A YEAR TO MARVEL AT - A Look at 1957 in Cinema

 Are you ready to party like its 1957?! ;-)

While I have highlighted certain years for celebrating a milestone anniversary, this is a case where I want to single out a year for cinema that has an overwhelming number of films that I consider masterpieces. That particular word can get thrown around a lot but, in this case, calling several of these films "masterpieces" is wholly justified.

I am going to dive into 1957, which is a year I have seen brought up before a few times by various film fanatics and historians but doesn't seem to be as mentioned as much as other big years like 1939 or 1999.

The 1950s were a fascinating decade for cinema in that it was a time when Hollywood was terrified a new bit of technology known as the television. The response to this led to many films becoming bigger and glossier; a bit more salacious and scandalous...well...as much as the decrepit Hays Code would allow. 

We'd see big sweeping epics like Giant or The Ten Commandments mixed with the pulpy soaps by Douglas Sirk. We are also in a period where colorful and extravagant musicals are on a high, with films like An American in Paris and (shudder) Gigi winning the Oscar for Best Picture.

Nowadays, the 50s are seen as backwards time in social and political arenas...rightly so...and from a cinematic standpoint, I never thought much of the 50s.

Or at least...I thought that was the case.

A few years ago, I was looking at various stats on my Letterboxd account and there is a feature that tells you what your highest ranked decades are for cinema. To my surprise, the 50s were actually #1...and it dawned on me.

I may not think much of the Hollywood output of cinema that decade...although some of the seeds are planted which will truly blossom once we reach the late 60s into the peak of the 1970s. When Hollywood struck gold with a film, usually it was with significant force.

However, the real reason the 50s ranked high for me were for one major reason: International Dominance.

While we as a country remained pretty stagnant when it came to the cinematic artform, the rest of the world was having an artistic renaissance: Italy, Japan, Sweden...all of them basically kicking our ass. 

This list, much like we saw on my list for 1960, is another one dominated by films not in the English Language...but of the ones that ARE in English, they are pretty damned fantastic. Diamonds among fuzz covered Ring Pops, if you will.

 I will be discussing 10 films for this list, and it just dawned on me that of these films, I would actually give at least 8-9 of these 5-star ratings. That is easily among the highest number of 5 stars I have given for a single year...so this is quite the list in my book.

Before I get into the list proper, I do want to give four films an HONORABLE MENTION:

Untamed Woman 

Directed by Mikio Naruse

Written by Yoko Mizuki

While perhaps not on the same level as some of Naruse's masterworks like When a Woman Ascends the Stairs or Late Chrysanthemums, I do think Untamed Woman (or just Untamed as it is sometimes called) is a fascinating film in that you have a female protagonist that is presented in such a strong and fierce manner. It is a striking contrast to the image of what you often got from Japanese heroines at that time, particularly from the subtly glorious Satsuko Hara in several Ozu films.

It makes this film feel far more modern for the era of Japan that is depicted here.

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Sweet Smell of Success

Directed by Alexander Mackendrick

Written by Clifford Odets & Ernest Lehman

It must be a pretty epic year for cinema when a film like Sweet Smell of Success can't even crack my top 10, but honestly, it's certainly not a knock at the film.

It is one of the most stylish and sinister films and a truly great dramatic satire of how powerful people can destroy the lives of others seemingly because they don't deem someone worthy to be in the orbit of someone they love.

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Le Notti Bianche

Written & Directed by Luchino Visconti

Co-written by Suso Cecchi d'Amico

Based on a short story by Fyodor Dostoevsky, Le Notti Bianche (or White Nights) is not as well-known as some of Viconti's other efforts such as The Leopard or Rocco and His Brothers, both films to come in the 1960s. 

The story is simple: a young woman named Natalia (Maria Schell) is waiting next to a canal bridge for her lover to return. A man by the name of Mario (Marcello Mastroianni) notices her, but when she notices his presence, she tries to run away only to nearly get struck by a motorcycle. When the rider tries to woo her, Mario makes them go away and tries to learn more about her. 

Le Notti Bianche is a beautiful film that might flirt with being a little bit slight at times, but it also feels very passionate and romantic in a realistic way. The ending helps ground it quite a bit as it does seem like an outcome you would likely face if something like this happened to you in real life, but it still gives you hope somehow at the same time. 

A tender and beautiful little film that also has some of the most gorgeously filmed snow sequences I have seen.

