Russell's The Devil's, this is the aftermath. Mother is not as campy or garish, which I preferred. The acting is superb, and I named Lucyna Winnicka as my best actress. It's a rather chilling tale with an ending- SPOILER ALERT- that outdoes a similar act from the Exorcist. But the biggest challenger to Marienbad?

Viridiana is Luis Buñuel's scathing look at religion and humiliation... which he saw as going hand in hand. He also looks at Saintly trials and sacrifice as sought after –not for want of holiness- but for love of suffering. Bathed in sociopolitical symbolism (a little girl deliberately spilling her milk on a cows head. A crucifix that opens to reveal a knife), Viridiana is complex, cruel, darkly funny and endlessly thought-provoking.

Writer Hal Erickson's synopsis... "After 25 years' exile, Luis Buñuel was invited to his native Spain to direct Viridiana -- only to have the Spanish government suppress the film on the grounds of blasphemy and obscenity. Regarded by many as Buñuel's crowning achievement, the film centers on an idealistic young nun named Viridiana (Silvia Pinal). Just before taking her final vows, Viridiana is forced by her mother superior to visit her wealthy uncle Don Jaime (Fernando Rey), who has "selflessly" provided for the girl over the years. She has always considered Don Jaime an unspeakable beast, so she is surprised when he graciously welcomes her into his home. Just as graciously, he sets about to corrupt Viridiana beyond redemption -- all because the girl resembles his late wife. It is always hard to select the most outrageous scene in any Buñuel film; our candidate in Viridiana is the devastating Last Supper tableau consisting of beggars, thieves, and degenerates. As joltingly brilliant today as on its first release, Viridiana won the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival."

Best Actor: Toshirō Mifune, Yojimbo
Honorable Mentions: 

Stuart Whitman, The Mark * Paul Newman, The Hustler * Marcello Mastroianni, La Notte & Divorce, Italian Style * Dirk Bogarde, Victim * Clark Gable, The Misfits * Tatsuya Nakadai, The Human Condition III * Mieczyslaw Voit, Mother Joan of the Angels * Dilip Kumar, Ganga Jumna

Best Actress: Lucyna Winnicka, Mother Joan of the Angels
Honorable Mentions: 

Duša Počkaj, Dancing in the Rain * Harriet Andersson, Through a Glass Darkly * Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany's * Deborah Kerr, the Innocents * Silvia Pinal, Viridiana * Emmanuelle Riva, Léon Morin, Priest * Ayako Wakao, A Wife Confesses * Hideko Takamine, Happiness of Us Alone * Jeanne Moreau & Monica Vitti, La Notte

Supporting Actress: Ruby Dee, A Raisin in the Sun

Supporting Actor: Martin Stephens, The Innocents

Loads of great acting this year: a few faves I left off my nominees, Hayley Mills, Whistle Down the Wind, Annie Girardot, Shadows of Adultery, Carroll Baker, Something Wild, James Cagney, One, Two, Three, and the all-star casts of The Huster and Paris Blues

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1960

The Apartment (Director: Billy Wilder)
Nominees: Psycho, La Dolce Vita, The Virgin Spring, Breathless, L'Avventura, Wild River, Macario, Devi, When a Woman Ascends the Stairs, The Cloud-Capped Star, Le Trou, Baishey Shravana

Oscars pick: The Apartment
Nominees: The Alamo, Elmer Gantry, Sons and Lovers, the Sundowners

The 60s and early 70s are considered a golden age for Hollywood. Filmmakers were breaking free from the bonds of the censorship code, which allowed for freedom of expression and experimentation. The summer blockbuster wouldn't become part of the vernacular until 1975, with the release of Jaws  (a movie that changed everything. Not always for the better), so while you still had big, event-like pictures (the James Bond series) you also saw an equal share of challenging, art cinema.

Anyhoo --- I've taken away Oscar's and had him just miss the cut in other years, but this time out I’ll not bypass the work from one of my favorite directors, Billy Wilder. While there are outstanding movies to choose from in 1960, and my list of nominees reads like a "who’s who" of cinematic brilliance: Hitchcock, Fellini, Ray, Godard, Kazan, Kubrick, Bergman, Sen, Bunuel, Naruse, and Antonioni (Jesus, this was a golden age). I simply love the Apartment with a passion and believe the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences got it right when they selected Billy Wilder's classic as its best of the year.

Among my nominees: Breathless (aka, À bout de souffle (By a Tether) helped give birth to the French New Wave and is Jean Luc Godard's jazzy free-form ode to the American films genres that inspired him as writer and filmmaker. What it lacks in discipline (and there are stretches where the improv gets dull) it makes up for in attitude and the hip frothiness of its stars, Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg. It also boasts of another one of my favorite film quotes - "My greatest ambition in life is to become immortal... and then die."

Le Dolce Vita is one of Fellini's twin masterpieces (along with 8 ½, which will be his next feature). The flip side of Le Dolce was Michelangelo Antonioni's L’Avventura, a mystery that really isn't a mystery, but more an examination of the idle rich who have everything and nothing.

