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
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)
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 Actor: Melvyn Douglas, Hud