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Paths of Glory 

Written & Directed by Stanley Kubrick

Co-written by Calder Willingham & Jim Thompson

I am also just as surprised as some of you that I didn't include Stanley Kubrick's anti-war epic in my top 10, but I do think in some ways, I consider it a film that I always admired a bit more than I truly love. The crazy thing is that when I think of Kubrick as a filmmaker, Paths of Glory is the one film of his that is ranked among his true masterworks that I somehow forget about.

Maybe it's due to the fact it came out earlier in his career? That certainly isn't a fair reason...but I do attest that the film is truly strong and feels like a breath of fresh air (which is an odd analogy to use here but so be it) due to the fact that anti-war films in this manner felt so rare at that time.

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#10 - A Face in the Crowd

Directed by Elia Kazan 

Written by Budd Schulberg

Although it received mixed reviews upon its actual release, A Face in the Crowd has endured in ways that sadly feel very prescient in today's society. 

The film revolves around a southern man named Larry 'Lonseome' Rhoades (Andy Griffith) who manages to ascend from being a guitar player from the Ozarks to being a political king maker, all through the power of that new highfalutin contraption known as the television.

Words cannot begin to express how truly exceptional Andy Griffith is in this. In many ways, this was his true breakout role after he had received glowing notices in the comedic play No Time for Sergeants on Broadway. 

When most of us think of Griffith today, you think of him as Sheriff Andy Taylor on his titular 60s sitcom or the folksy lawyer Matlock, but here, Griffith is crazed and volatile. It is such a villainous turn that made himself feel so uncomfortable that he vowed to never take a role like it again.

If anything, it proves that Griffith could've had a stellar dramatic career if he wanted it.

Oh, and at one point in the film, Griffith refers to himself as "an influencer".

This film has sadly aged like the finest of wines. 

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#9 - Witness for the Prosecution

Written & Directed by Billy Wilder

When it comes to the variety and structure from filmmakers who predominantly came up during the supposed Golden Age of Hollywood, look no further when it comes to Billy Wilder for provided so many fantastic efforts time and time again.

For every dark and brooding film such as The Lost Weekend or Sunset Boulevard, you get the sillier or even intellectual comedies like Some Like it Hot or The Apartment.

Coming out the same year as the solid romantic comedy Love in the Afternoon starring Audrey Hepburn and Gary Cooper, Witness for the Prosecution, based on a story by Agatha Christie, is the perfect way to showcase how versatile Billy Wilder was...but what is remarkable about this effort is how he can seamlessly flow black comedy and film noir into a courtroom drama. 

Barrister Sir Wilfrid Robarts (the imitable Charles Loughton) is about to retire having recently suffering a heart attack. He is advised by his private nurse Miss Plimsoll (Elsa Lanchester, Loughton's real-life wife) to not take any cases that will prove too stressful for him.

This comes up as he has agreed to defend Leonard Cole (Tyone Power), a man who has been accused of killing a wealthy widow named Emily who had named him as a beneficiary in her will. Even though a spouse cannot be forced to testify against their partner, Leonard's wife Christine (Marlene Dietrich) has agreed to do so...but there is more to Chrstine and the whole ordeal than meets the eye.

Witness for the Prosecution has got to be one of the juiciest and most entertaining courtroom dramas to ever come out of Hollywood. The acting, the writing, the directing, the pacing...it is all sublime.

Just 3 years after its release, Alfred Hitchcock was adamant about audiences keeping the twists of Psycho a secret, but I do think a film like Witness for the Prosecution also benefits for going in blind. Screenings at the time even encouraged audience members not to discuss the ending.

All of it still holds up remarkably well!

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#8 - The Bridge on the River Kwai

Directed by David Lean

Written by Carl Foreman & Michael Wilson

I've brought up the idea of how lists can sometimes be unfair to films because you're essentially comparing them to other films of varying sizes and genres. This becomes even more problematic when you take award competitions into account.

With a film like The Bridge on the River Kwai, it shows that strong film can be worthy to win the top honor of Best Picture and be among the top 20 greatest winners of all time (in my opinion) and yet it is STILL not even the best film of that year in your eyes. 

Of the 5 nominees that year, it would've come in 2nd place for me behind a film that will come up later on this list...while 3rd place would've been the film I mentioned prior to this: Witness for the Prosecution. 

David Lean is most remembered these days for his sweeping epics that somehow act as character studies at the same time, like Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, and A Passage to India but I do think Bridge is a film that literally did bridge from his earlier, quieter efforts.

*Side note: my favorite Lean film would be in 1946's Brief Encounter.

At any rate, Bridge is a one of those films that works so well because even though you know exactly what will happen, it is still executed in a way to keep you on your toes and finds way to subvert your expectations.