Bergman's tragic, brutal tale of revenge and redemption, The Virgin Spring, Hitchcock's spars, scary, beautifully photographed and scripted Psycho (which is only tripped up by that last scene in the Psychiatrists office), Kazan's Wild River, Ray's Devi and my other nominees are all superb motion pictures – but I just can’t deny the great affection I have for the Apartment. It's a movie that draws me in, in so many ways: Intellectually, emotionally - - it's cynically funny, but it also has warmth to it. Jack Lemon and Shirley MacLaine share an on screen chemistry that is second to none, and Fred MacMurray does a damn good 'arse hole’. Plus the script is note perfect. Time magazine wrote that it's... "a comedy of men's-room humours and water-cooler politics that now and then among the belly laughs says something serious and sad about the struggle for success, about what it often does to a man, and about the horribly small world of big business"

Mr. Wilder, this Felix is ‘finally’ for you.

Best Actor: Anthony Perkins, Psycho
Honorable Mentions: 

Montgomery Clift, Wild River * Burt Lancaster, Elmer Gantry * Toshirō Mifune, The Bad Sleep Well * Jack Lemmon, The Apartment * Albert Finney, Sat Morning & Sun Night * Marcello Mastroianni, La Dolce Vita * Karlheinz Böhm, Peeping Tom * Soumitra Chatterjee, Devi * John Mills & Alex Guinness, Tunes of Glory * Laurence Olivier, The Entertainer

Best Actress: Sharmila Tagore, Devi
Honorable Mentions:
Shirley MacLaine, The Apartment * Hideko Takamine, When a Woman Ascends the Stairs * Nutan Behl, Sujata * Sophia Loren, Two Women * Supriya Choudhury, The Cloud-Capped Star * Birgitta Valberg, The Virgin Spring * Deborah Kerr, The Sundowners

Best Supporting Actor: Chhabi Biswas, Devi

Shout out to Martin Stephens, Village of the Damned

Best Supporting Actress: Janet Leigh, Psycho







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1959

Hiroshima Mon Amour (Director: Alain Resnais)
Nominees: Apur Sansar, Nazarin, North by Northwest, Anatomy of a Murder, The 400 Blows, Floating Weeds, Some Like it Hot, Rio Bravo, Room at the Top, Fires on the Plain, The Human Condition pts I & II

Oscars pick: Ben-Hur
Nominees: Anatomy of a Murder, Diary of Anne Frank, The Nuns Story, Room at the Top

On my first viewing, at the time, the only other Alain Resnais film I had seen previous to this was Last Year at Marienbad, which was great, but it didn’t really get under my skin. Hiroshima Mon Amour got under my skin. I had such a powerful emotional and intellectual reaction to this movie and its explorations of memories that linger, and those that slip away -of war and love lost and the scars they leave on a soul.

It was an innovative and vital piece of the French New Wave and centers on an intense affair between a Japanese architect (Eiji Okada) and a French actress (Emmanuelle Riva). The two spend the day getting to know one another and working through their personal demons (especially the woman's).

There’s a lyrical quality to writer Marguerite Duras's dialogue, a thread of musicality woven throughout the picture. But it’s not like the nature-born poetry of Ray’s Pather Panchali. It's more exacting, structured - but beautiful none the less.

While Eiji is rock solid, the feature rests on Riva's capable shoulders. She gives a haunting performance in her film debut, when we first see her playful smile at the start, you can see how a man could instantly be drawn to her. But later a shadow falls over her face, and when she stares off into space it's as if she were stuck simultaneously in both the past and present - which is just what the director and writer wanted. It's astonishing work and her scenes really hit me hard.

In addition, I liked the use of dual cinematographers: Michio Takahashi in Japan and Sacha Vierny for the French locations. Each used different lenses and lighting techniques and such, which lends a distinct look to present and past. And the score, also provided by two (Georges Delerue and Giovanni Fusco) is a mix of the somber, the beautiful and the off kilter.

Other movies I liked: Fires on the Plain, Ballad of a Soldier, Ride Lonesome, Kiku and Isamu, Pickpocket, Kaagaz Ke Phool, Odds Against Tomorrow, Violent Summer, and more. 1959 offered up a lot of treasures.

Best Actor: Soumitra Chatterjee, The World of Apu 
Honorable Mentions: Ganjiro Nakamura, Floating Weeds * Laurence Harvey, Room at the Top * Tony Curtis & Jack Lemmon, Some Like it Hot * Cary Grant, North by Northwest * James Stewart, Anatomy of a Murder * John Wayne, Rio Bravo * Vittorio De Sica, General Della Rovere * Eiji Funakoshi, Fires on the Plain

Supporting Actor: Joseph Schildkraut, The Diary of Anne Frank

Best Actress: Emmanuelle Riva, Hiroshima, Mon Amour (top)
Honorable Mentions:
Machiko Kyo, Floating Weeds & Odd Obsession * Audrey Hepburn, The Nun’s Story * Marilyn Monroe, Some Like it Hot * Simone Signoret, Room at the Top * Lucyna Winnicka, Night Train * Juanita Moore & Susan Kohner, Imitation of Life

