Welcome back to the Best Films of the Decade Series!
When I created my Letterboxd profile a couple of years ago, I was checking over a lot of my profile stats based on the ratings and reviews I gave to various films. I was a little surprised when I realized my highest rated decade for films was the 1950s.
There is another decade I always tend to dub as my favorite (which I won't name just yet as we will get to it soon enough) but I then began to look through all of the films I rated so highly in the 1950s. This was when I realized that International Cinema simply EXPLODED in the 1950s and we got to see primo work from some of the finest filmmakers ever to craft a film.
I also think that this was when we truly began to see the divide form even more between the films of Hollywood and the films of other countries. Even if a film came out of Hollywood in the 1950s that I greatly admired or even loved, I tend to find myself more in awe of the films that came out of Europe or Asia.
Due to the wealth of strong films within this decade, and because I feel like a few films would've warranted an honorable mention in my two previous posts, I will be including a list of 10 Honorable Mentions and, more than likely, I will do so for the remaining decades to come.
So let's start with the Honorable Mentions and then delve into the top 10!
10 Honorable Mentions:
All About Eve (1950)
Rashomon (1950)
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
Singin' in the Rain (1952)
La Strada (1954)
On The Waterfront (1954)
Diabolique (1955)
Aparajito (1956)
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
The World of Apu (1959)
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#10 - 12 Angry Men (1957)
Directed by Sidney Lumet
As a kid, I can recall episodes of various TV shows tackling the concept of a trial being held and there being one person who seems to think the guilty party is actually innocent. One such episode was of "Hey Arnold!" when Arnold himself acts as the representation of the Juror #8 character as everyone around him seems convinced that the geeky and clumsy Eugene pulled the fire alarm.
It was one of those stories as a kid that just seemed special and intriguing...so it was not a surprise to discover that it was based on a classic film.
12 Angry Men has managed to live on through various modern adaptations, including plays with (rightly so) add women to the proceedings and thus allow the title to be changed to 12 Angry Jurors. The movie manages to take on one essential theme, trap 12 people in a room, and somehow pulls a movie out of it that is far more palpable than probably most of the big Marvel movies that have come out today....and with that comment, I probably just lost some of my readership....haha....
If you are willing to overlook the idea of listening to 12 men, mostly all of them middle aged, battling each other for an hour and a half, I think you'll find that the movie has way more to offer than you might expect.
Aside from being one of the best ensembles of character actors formed for a film, I also appreciate a lot of the development some of these characters get even if it may be rather brief. Also, when it is discovered that Juror #10 is a vile racist who leads a miserable life, the other jurors promptly disregard anything he says feeling he would have nothing meaningful to offer.
That particular story beat must've sure hit strong in 1957, only two years after the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the real beginnings of the Civil Rights Movement.
Sadly, the film was considered a box office disappointment upon release with many dubbing it a victim to flashier epic films and also the erosion of people staying home to watch TV. However, once the film premiered on TV for the first time, that was when it found its audience and its real acclaim.
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#9 - Pather Panchali (1955)
Directed by Satyajit Ray
In a complete 180 from the glossy sights of an MGM musical, we get the debut feature of Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray. The fact that Pather Panchali was Ray's first film is something that definitely something to call attention to because it isn't often that a director comes along with such a strong sense of style and connection to their material like he does.
I would even be prepared to hear people make the case that Pather Panchali is the best debut film for any director in history...but for me, the greatest debut by a film director (at least based on my opinion at this moment) is going to be coming up later on this list!
As the first entry of the Apu Trilogy (Aparajito & The World of Apu were both listed as Honorable Mentions), Pather Panchali (roughly translates to "Song of the Little Road") depicts the life of young Apu, his elder sister Durga, and their family as the live in the relative squalor of a poor Indian village.
The film certainly continues on in the tradition of Italian Neorealism and how it unapologetically shows people the lives of those who may very well be far more unfortunate than them. The concept that Ray took has led to many filmmakers borrowing elements of its style in the years to come such as Federico Fellini's Amarcord; Woody Allen's Radio Days; and Edward Yang's Yi Yi.