Written in secret by Carl Foreman & Michael Wilson as they were on the Hollywood Blacklist at the time (translation: HOW DARE YOU BE PROGRESSIVELY MINDED PEOPLE!!!!), the film centers on English POWs who are building a bridge in Burma to appease their Japanese captors during WWII.

The commander of the group, Col. Nicholson (Sir Alec Guinness...known more these days as Obi Won Kenobi), finds himself taking a sense of pride in the project and wants to see it succeed. He is so invested that he is willing to foil the plans of the British and American intelligence officers who are secretly seeking to destroy the bridge.

It may suffer a bit from certain characterizations and depictions, but it makes up for it in the sheer level of direction and technical artistry on display.

Also - the memorable "Colonel Bogey March" that the POWs whistle as they enter the camp is truly an indelible moment. 

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#7 - The Cranes Are Flying

Directed by Mikhail Kalatozov

Written by Viktor Rozov

Quite possibly the best film to come out what was then the Soviet Union prior to the explosion of Andrei Tarkovsky in the 60s and 70s, The Cranes are Flying is a truly stunning piece of work.

From a technical standpoint, this has to be some of the best B&W cinematography ever captured. It is a marvel for its time period and that they were able to achieve the shots they did.

Beyond that though, my history with The Cranes Are Flying is one of those classic films that I wavered on when I first saw it years ago. It wasn't that I hated it or even disliked it; I just found it one of those films that I admired but never really LOVED.

What changed for me? Time/maturity I suppose.

I do find it fascinating how certain films can fade for you over time while others grow in esteem, and this was one that went from being "what a well-made film" to "that was an absolutely glorious and devastating masterpiece.

It may be a "war is hell" film in theory, but it is also a very captivating and tragic romance. Uncomfortable and unsettling in ways true dark cinema should be. 

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#6 - Throne of Blood

Written & Directed by Akira Kurosawa

Co-written by Shinobu Hashimoto, Ryuzo Kikushima, & Hideo Uguni

While certain creative liberties were made to the story due to its setting being moved from Scotland to feudal Japan, Throne of Blood might be the best film adaptation of William Shakespeare's seminal bloody epic Macbeth.

Kurosawa is arguably considered not just a seminal filmmaker for Japanese cinema, but for the artform as a whole. Very few people have the kind of claim on the level of influence and inspiration to cinema as Kurosawa does to this day.

Even a film like Throne of Blood is a 5-star masterpiece and it is somehow not even one of his 5 best films. That is a truly remarkable feat, and only certain filmmakers such as Ingmar Bergman and Yosujiro Ozu could boast such a similar track record in my book.

Here we have Kurosawa's frequent muse Toshiro Mifune as the Macbeth counterpart Washizu with Izuzu Yamada as Lady Washizu...and they are both positively glorious in this. Both of these performers are always luminous and there is a reason Kurosawa kept returning to Mifune time and time again. Yamada is one of the most striking screen presences you can find in the 50s, and we will also be seeing her in another film coming up shortly on this list.

Back when the film was released, Bosley Crowther of The New York Times spoke highly of the film's visuals but dismissed the idea of Shakespeare being done in Japanese as "amusing". Truthfully, I shouldn't be that surprised; it was 1950s America in a nutshell.

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#5 - Nights of Cabiria

Written & Directed by Federico Fellini 

Co-written by Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli, & Pier Paolo Pasolini

Has there even been a filmmaker who created works with such a zest for life and a sumptuous appeal quite like Federico Fellini.

Every frame of his works bursts with gusto and bravado and passion and emotion until its overflows the edge of the screen...and what makes Nights of Cabiria stand out all the more is that it one of his films to feature his wife in the lead: the incandescent Guilietta Masina.

Masina plays the titular Cabiria, a sex worker who is having a playful rendezvous with her lover Giorgio. Unaware of his criminal background and intentions, he steals her purse of its belongings and pushes her into the nearby river to drown. After she is saved by a group nearby, she tries her best to move on with her life and to make the best of it...and just when she thinks she may have finally found her meal ticket out of this life of gloom and misery, it may not be what she truly expected.

If this sounds a little familiar to you, Nights of Cabiria was the main basis for the 1966 musical Sweet Charity which greatly toned down a lot of the darker story beats and it was also a major inspiration for Sean Baker's award winning Anora, particularly with Mikey Madison as she prepped for the role.