Supporting Actress: Zhanna Prokhorenko, Ballad of a Soldier (left)



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1958

Vertigo (Director: Alfred Hitchcock)
Nominees: Touch of Evil, The Music Room, Sweet Anna, The Hidden Fortress, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Une Vie, Cairo Station, Man of the West, Giants and Toys

Oscars pick: Gigi
Nominees: Auntie Mame, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Defiant Ones, Separate Tables

The musical Gigi was cute, but it wasn't the best picture. Of the Academy's nominations I liked the adaptation of Tennessee William's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and the Defiant Ones more. Even better were movies that failed to catch Oscar's eye. Kurosawa's Hidden Fortress, the scathing Giants and Toys, my favorite from Anthony Man, Man of the West, as well as 2 from a couple masters of form and composition - Orson Welles, with the expertly directed Touch of Evil, and Alfred Hitchcock with his magnum opus, Vertigo...

Which was only one real choice to my mind.

Vertigo has the trappings of a mystery, but the mystery is just the MacGuffin - a tool to get the stars aligned, get these characters together and dig into the heart of the matter. That heart is obsession. The entire film is about that psychological spiral: From the haunting music to the Saul Bass credit sequence... it's all about circles, turning around into themselves. James Stewart does his best, most shaded work as a man sinking further and further into a kind of madness. He as much objectifies this woman, as he does genuinely love her. He will reshape another (he assumes) into her image and lose himself completely.

The movie is the quintessential example of Hitchcock's expressionistic techniques. Every detail -from sound to color to editing- is vital to the theme, character, and narrative of the feature. It’s loaded with eerie subtle moments that become even more apparent in repeat viewings (note the look in Madeleine's face when Scottie speaks of the past. A past she is familiar with but can't acknowledge). All of this makes the movie timeless.

I've written about Vertigo on so many occasions I’m starting to sound like a broken record. So I'll just stop and say what the Academy should have said - "And the Oscar (and Felix) for best picture goes to... Vertigo!"

Best Actor: James Stewart, Vertigo 
Honorable Mentions:
Max Von Sydow, The Magician * Poitier & Curtis, The Defiant Ones * Paul Newman, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof * Toshiro Mifune, The Hidden Fortress * Gary Cooper, Man of the West * Youssef Chahine, Cairo Station * Chhabi Biswas, Music Room * John Mills, Ice Cold in Alex * Teiji Takahashi, Ballad of Narayama

Best Actress: Mari Töröcsik, Édes Anna (Sweet Anna)
Honorable Mentions:
Maria Schell, Une Vie * Susan Hayward, I Want To Live * Elizabeth Taylor, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof * Kim Novak, Vertigo * Ingrid Bergman, The Inn of the Sixth Happiness * Jean Simmons, Home Before Dark * Kinuyo Tanaka, The Ballad of Narayama * Shirley MacLaine, Some Came Running

Supporting Actor: Gunnar Björnstrand, The Magician 
I also adored Paul Douglas in Fortunella

Supporting Actress: Ingrid Thulin, The Magician
Also, Irene Worth, Orders to Kill






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1957

The Seventh Seal (Director: Ingmar Bergman)
Nominees: Wild Strawberries, Kanal, Pyaasa, Paths of Glory, Nights of Cabiria, Throne of Blood, Sweet Smell of Success, 12 Angry Men, Witness For the Prosecution, A Face in the Crowd, Le Notti Bianche, La Casa del Angel

Oscars pick: The Bridge on the River Kwai
Nominees: Peyton Place, Sayonara, 12 Angry Men, Witness For the Prosecution

1957 was loaded! At the top of my hit parade was Pyaasa and Sweet Smell of Success. Behind them; Kubrick's powerful and bleak anti-war story, Paths of Glory and Billy Wilder's courtroom mystery, Witness For the Prosecution.  12 Angry Men with Henry Fonda giving one of his best performances. Kazan's A Face in the Crowd with Andy Griffiths electrifying staring role. Kurosawa's Throne of Blood, Wadja's Kanal and Fellini's Nights of Cabiria... Among them all though, this year belonged to the Swede, Ingmar Bergman.

Bergman had put together an impressive body of work from the late 40s to the mid-50s. But in 1957 he elevated his game to the level of undeniable genius.

The Seventh Seal's reputation is built upon its art and solemnity: We remember the rich shadowy photography that calls to mind the work of the Dane, Carl Theodor Dreyer. its themes of war and plague and ignorance. Of the dance with death and the chess match. Of the grim Knight (played by Max Von Sydow) who wrestles with existential angst and hungers to know if God and the Devil exist. An answer to which neither a witch nor Death itself can provide.