The rather simplistic and sometimes meandering tone along with its very straightforward depiction of poverty has led the film has led the film to receive some very high profile detractors.
Famed French New Wave auteur Francois Truffaut, a man I have always found to be fascinating, was once quoted as saying "I don't want to see a movie of peasants eating with their hands".
The New York Times Film Critic of that era, Bosley Crowther, was quoted as saying: "Any picture as loose in structure or as listless in tempo would barely pass a rough cut with the editors in Hollywood".
Well...I think Ray had the last laugh here.
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#8 - Early Summer (1951)
Directed by Yosujiro Ozu
In my essay discussing the Best Films of the 1940s, I mentioned Ozu's 1949 film Late Spring as being one of the finest films of that decade.
Basically, Ozu was on a roll at this point. With Early Summer and then his next film which...spoiler alert...will be coming up later on this list, Ozu gave us some of the best examples of domestic dramas in cinema history.
Early Summer is not often as discussed as some of his other films but I feel this was the best film of 1951, the second best film of Ozu's career, and one of the top 10 best films of the 1950s.
His 1949 film Late Spring discussed a character named Noriko played by actress Setsuko Hara. Noriko's arc forms a film trilogy but it isn't like a trilogy you would expect. The themes are similar and the name is the same, but each film of the trilogy represents a different and distinct Noriko.
What Early Summer shares with Late Spring is that Noriko is a single woman who shares a close relationship with her family who soon faces opposition from older male members of her family to get married.
The way Ozu is able to make the stories/films feel distinct despite the similarities and also having many of the same actors is quite the remarkable feat but the crazy thing is that Early Summer would be my least favorite of the trilogy. 1949's Late Spring is my second favorite but only by a hair. My favorite is the third outing which will be coming up later on this list.
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#7 - The Seventh Seal (1957)
Directed by Ingmar Bergman
When asked who my favorite filmmaker is, I often list a couple of options but for many years, my go-to answer was and could still very well be Ingmar Bergman.
When it comes to the quality and output ratio of directors, the filmography of Bergman is practically unrivaled. Even some of his weaker films are still quite good and have interesting ideas...and most of those were earlier in his career so you can sort of give him a pass for having a chance to grow.
I wouldn't say The Seventh Seal is his best film and even if it is on this list, I don't have as strong a passion towards it as I do some of his other offerings, but the main reason it is here is that a lot of the tropes that made for the darkly emotional and unnerving qualities that his work typical feels drenched in are on full display here. It was the film of his that truly felt like, for the first time, would be the go-to example of what a Bergman film is.
Also, with the way people were raving about The Queen's Gambit, I expected it to be the next best thing about a game of Chess since The Seventh Seal...but no. The fact that I even mentioned that damn overrated miniseries in the same sentence as this dark gem from Bergman should make it feel honored.
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#6 - Ikiru (1952)
Directed by Akira Kurosawa
The 1950s were definitely co-owned by Akira Kurosawa thanks to so many of his classic offerings which are still iconic and strongly felt in the cinematic world today.
His films always feel so epic, even when they deal with more genteel stories...and there is something so epic about this very quiet story of a Japanese man named Kanji, a bureaucrat who is terminally ill and is trying to find meaning and purpose in his life before he dies.
A movie like Ikiru feels both inspirational and depressing all at once. Kanji is a man who lives a relatively boring and frustrating existence with a job he doesn't care about, his wife has already passed away, and his son and daughter in law only seem to care about the pension he will receive as that will end up helping them out once he passes away.
Kanji manages to make his final moments in life about helping others and accepting that the past is in the past and nothing can truly change. One of the last things he attempts to achieve before his stomach cancer takes his life is building a new playground for children in his neighborhood.
Within these last couple of essays, I have made comments about how certain films would be required/essential not just because they are fantastic but because they are relevant in today's society such as The Great Dictator.
I would definitely put Ikiru on that list.
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# 5 -Vertigo (1958)
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock was dubbed "The Master of Suspense" and he gave us many iconic, classic films over his 5+ decade run as a filmmaker.
I think Vertigo was his masterpiece.