Fellini had come up in the Italian film industry under Roberto Rossellini, who was a forefather in the Neorealist movement which was often very gritty in its approach. You can see this style in a lot of Fellini's earlier works, particularly in the film that preceded this one, La Strada which also starred Masina.

Nights of Cabiria is the film that bridges that grittier era with the effervescent vibrancy that would become synonymous with Fellini and his future efforts like La Dolce Vita, 8 1/2, and Amarcord. As glorious as the film is in every respect, if I can recommend it for one thing, it would be to see Guilietta Masina treat you to an acting masterclass.   

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#4 - The Seventh Seal

Written & Directed by Ingmar Bergman

It feels weird for me to be ranking The Seventh Seal at #4, but I am thinking a bit more with my heart than my head in this case. Objectively, The Seventh Seal is often considered by many to be the pinnacle of Ingmar Bergman's career and one of the greatest films ever committed to celluloid.

I am certainly one of those people, but there are three other films from 1957 that I have a certain fondness for just a tad more...even if the overall presentation of The Seventh Seal is truly a work of art.

Quite possibly one of the starkest and most ominous films ever made, The Seventh Seal is a story about coming to terms with death...or rather challenging death. A knight by the name of Antonius Block (the legendary Max von Sydow) has returned home from the Crusades. He finds his country is currently within the grasp of the Black Death (Bengt Ekerot) and challenges him to a chess match.

This battle to a literal death is one of torment for Block as he has no belief in a God, but he would like to try to achieve one act of redemption while he is still alive.

You can always count on Ingmar Bergman to deliver something that is going to be profound and also leave you in a state of existential dread. It is one of the deepest and most complex films you could ever have the pleasure of watching, but it also leaves you with a lot to chew on. 

It is hard to truly convey the kind of palpable mood/vibe that Bergman is often able to achieve in film after film...but I still have more to say about Bergman. 

We will be back with him shortly.

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#3 - Tokyo Twilight

Written & Directed by Yosujiro Ozu

Co-written by Kogo Noda

I am probably one of the biggest Ozu fanboys you can find, and I will sing his praises until the cows come home.

You always hear about Tokyo Story or the handful of films he has made revolving around seasons (Late Spring, Early Autumn, etc...) and yes, those films are clear masterpieces in their own right and have earned their places as Ozu's finest efforts.

However, I do think Tokyo Twilight deserves to be mentioned with this group. It is not frequently as mentioned or as screened as his other works, and it also happens to be (arguably) his bleakest effort. 

Ozu's main focus was usually domestic dramas in the postwar years of Japan and while he typically would zero in on the traditions expected of women from a patriarchal lens and the flaws therein, Tokyo Twilight takes his muse, Setsuko Hara as Takako, and Ineko Arima as her younger sister Akiko and places them in a story that flirts more with the melodramatic and salacious storylines you might find in a Douglas Sirk film but heightened to the level of a very taut character study.

Takako is in an unhappy marriage and chooses to run away with her young daughter to live with Akiko and their father Shukichi (Chishu Ryu). Akiko also happens to be pregnant by her boyfriend but opts to get an abortion. While going to search for her boyfriend to talk to him about this, she comes across a lady named Kisako (Isuzu Yamada) who owns a mahjong parlor and seems to be knowledgeable of her family.

When Takako hears about this, they all determine that Kisako is their long-lost mother who had abandoned them as children...and the emotions swell with this reveal that it makes the family come to terms with everything else going on in their lives.

Ozu has always been a subdued filmmaker and even when dealing with a more chaotic series of storylines such as these, he keeps them grounded although no other film of his sense to be drenched in a sense of sadness like this one is. I shudder to think how Hollywood would've handled a story like this, but under Ozu's hand, it feels emotionally rich and profound.

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#2 - 12 Angry Men

Directed by Sidney Lumet

Written by Reginald Rose

What can truly be said about how masterful of an effort 12 Angry Men is?

This has got to be one of the most effective and perfectly plotted dramas, legal based or otherwise, that has ever come out of any artform. Aside from being an old B&W film that takes place mainly in one room, 12 Angry Men is one of those films where if you haven't seen it, you've certainly seen the plot be referenced in other mediums.

In fact, I believe my first introduction to the concept of reasonable doubt with one juror going against the others was done on the seminal Nickelodeon Nicktoon Hey Arnold! where Arnold is the only one who believes Eugene didn't pull the fire alarm and has to convince the student jury otherwise.

Set mostly within the confines of a single room, 12 Angry Men revolves around a group of jurors who are to deliberate on whether a teenager is innocent or guilty of murder on the basis of reasonable doubt. 