Woody Allen called the piece a "Sinister fairy tale" and considers Bergman, cinemas most intellectual voice. But what some fail to consider is that Seventh is quite humorous. The banter is reminiscent of Shakespeare in the clever way it slips off the tongue and strikes like pointed daggers. People smile in this movie; they joke around and play, even as they contend with matters of life... and Death - a being that is both sinister and cunning, but is not without a sense of humor of his own (as when he saws a tree in order to take down the doomed man who is hiding there). This then is one of filmdom's most perceptive fusions of comedy and tragedy.
 
But Ingmar wasn't done; later in that same year he released Wild Strawberries. A poignant and wise drama of an aging professor who looks back at his life as he travels to receive an award. Bergman employs surrealistic dreams, rife with dark symbolism, shock cuts, and sound that reflect the director's passion for German Expressionism. Strawberries was the first Bergman movie I'd ever seen, and it knocked me out. It remains to this day one of my favorites. I could have selected either picture or gone with a tie. But decided to go with the Seventh Seal, as it's the more iconic.

I liked the Academy’s choice, David Lean's highly respected, The Bridge on the River Kwai. Though I feel the film loses focus as it spins towards its end (and after the first 2 hours, I got the point. There was no need to belabor it)

🎭Acting wise, oh what a crowd, even beyond those I nominated (ala Van Heflin in 3:10 to Yuma, Rod Steiger in Across the Bridge, Pedro Infante in Tizoc, Anthony Perkins in Fear Strikes Out, Guinness & Holden, in the River Kwai, and in support, Peter Van Eyck in Retour de manive). While my male lead might not be as accomplished a big screen actor as many of my honorable mentions, he tapped into something special here. It's an iconic, ferocious performance. But I think he really excels -not when he's chewing scenery with the best of 'em- but in those quieter, toned down moments. The ladies? Again, there was some stiff competition, and I really loved Neal and Masina, but -speaking of iconic roles- I felt Joanne was operating on another world.

Best Actor: Andy Griffith, A Face in the Crowd
Honorable Mentions: 

Max von Sydow, The Seventh Seal * Henry Fonda, 12 Angry Men * Victor Sjöström, Wild Strawberries * Kirk Douglas, Paths of Glory * Toshirō Mifune, Throne of Blood * Charles Laughton, Witness for the Prosecution * Nikolai Cherkasov, Don Quixote * Tony Curtis, Sweet Smell of Success * Robert Mitchum, Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison * Marcello Mastroianni, Le Notti Bianche

Best Actress: Joanne Woodward, The Three Faces of Eve
Honorable Mentions:  

Giulietta Masina, Nights of Cabiria * Patricia Neal, A Face in the Crowd * Tatiana Samoilova, The Cranes Are Flying * Deborah Kerr, Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison * Michèle Morgan, Retour de manivel * Elsa Daniel, La Casa del Angel * Nargis, Mother India * Ingrid Thulin, Wild Strawberries * Setsuko Hara & Ineko Arima, Tokyo Twilight

Supporting Actor: Burt Lancaster, Sweet Smell of Success

Supporting Actress: Mylène Demongeot, The Witches of Salem

Also, Isuzu Yamada who had a great year with Throne of Blood, Tokyo Twilight, Black River, and The Lower Depths 

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1956

The Searchers (Director: John Ford)
Nominees: Aparajito, Lust for Life, The Wrong Man, Street of Shame, Samurai 3: Duel at Ganryu Island, Gervaise, Patterns, The Bitter Stems

Oscars pick: Around the World in 80 Days
Nominees: Friendly Persuasion, Giant, the King and I, The 10 Commandments

Around the World in 80 Days is the worst flick to ever win Best Picture. Some folks call it somewhat entertaining -- about the only entertainment I derived from it was in the cameo by Buster Keaton. The cinematography was pretty, but the movie is a ponderous, overlong, glorified travelogue.

If the Academy hadn't already stubbed its toe giving DeMille's Greatest Show on Earth the award a few years back, they might have gone with the superior 10 Commandments.  Tomatoes called it "Bombastic and occasionally silly but extravagantly entertaining. Of Oscar's nominees, that's my favorite.

The movie that many embrace as the year's best wasn’t even nominated, John Ford's The Searchers. It's a breathtakingly beautiful looking film and Ford's manner of filming vistas with a wide-open line of sight has been imitated by the likes of Kurosawa and Eastwood. The general composition of the piece is so impressive that one could sit back and appreciate single frame shots of the film as they would art in a gallery.

The story of two men’s tireless pursuit of a tribe of Indians that killed and kidnapped members of their family - makes for one of the greatest, most powerful.... and troubling westerns ever produced. It’s about a changing west, and a man, Ethan Edwards, who is set in that past, and who is fueled by hatred for those he hunts (and by his unspoken love for Martha.) It features one of John Wayne’s finest performances, one of the best of any actor in any age. He shows a great range - in quiet moments when you see the subtle anguish on his face when he realizes that he’s too far away to save his family from being massacred. In the volatile, as when he expresses his anger and sickness over what he saw in the hills. And the twisted small smile he wears when he shoots the eyes of a dead Indian. The racism in the man is white hot and ugly. However, in the end, it is love that prevails. The Duke spoke about what was going on in Ethan's mind when picked up Debbie and looked into her face in that final sequence. Wayne figured he saw in her eyes the woman he'd loved (Martha), and that was enough to overcome his hatred.