It was not a horror film and it wasn't even necessarily as suspenseful as many of his films were, but it was him diving into more of a psychological thriller/romance arena.
The folksy Jimmy Stewart plays former San Francisco Scottie Ferguson, who is now working as a Private Detective following an incident in which a fellow officer falls to his death from a rooftop and he was unable to save him. It leads Ferguson to developing a fear of heights and Vertigo.
However, the real drive of the story comes when he encounters an old friend from college named Gavin who asks Scottie to follow his wife Madeleine around as he feels she is mentally unbalanced and also suspects that she is currently possessed by the spirit of her great grandmother Carlotta, who committed suicide years prior when she was cast aside by the man she was sleeping with.
However, as Scottie begins to fall for Madeleine, the story takes an abrupt turn which leaves Scottie all but distraught and catatonic...until a woman by the name of Judy comes into his life and she just so happens to bear a striking resemblance to Madeleine.
Vertigo is the ultimate "reevaluation" movie. At the time of its release, it was seen as a lesser and more melodramatic affair for Hitchcock who was coming off bigger successes like Rear Window and The Man Who Knew Too Much and would follow Vertigo with the highly praised North by Northwest and Psycho.
It was also one of the 5 films that Hitchcock himself chose to pull from distribution (which that list oddly included Rear Window and The Man Who Knew Too Much so I am not sure what he was thinking). In 1983, Rear Window along with Vertigo got a re-release in theaters and this was when Vertigo's status began to rise. Then in 1996, a full restoration of the film occurred which only further established its legend.
Now, it is the current reigning champion of the legendary Sight & Sound poll that is held every decade and it did the seemingly insurmountable task of unseating Citizen Kane from the top slot.
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#4 - Seven Samurai (1954)
Directed by Akira Kurosawa
I am not a video gamer by any means but I have been around those who are. Last year, a game called Ghosts of Tsushima for PlayStation was brought to my attention and one thing I took rather interest in was that the game had what was called "Kurosawa mode" in that the action of the game would occur in a grainy black and white rather than vibrant technicolor.
It made me very happy to see the game acknowledged the history and the importance of Kurosawa's filmmaking, particularly considering it honored his most famous film: Seven Samurai.
Seven Samurai is one of the most influential films ever made and you can see that influence in such film adaptations as The Magnificent Seven. Not long after its release, the French New Wave group of filmmakers often said they preferred the work of Japanese filmmaker Kenji Mizoguchi to Kurosawa as they felt the former told more universal stories that could appeal to a wider audience.
There is no denying that Kurosawa's work has more than held up as universal, and that is also not to knock Mizoguchi as well who was a very strong filmmaker in his own right.
Toshiro Mifune (the Robert DeNiro to Kurosawa's Scorsese) plays a Samurai who falls on hard times and in order to find work, he agrees to help a village protect themselves from bandits who keep stealing their belongings. He gathers six other samurais to help train the villagers, who in turn provide them with food and shelter.
As is to be expected, the bandits do return and thus...CHAOS ENSUES! ;-)
The film clocks in at 3 1/2 hours so yes it is a little long but it is certainly worth the effort.
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#3 - Wild Strawberries (1957)
Directed by Ingmar Bergman
While Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal often gets the praise and acclaim (which is certainly deserved as it was on this list), I personally consider my favorite film of his to be Wild Strawberries...though that title is closely battled by two of his other films: stay tuned for the 60s and 70s posts for the answer to that riddle!
Wild Strawberries tells the story of Isak Borg (Victor Sjostrom), a retired professor who is traveling with his pregnant and unhappy daughter-in-law Marianne to attend a ceremony at his Alma Mater in which he will receive an honorary degree.
While traveling, the pair encounter a series of hitchhikers, each of whom will make Isak recall various events from his past ranging from pure delight to miserable failures.
One of the hitchhikers is Sara, a beautiful young woman who reminds Isak of his first love.
Bergman casting Victor Sjostrom almost feels like a passing of the torch. Sjostrom was a true pioneer in the world of Swedish cinema as both an actor and a director. This would serve as his final performance as he would pass away 3 years after its release.
