My Top Ten Films of 1966

This is part of my continuing series looking back on films from the years before I began this blog. The ten films below are unranked and listed in no particular order. Enjoy.

Alfie - Michael Caine's breakthrough role was the title character of "Alfie," a womanizing London driver who embodies the spirit of the UK's Swinging Sixties. However, he also reveals its uglier side too. Through his adventures and relationships with various women, he learns the dangers of living a careless lifestyle. "Alfie" is ultimately a cautionary tale, but one told with great energy and wit and style. The film's willingness to tackle taboo subject matter and the career of a very imperfect hero have helped it to remain relevant and relatable to this day. And Caine, or course, hasn't lost a step.

Daisies - The often overlooked Czech new wave produced some memorable films, including this lovely surrealist romp. Two women behave badly, acting like spoiled little girls, upending social conventions and revealing hypocrisies and they carry out their rampage of fun. Vera Chytilová's visuals are a constant delight, a riot of playful, topsy-turvy iconography drawn from the girls' lives of frivolity. Employing fast-motion, image collages, and lots of physical comedy, the film is often breathlessly high energy and unexpected. As surrealist films go, this one is consistently watchable and entertaining.

Persona - Ingmar Bergman's most experimental and formally inventive film is also one of his most iconic. There is a plot, a psychodrama that plays out between the two women played by Liv Ullman and Bibi Andersson, but it only serves as the framework for the real drama that the film portrays, about the fragility of self and identity. Bergman portrays the women's inner lives, relationships, and conflicts through striking visual compositions, the most memorable ones putting their faces in the frame in overlapping positions. The film's power comes from it's simplicity, its starkness and fearless vision.

Seconds - John Frankenheimer specialized in thrillers, and it's thanks to his skill that a B-movie plot is transformed into a grade A exercise in psychological horror. Body swap stories aren't uncommon in film, but it's rare to see one that achieves such an unsettling mood of alienation and paranoia. The film often feels closer in tone to Kafkaesque political thrillers like "The Parallax View" or Frankenheimer's own "The Manchurian Candidate" than any of the science fiction media of the era. Special kudos go to cinematographer James Wong Howe, for his evocative black and white nightmare images.

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? - The directing debut of theater wunderkund Mike Nichols, "Virginia Woolf" marked an important turning point in the emergence of New Hollywood talent. It was a groundbreaker for its enthusiastically coarse language and willingness to embrace controversial subject matter. Elizabeth Taylor got one of her best roles in years, playing an unattractive, older harridan married to Richard Burton's passive-aggressive college professor. Watching their explosive fights and depressive miseries play out during the wreckage of an evening is uncomfortable but engrossing.

Masculin Féminin - I'm not a fan of the work of Jean-Luc Godard, but I can appreciate the charms of this breezy romance, which presents a candid look at Paris in the age of the Nouvelle Vague, and "The Children of Marx and Coca-Cola." Godard uses documentary techniques, including interviews, to immerse the viewer in the environment and capture the spirit of the era. We see how his young lovers are shaped and influenced by their society and culture, and where that ultimately takes them. And this is the only film where Godard's very particular sense of humor actually lands for me.

Black Girl - African cinema was just starting to be recognized by the international film community in the 1960s, and "Black Girl," from Senegaliese director Ousmane Sembene, was an important early title. Prior to this, there had not been a film made with an African-born director maintaining true creative control. "Black Girl" remains notable not only for its anti-colonialist point of view and depiction of contemporary Africa, but for its character study of a rare black female protagonist. I still find it an immensely touching and relatable immigrant narrative with a remarkable main character.

Django - A spaghetti western and proto-exploitation film that is famously one of Quentin Tarantino's favorite films and a major influence on his work. It is yet another remake of Akira Kurosawa's "Yojimbo," but also takes its cues from American westerns and European comic books. "Django" was considered terribly violent upon initial release, and garnered some controversy. However, it has aged well thanks to its charismatic hero, played by Franco Nero, and inventive, stylish action sequences. And there is no disputing that Django, of all of cinema's celebrated gunfighters, has the best theme song.

Cul-de-Sac - The Roman Polanski black comedy and psychological thriller that depicts a farcical hostage situation that goes very badly for the hostage-takers. The nervy tone manages to balance thrills and nervous giggles as a pair of brutish gangsters go up against the deeply neurotic bourgeoisie couple they've clearly underestimated. The social satire and nerve-wracking jaunts into horror are potent stuff, but it's the absurdity with which they're presented that really gives the film its edge. There had been hostage comedies before, but few that managed to maintain this much suspense and intensity.

Blowup - Finally, Michelangelo Antonioni was known for ambiguous, difficult art films. However, when he took on a murder mystery set in '60s Britain, full of explicit sexuality and jazz music, the results scandalized the censors and resulted in a smash hit. Despite its unlikely popularity, "Blowup" is very much an Antonioni film, full of ambiguity with a central puzzle that is never actually resolved. However, it's also a fascinating snapshot of mod culture, the fashion world, and alienated youth. It was exactly the right film at the right time, and unfortunately for Antonioni, he never hit on that combination again.


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