So why did I even consider another film? Because the Searchers has its flaws. The theatrical romance and moments of ham-fisted comedy (especially during the letter reading scenes) are awkwardly slotted into the story. But when I watched my other contender’s looking for something better. None could surpass Ford's masterpiece.

Note: Here are some interesting thoughts on the movie and the stellar book by Glenn Frankel (The Searchers: The Making of an American Legend) from Martin Scorsese

The Searchers strongest competition came from Vincente Minnelli and his look at the life of Vincent van Gogh, Lust for Life speaks to me on a deeply personal level. I know how the creative process can consume you; it’s something akin to madness.

Other movies I enjoyed and considered for nomination: Kubrick's tense noir caper, The Killing, which is highlighted by quick cutting dialog and vivid performances, especially Sterling Hayden, Elisha Cook Jr. and Marie Windsor as one devilishly delightful femme fatale. A couple of sci-fi classics, Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Forbidden Planet, (which was Shakespeare in space). Bigger than Life, Nicholas Ray's honest, if melodramatic examination of drug addiction, Bunuel's gripping Death in the Garden, the drama Tea and Sympathy (ignore the tacked-on epilogue), and the western produced by John Wayne’s company, Seven Men from Now.

Best Actress: Maria Schell, Gervaise
Honorable Mentions:
Ellie Lambeti, A Girl in Black * Carol Baker, Baby Doll * Betsy Blair, Calle Mayor * Vera Miles, The Wrong Man * Machiko Kyō, Street of Shame * Simone Signoret, Death in the Garden * Marie Windsor, The Killing * Karuna Banerjee, Aparajito  * Patty McCormack, The Bad Seed

Best Actor: John Wayne, The Searchers
Honorable Mentions:
Kirk Douglas, Lust for Life * James Mason, Bigger Than Life * Henry Fonda, The Wrong Man * Toshirō Mifune, Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island * Carlos Cores, Bitter Stems * Eli Wallach & Karl Malden, Baby Doll * Sterling Hayden, The Killing * Humphrey Bogart, The Harder They Fall

Supporting Actor: Elisha Cook, Jr. The Killing 

Supporting Actress: Ayako Wakao, Street of Shame







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1955

Pather Panchali (Director: Satyajit Ray) and
Ordet (Director: Carl Theodor Dryer)
Nominees: Les Diaboliques, The Night of the Hunter, Samurai 2: Duel at Ichijoji Temple, Smiles of a Summer Night, Lola Montès, Death of a Cyclist, The Counterfeit Coin, Rififi

Oscars pick: Marty
Nominees: Love is a Many-Splendored Thing, Mister Roberts, Picnic, The Rose Tattoo

I like Oscar's pick Marty, and I think Ernest Borgnine did a hell of a job in the title role. There's a scene near the beginning, with Marty on the phone with a woman who wants nothing to do with him - and the expressions on his face, his body language... it was simple brilliance the way he brought this heartbreaking sequence to life. But I think the second half of the film loses steam, and the situations that stood in the way of Marty's happiness came off contrived.

Better than Marty was Hiroshi Inagaki's Samurai 2: Duel at Ichijoji Temple, Ingmar Bergman's witty tale of adultery, Smiles of a Summer Night, Max Ophuls extravagant Lola Montès, Charles Laughton's beautifully crafted nightmarish fairy tale, Night of the Hunter, and Henri-Georges Clouzot's devilishly dark Les Diaboliques. But it came down to two...

From India came Satyajit Ray's stunning debut, Pather Panchali  - a poetic meditation that focuses its lens on a poor family living in a Bengal village. The first in a trilogy, here we meet the boy Apu as a wide-eyed observer to things both joyous and tragic. And while Ray (a commercial artist) and his cameraman (a still photographer) had little to any experience with film, they created a deliberately paced work of profound beauty and truth. It flows like water, sings like music (added in this by the celebrated score from Ravi Shankar)

The movie is full of deeply drawn characters and zeroes in on the stormy (though ultimately loving) relationship between mother and daughter. Karuna Banerjee, as the mother Sarbajaya, gives an inspired, world weary performance. And the scenes with daughter Durga (played by Runki Banerjee and Uma Dasgupta, pictured above) are memorable: From the bit where Durga (Uma) and Apu chase after a train (that ever-present harbinger) to the lyrical sequence with her dancing in the rain. What happens to her, in the end, hit me hard and stuck with me long after the film was finished.

From Denmark - Carl Theodor Dreyer's Ordet (the Word) is slow. Slow really isn't a flaw in this case, but tolerance for such things, even good things like Ordet can come into play (Great craftsmanship matters little if you're too bored to care or keep your eyes awake). The shot sequences, the editing, acting, and dialog are all expertly integrated to create a certain rhythm. That rhythm is measured and requires some concentration -- but rich rewards are had if you can stick with it.