Wild Strawberries is one of those films that is dripping with melancholy, but manages to also give you a certain sense of warmth at the same time. The warmth aspect isn't always common in Bergman's work which is often why many mock him for being overly droll and too depressing. I think that might be why I love Wild Strawberries because it does give off a certain sense of variety while also still having that trademark Bergman gloominess and throwing in a trippy dream-like atmosphere for good measure.
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#2 - The 400 Blows (1959)
Directed by Francois Truffaut
The kinetic energy of what would become to be known as The French New Wave was a style of filmmaking I took to instantly as a young teenager...and you have to love that the final shot of the movie (the screenshot from above) was appropriately parodied on The Simpsons with that show's own lost and troubled Nelson Mandela Muntz.
See below:
Francois Truffaut kicked off the New Wave with a vengeance by giving us his semi-autobiographical The 400 Blows, the story of a young teenage boy named Antoine Doinel who is constantly getting into trouble, skipping school, and suffering from an erratic relationship with his mother and stepfather.
Even with the film's opening credit sequence, we already sense this is a film taking on a new approach on how a movie can be presented. The cinematography is somewhat rough and rocky and it sort of continues on the tradition of Italian Neorealism but the setting and aesthetics seem a little more flashy and cosmopolitan thanks to the Parisian settings.
Truffaut was, at times, a problematic character but when it comes to filmmakers talking about their work and others, he might be the one I was always drawn to because I usually found myself fascinated by what he had to say and how he would say it. You can tell that he had a strong connection to the character of Antoine since it was based on a lot of his own youthful escapades.
Truffaut would choose to revisit Antoine as he would get older (keeping actor Jean-Pierre Leaud in the role) and thus we got Antoine & Collette, Stolen Kisses, Bed & Board, and Love on the Run.
While I am not sure those films came close to matching The 400 Blows, I do feel they were all fairly worthy follow-ups...and despite Truffaut's talent, he never quite made a film that would reach the heights of his debut.
He peaked right out of the gate.
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#1 - Tokyo Story (1953)
Directed by Yosujiro Ozu
When discussing Early Summer, I said we would return to see Ozu's final installment of the trilogy soon enough...and that installment gets my vote for the best film of the 1950s.
Tokyo Story was Ozu's magnum opus and one of the true peaks of domestic drama in all of cinema. This is a film that is void of any real gimmicks or pretention or any kind of flashy style: it is all heart and emotion.
Instead of primarily focusing on the Noriko character in this selection, he focuses on an elderly couple: Shukishi & Tomi (Chishu Ryu & Chieko Higashiyama) who are making a trip from their small seaside village in northern Japan down to the bustling Tokyo to visit their children.
Their eldest son Kochi is a doctor and their daughter Shige is a hairdresser: neither they, nor their spouses, seem to have any real time to socialize with them. With the previous two outings, you find empathy with the young Noriko character because she thinks traditions should evolve over time...but with Tokyo Story, you can empathize with two people who simply just want to be with their children but keep getting turned away.
Here is where Ozu's masterstroke comes into play:
In this universe, Noriko was married to Shukishi and Tomi's middle son who was killed during WWII. Now widowed, the couple visits their daughter in law and it is with her, they find someone who is more than happy to give them all of the time in the world.
However, tragedy strikes not long after the visit which only further shows the divide between the children by blood and the child that is an in-law.
Tokyo Story is just a beautiful movie. You always hear stories about the horrors of dealing with in-laws but here we have someone who isn't even a blood relative providing the love and attention that true family can provide...and it is a daughter-in-law with the parents of her deceased husband.
In the end, your family is who you choose.
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IN CONCLUSION:
The 1950s were a vibrant decade and a truly landmark time for International Cinema. The conservative ideals of Hollywood at the time were far more detrimental than I think some would like to acknowledge and we did still see some strong efforts.
I just think American cinema did not truly meet the match of the rest of the world until the 1970s...but we are now coming up on the 1960s which is something of the Moment of Truth.
Coming up tomorrow (pending any strange delays): The Best of the 1960s!
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