11 of the jurors vote "guilty", but one juror, #8 (Henry Fonda) votes "not guilty"...and thus begins the spiral amongst this group of men as their own morals and prejudices cloud their judgment, in some cases for the worse. 

The remarkable thing about this ensemble is that we never learn any of their names. At best, we learn some of their surnames, but each of them (some more minor than others) has such distinct characteristics that they don't feel artificial or cartoonish. Even the smaller roles of the ensemble are pretty well defined.

Aside from Henry Fonda, this cast has some truly heavy-hitting character actors such as Martin Balsam, Jack Klugman, E.G. Marshall, Jack Warden, Ed Begley, and perhaps the one who steals the show, Lee J. Cobb as Juror #3, a very hot-headed owner of a messenger service who is estranged from his son but is the most passionate about putting this teenager behind bars.

A truly stellar adaptation from Reginald Rose of his teleplay and a very strong debut for director Sidney Lumet, who would go on to direct such all-timers as Dog Day Afternoon and Network, two of the finest films of the 1970s.

Objectively, this film and my #1 choice could easily alternate. Both of them achieve something magical and what I would consider to be as close to perfection as you can find on film. 

Perhaps 12 Angry Men might be a bit more of an accessible watch that truly stands the test of time, but my #1 choice was a film that resonated with me in terms of its story and its glorious execution and visuals.

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#1 - Wild Strawberries

Written & Directed by Ingmar Bergman 

Perhaps a little bit of a plot twist for this list considering it is the other Bergman film I brought up that gets the groundswell of attention and acclaim. That isn't to say that Wild Strawberries doesn't, but it does seem to be a film that isn't as frequently brought up compared to other films in his filmography.

The interesting thing about Wild Strawberries in its relation to The Seventh Seal is that they are basically companion pieces on what exactly someone's mortality means to them.

While The Seventh Seal was a bit starker and brooding in the idea of death, Wild Strawberries takes on a whimsical, sentimental, though still unsettling tone at times. 

The film follows Professor Isak Borg (acting/filmmaking pioneer Victor Sjostrom in his final screen appearance), a 78-year-old widower who specialized in bacteriology. He is grumpy, cynical, and not exactly the most pleasant person to be around. With his pregnant daughter-in-law Marianne traveling with him (she doesn't like him very much), they are on long car ride from Stockholm to Lund where Borg will be receiving a Doctor Jubilaris from Lund University. To add to the tension, Marianne wants to separate from Borg's son Evald who also would rather her abort the child. 

Along the way, they meet a series of hitchhikers who bring out past experiences, dreams, and nightmares that make Borg think about how he has lived his life up to that point.

I have always been one to champion darker films that don't shy away from making you feel uncomfortable, which is also one of the reasons why I responded so strongly to Ingmar Bergman's work from the moment I first saw some of his work as a teenager. 

And yet...I find myself drawn to Wild Strawberries because while it might have a certain gloss to it compared to some of his other films, there is a palpable emotion here that feels bittersweet and oddly comforting. I also think some of the dream sequences in this are the best of its kind to ever be captured in a film.

In some ways, Wild Strawberries has dashes of being a variation of A Christmas Carol where a grouchy and insufferable man is forced to confront his past and to see how many aspects of his life are far poorer than the money he may have in the bank. In the end, he may be showered with praise by his peers, but it is still not truly fulfilling. 

It would be like Pippin in his titular musical saying, "I thought there'd be more plumes". Borg does find some semblance of peace in what matters most. Perhaps maybe now he could have time to fix it rather than having the joy be a memory from the past.

With the one-two punch of The Seventh Seal and Wild Strawberries, Ingmar Bergman may have had the greatest year a single filmmaker had ever had. Not one but TWO masterpieces that are worthy of being considered among the best films of not just the 1950s, but of all time. 

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FINAL THOUGHTS:

It's not like I buried the Lede when I said that 1957 was going to be a pretty stellar year for cinema, but after writing about these films, all I can think is that is pretty impressive. 

It is more common these days for me to watch various films in a given year and be like "What film would even be worthy to be #5 on this top 10 list let alone #1?!" 

You have masterful efforts from the likes of Kurosawa, Ozu, Wilder, Lumet, and FREAKING TWO all-timers from Bergman. You simply can't go wrong with that; it is a true embarrassment of riches.

I might end up spending a little more time with 50s cinema coming up, especially since 1950 is celebrating its Diamond Anniversary this year. I tend to often stick to the 70s and beyond so it'll be a bit of a change of pace to go a bit further back in time.