As was the case with "Pather Panchali", Ordet is not plot driven; it's about a family of simple farmers and their relationship with God. One member is driven to madness (after reading too much Kierkegaard, lol) and now believes he is Jesus. The film is rendered in a style Dreyer called, "Psychological reality" (it comes off both naturalized and dream-like). I think the movie's basic theme is how religion can divide and hurt, but also how faith can restore (and how children and the insane are more open to God than anyone). It's a superb picture and in terms of cinematic technique, pretty near flawless (see this shot... criterion) Beyond that, it also moves me. Though I've seen it several times, the final sequence never fails to bring me to tears... and what gets to me the most is little Maren (Ann Elizabeth Groth) and her unfailing faith that her Uncle can do what he says he can do. Her emerging smile near the end says it all.

A note about Preben Lerdorff Rye who plays Johannes Borgen (The man who believes he is Christ). His work has been described as irritating. And yes, his vocal inflection is affected (it was modeled after a mental patient Dreyer knew), but I am fascinated by the performance. It's as if Johannes has been touched by such a power that his mortal self simply couldn't contend with it. And when you pay attention to what he is saying, his words are actually prophetic and wise.

In the end, I considered these 2 features long and hard. Watching them back to back I concluded that I admired both equally and simply could not pick one over the other.

Best Actor: Laurence Olivier, Richard III
Honorable Mentions:
Robert Mitchum, The Night of the Hunter * Ernest Borgnine, Marty * Daniel Gélin, Les amants du Tage * Spencer Tracy, Bad Day at Black Rock * Masayuki Mori, Floating Clouds * Dilip Kumar, Devdas * Alec Guinness, The Prisoner * James Cagney, Love Me or Leave Me

Supporting Actor: Trevor Howard, Les amants du Tage

Best Actress: Karuna Banerjee & Uma Dasgupta, Pather Panchali
Honorable Mentions:
Véra Clouzot & Simone Signoret, Diabolique * Hideko Takamine, Floating Clouds * Lucia Bosé, Death of a Cyclist * Martine Carol, Lola Montes * Eva Dahlbeck, Smiles of a Summer Night * Françoise Arnoul, Les amants du Tage * Yumeji Tsukioka, Chibusa yo eien nare

Supporting Actress: Brigitte Federspiel, Ordet


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1954

On the Waterfront (Director: Elia Kazan)

Nominees: The Seven Samurai, Rear Window, La Strada, Sansho the Bailiff, Sound of the Mountain, Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto, Godzilla, Johnny Guitar, Wuthering Heights, Vera Cruz, Huis-Clos (No Exit), Gabrielle, Boot Polish, A Story from Chikamatsu

Oscars pick: On the Waterfront

Nominees: The Cain Mutiny, The Country Girl, Seven Brides For Seven Brothers, Three Coins in the Fountain

On the Waterfront -the final collaboration between Kazan and Brando- is the pinnacle of both men’s careers. Visually it is a thing of beauty. The gloomy, gray skylines highlight the sorrow and the struggles revealed in the story. The acting was multifaceted and nurtured by Kazan’s deft coaching, Brando gives the performance of a lifetime. Waterfront is a tale of redemption that is soaked in blood and tears and regret. Even the score (by Leonard Bernstein) is often a mournful cry. All of it, every ounce of sweat that went into making this film was molded into something transcendent.

The story is about corruption on the New York docks and of a young punch drunk ex-fighter who has it easy because he’s aligned with this group of thugs who hold the power. He follows orders, keeps quiet and only wakes up when he realizes that he had a hand in causing unbearable hurt to someone he’s falling in love with. Kazan said that the heart of the film, what made it work, was that relationship - and I agree. Eva Marie Saint as Edie has never been more beautiful, never more perfect, and her chemistry with Brando is palpable - their scenes are the soul of the picture.

The performances are seamless, it goes beyond mere acting - it is real, flesh and blood. It’s method acting done better than it has ever been done. The scene in the park, when Terry picks up Edie’s glove and puts it on his own hand. He’s found a way to keep her there, talking with him, but there’s also something sweet, even intimate in it. He has a part of her. Their scene in the bar is another touching moment. When Edie tells Terry that she knows that he’d help her (find her brother’s killers) if he could and then gently places her hand on his arm, the expression that washes over Malloy’s face is devastating. It’s subtle but it’s there - all the guilt and the anguish and desperation. He so wants to be clean of this stain, so that he can just be with her. Love her.

Of course, there’s the famous taxicab sequence between the brothers (I could have been a contender). That speech, the acting, there’s so much loss in it and it has become one of filmdom's enduring moments. You can examine this movie frame by frame and discover treasures like this throughout. It’s simply amazing: brilliantly acted, written, directed, scored -- and one can't say enough about the poetic realism in Boris Kaufman's Oscar-winning cinematography.

There are a lot of great, great movies. But if you ask me to name my all-time favorite film, I'll answer with On the Waterfront. Even if that question's impossible to truly answer, I think every film freak should have a #1 and that's mine. So this year's Felix was a given.

