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.
Breakfast at Tiffany's - Audrey Hepburn was a star before this, but "Breakfast at Tiffany's" made her an icon. Frankly, the story is wildly outdated and sometimes in very poor taste (ahem, Mr. Yunioshi), but Hepburn's Holly Golightly is one of the greatest cinematic characters who ever existed, the template for all future winsome manic-pixie-dream creatures. And writer Dalton Trumbo and director Blake Edwards ably manage the balancing act of turning a fairly dark story into an utterly effervescent romance.
101 Dalmatians - One of the best of Disney's '60s features. It looks simple and uncomplicated on the surface, but was responsible for a whole host of technical innovations behind the scenes. However, it's the charm and well-observed performances provided by the animators that really make the picture. Those who make jabs about absent Disney parents clearly never met Pongo and Perdita, and who could ever forget the funniest, most outrageous Disney villainess in the pantheon, Cruella DeVil?
Yojimbo - And so it begins. This was the Akira Kurosawa film that was so memorable, it spawned multiple copies and imitators that went on to be classics themselves, including "A Fistful of Dollars" and "Django." Toshiro Mifune shines in one of his signature roles, the ronin who plays both sides walks away from the carnage alone in the end. As with many of Kurosawa's samurai films, the storytelling is so clear, and the filmmaking so strong, the film easily transcends culture, language, and history.
La Notte - The second of Michelangelo Antonioni's trilogy on "modernity and its discontents," is about a disintegration marriage between characters played by Jeanne Moreau and Marcello Mastroianni. However, what the picture is really remarkable for is its alienating portrayal of the modern world mirroring his characters' emotional lives. Antonioni creates all these environments full of absences and ambiguities. Boredom, doubt, and distance have rarely been evoked so skillfully.
The Children's Hour - The filmmaking is fairly sedate, and the material doesn't have the nerve I wish it did, but I love the performances. The adults, lead by Shirley McClaine, are very good, but it's the two girls played by Karen Balkin and Veronica Cartwright who I thought were really interesting. Children on film were rarely portrayed with so much candidness and complexity. Balkin's Mary is especially upsetting, a bully and manipulator whose destructive behavior is uncomfortably true to life.
Judgment at Nuremberg - A big screen dramatization of the military tribunals convened against the Nazi regime. It was one of Stanley Kramer's big social justice pictures, full of big names, showstopping monologues, and grand ideals. It's about as subtle as a hammer, but the scale of the filmmakers' ambitions and the willingness to tackle sensitive material is very admirable. I find it also works better if you treat the players as allegorical representations of certain ideas, rather than specific individuals.
Through a Glass Darkly - A small, intimate family drama about madness and faith, introspection and guilt, from Ingmar Bergman. We spend a day with the characters on a remote, bleak island, where a schizophrenic woman sees visions and threatens to drag other family members into her delusions. The film is minimalist and simple, but the symbolism is endlessly fascinating and evocative. Even relayed secondhand, some of Bergman's most effective nightmares are found here, just offscreen.
A Woman is a Woman - This has been described as Jean-Luc Godard's take on the Hollywood musical form, using many playful filmmaking tricks and conceits inspired by song and dance numbers. It's his first film in color! He uses widescreen! However, in most ways it's still a French New Wave film, about a trio of young people being irreverent and playing love games with each other. Fortunately Anna Karina, Belmondo, and Brialy are all terribly endearing here, and easy to love.
Pocketful of Miracles - I'm a sucker for a good Cinderella story, and I found I couldn't resist the charms of Frank Capra's very last film, a remake of his 1933 picture "Lady for a Day." The Cinderella in question is an elderly peddler, played by Bette Davis, who is made up into a wealthy socialite by her street friends to impress her future in-laws. Most critics and audiences of the time disliked it, but I was charmed by Peter Falk's exasperated hoodlum or Davis's heartwarming transformation.
The Absent Minded Professor - Disney has been making big effects spectaculars longer than you'd think, and one of their most delightful is this Fred MacMurray comedy. It's full of funny ideas and set-pieces, using old school special effects for great visual gags. My favorite scene is the flubber-ized basketball game, which sends the players into the rafters. This and its sequel, "Son of Flubber" were childhood favorites, which I remember for their sweetness as much as their silliness.
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