Also very near and dear to my heart is Kurosawa's classic, The Seven Samurai. In addition, there's Hitchcock's Rear Window, Mizoguchi's gut-wrenching Sansho the Bailiff,  and Fellini's La Strada, each incomparable masterworks that stood just a breath behind my winner. 

I'm also nominating Godzilla. As well as the first part of Hiroshi Inagaki's Samurai Trilogy, Musashi Miyamoto, which starred Toshiro Mifune. It will win the best foreign language film award in 1955.

Johnny Guitar and most remarkably Rear Window, did not receive nominations. Both are better than the decent but unremarkable Three Coins or even Country Girl.  The Academy did nominate some top-notch movies, among them The Cain Mutiny, A Star is Born and the entertaining Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. And they gave La Strada a Foreign film Oscar. In addition to that, they got it right when they picked On the Waterfront as its best picture. Not bad work for the folks in Hollywood.

Best Actress: Giulietta Masina, La Strada
Honorable Mentions: Dorothy Dandridge, Carmen Jones * Maria Schell, The Last Bridge * Judy Garland, A Star is Born * Setsuko Hara, Sound of the Mountain * Eva Marie Saint, On The Waterfront * Michèle Morgan, Obsession * Silvana Mangano, The Gold of Naples 

Supporting Actress: Kinuyo Tanaka, Sansho the Bailiff

Best Actor: Marlon Brando, On the Waterfront (pictured top)
Honorable Mentions: * Anthony Quinn, La Strada * James Stewart, Rear Window * Ray Milland, Dial M For Murder * Jean Gabin, Touchez Pas Au Grisbi * James Mason, A Star is Born

Supporting Actor: Lee J. Cobb, On the Waterfront

Special Award - Best Ensemble: The Seven Samurai
Takashi Shmura, Yoshio Inaba, Daisuke Katō, Seiji Miyaguchi, Minoru Chiaki, Isao Kimura, Toshiro Mifune, Yoshio Tsuchiya, Bokuzen Hidari, Kamatari Fujiwara, Keiko Tsushima, Kokuten Kōdō, Yoshio Kosugi, etc





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1953

Tokyo Story (Director: Yasujirô Ozu)
Nominees: Ugetsu, Old Czech Legends, Roman Holiday, Shane, The Wages of Fear, Earrings of Madame de… The Naked Spur, The Big Heat, The Wild Geese, I Vitelloni, Él

Oscars pick: From Here to Eternity
Nominees: Julius Caesar, The Robe, Roman Holiday, Shane

The Japanese invasion continues with two towering artistic achievements, Kenji Mizoguchi's Ugetsu, which is the story of a man who falls in love with a vengeful ghost, and Yasujirô Ozu's Tokyo Story – a quiet, heartbreaking story of an older couple who are seen as burdensome by their children and their spouses. It offers little that we haven’t already seen from Ozu. As with Late Spring, there’s the same strange composition that breaks continuity, coupled with narrative ellipses – all of which makes it a challenging visual effort. You get many of the same actors, giving similar performances and the theme that life is about undergoing change, with the old giving way to the new. Despite the familiarity, it's a great motion picture.

Other highlights of the year: Brando showed his range by taking on Shakespeare in Julius Caesar. Jimmy Stewart continued to show he was more than a homespun nice guy in another dark Anthony Mann western, The Naked Spur. The Western in general continued its ascension in the 50s, with the enduring classic, Shane, starring Alan Ladd as the legendary gunfighter drawn back into the violence he'd hoped to leave behind.  Max Ophüls shows off his trademark tracking shots in the romantic tragedy The Earrings of Madame De... and Henri-Georges Clouzot directs the cynical and suspenseful The Wages of Fear.

I adore Roman Holiday, -which introduced most Americans to that enchanting sprite, Audrey Hepburn- and number it as one of my favorite films. It might be a fluffy romantic comedy, but it’s a special one.

And while I liked Oscars pick From Here to Eternity well enough, the films from Japan were the year's best, with Tokyo Story earning the Felix.

Best Actor: Arturo de Córdova, Él
Honorable Mentions:
Jack Hawkins, The Cruel Sea * Chishū Ryū, Tokyo Story * Pedro Armendariz, El Bruto * James Stewart, The Naked Spur * John Gielgud, Julius Caesar * Marlon Brando, The Wild One & Julius Caesar * Masayuki Mori, Ugetsu * John Wayne, Hondo * Trevor Howard, The Heart of the Matter * Montgomery Clift, From Here to Eternity * Yves Montand & Charles Vanel, The Wages of Fear

Best Actress: Hideko Takamine, Wild Geese/The Mistress
Honorable Mentions:
Danielle Darieux, The Earrings of Madame de… * Harriet Andersson, Sawdust and Tinsel & Summer with Monika * Machiko Kyo, Gate of Hell & Ugetsu * Audrey Hepburn, Roman Holiday * Maria Schell, The Heart of the Matter * Katy Jurado, El Bruto * Jean Simmons, Young Bess * Chieko Higashiyama, Tokyo Story * Gloria Grahame, The Glass Wall

Supporting Actress: Gloria Grahame, The Big Heat

Supporting Actor: Jack Palance, Shane

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1952

Ikiru (Director: Akira Kurosawa)
Nominees: The Quiet Man, Umberto D, Lightning, Forbidden Games, Bend of the River, Singin’ in the Rain, Mother

Oscars pick: The Greatest Show on Earth
Nominees: High Noon, Ivanhoe, Moulin Rouge, The Quiet Man

The Greatest Show On Earth was an entertaining trifle, but it shouldn't have been allowed anywhere near the best picture award. In truth, aside from the 10 Commandments, I don’t know if anything directed by Cecil B. Demille outside of the silent era could be considered Best Picture worthy. Maybe they were just rewarding a long career (if so, they should have waited, as we will soon see)

What astonishes film fans, even more, was that Singin’ in the Rain was locked out as a nominee. Many critics feel it's the greatest musical ever made, and the best movie of the year. Me, I'd name Pyaasa the greatest musical and a few other movies as the year's best. Still, while cheesy at times, Singin’ has top-notch music and dance numbers, and Jean Hagen, who does a better Judy Holiday than Judy Holiday.

Along with it, I nominated the Anthony Mann/Jimmy Stewart western, Bend of the River, and a strange story of children set during wartime, Forbidden Games (which won a special foreign language film, Oscar). DeSica's Umberto D (about an old man and his dog) and the John Ford classic The Quiet Man, with John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara. Above them all (and recent additions, Lightning and Mother from Naruse) I place Akira Kurosawa's important, landmark offering, Ikiru.

Takashi Shimura stars and it is arguably the most memorable performance of his career. He plays a dying man named Watanabe - a Government agency paper pusher who has accomplished little with the job. He's a widower, with a brother who doesn’t really know him, and through his own fault, a non-existent relationship with his son. You could say his life has been a bit of a waste.

One of the films powerful scenes comes after Shimura learns that he has stomach cancer. He leaves the doctor's office lost in his own thoughts -- when suddenly the silence of the scene is broken by a burst of sound -- the city comes to noisy life. The camera pulls back - he is so very small - life goes on with you and without you.

The story follows his quest for meaning and happiness, his failed attempt to repair his relationship with his son, and finally, in the 2nd half of the movie -in flashbacks during his funeral- what he did to leave this small corner of his world a little better after he was gone. While Ikiru is wordy, and at times Kurosawa indulges that didactic nature of his, he doesn’t overdo it, and butts these moments against ones where he doesn’t fill in every detail; there are gaps in the narrative and the back-story that we have to fill in for ourselves. There are also scenes where he allows facial expression alone tell the story.

Though I found it uplifting, it isn't simply a warm and fuzzy tale; the ending doesn’t tie everything up in a neat bow. While the lead character finally finds what he’s looking for and does something important... life goes on as it always does. Only one other guy (a co-worker) understands this, but he is helpless to do anything to change the course. The wheel grinds on and nobody opens their eyes -- unless they are forced to.

This thoughtful meditation on what it is to live a meaningful life is one of the director’s finest pieces. Offering many a lasting image, it is profound and stays with you long after it's over. The acting is honest and the direction impeccable (this is the last film where Akira leans on wide-angle shots, from here on out telephoto lenses will become his tool of choice).

🎭 I found my best actress a few years after starting the search, in a film titled Secret People, which is probably best known as the movie Audrey Hepburn made before becoming an international superstar with Roman Holiday. While it's cool to see Hepburn (and to watch her dance the ballet) it's Valentina Cortese's bravura performance that carries the picture. She displays a range of emotion that is quite remarkable - shifting from desire and joy to shock and disbelief. The movie itself is philosophical and features some potent camera work - as in the use of shadow and light during Maria's interrogation, or when she explains how an evening ended tragically and we see her move from the window, and into her own flashback. I also liked the expressionistic scenes at the hospital. For insights into the plot, here's a quality review (it's also where I found the image below).

Best Actress: Valentina Cortese, Secret People
Honorable Mentions: 

Jean Simmons, Angel Face * Brigitte Fossey, Forbidden Games * Hideko Takamine, Lightning * Maureen O’Hara, The Quiet Man * Nobuko Otowa, Children of Hiroshima * Kinuyo Tanaka, Life of Oharu & Mother * Ingrid Bergman, Europe '51 * Ethel Waters, The Member of the Wedding

Best Actor: Takashi Shimura, Ikiru (pictured up top)
Honorable Mentions:
John Wayne, The Quiet Man * Laurence Olivier, Carrie * Orson Welles, Othello * James Stewart, Bend of the River * Carlo Battisti, Umberto D * James Mason, 5 Fingers * Dirk Bogarde & Jon Whiteley, Hunted

Supporting Actress: Jean Hagen, Singin' in the Rain

Supporting Actor: Anthony Quinn, Viva Zapata! (pictured above)








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