THIS IS MY 200th POST WRITING ON THIS BLOG. THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HAS STUCK BY READING ME RAMBLE ON ABOUT FILM (and occasionally TV and Theatre...) FOR THE PAST DECADE.
I APPRECIATE EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU!
Often times, I end up spoiling what to expect with my upcoming lists. Not only have already stated or hinted at a couple of films that will be making an appearance on this list, but I also stated that this is often considered one of the strongest years for cinema in history.
I happen to agree with that statement. While I might honestly prefer 1960 a bit more, I think there is a wealth to explore within '62...and there will be more films from the Hollywood scene making an appearance here.
HOWEVER - the majority of them will be listed as Honorable Mention.
Yep, that's right...the Honorable Mentions are back for this round! I will be listing SIX films in that category and of those, four of them are in English.
However, the top 10 will still be tilted towards the rest of the world with only THREE Hollywood films making the cut. Let's get started with our Honorable Mentions and with one film that contains a one-two punch of excellent Oscar winning performances.
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HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Cape Fear
Directed by J. Lee Thompson
Written by James R. Webb
While most people know this material from Martin Scorsese's 1991 remake with Robert DeNiro ("Counselor...come out, come out wherever you are!) which in turn helped inspire the absolutely brilliant parody on The Simpsons where Sideshow Bob tries yet again to kill Bart ("Nobody who speaks German can be an evil man!), I personally cannot forget this original effort and a lot of that is due to the undeniably fascinating presence that Robert Mitchum had as an actor.
Known for often playing vile men just like the role of Max Cady here, Mitchum can play sinister like very few actors could. Here, his Max Cady is out for revenge against Sam Bowden, an attorney played by Gregory Peck, who helped put him behind bars several years before...and he is ready to target not just Sam, but his whole family.
Cape Fear is an early glimpse into the darker material Hollywood would eventually churn out in another decade or so, and while maybe not as stellar as some of the films ahead of it, I do greatly admire what it accomplishes.
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Days of Wine & Roses
Directed by Blake Edwards
Written by JP Miller
If you were to say the name "Blake Edwards", normally films like The Pink Panther or Victor/Victoria or Breakfast at Tiffany's come to mind for me. He was very good at sly comedies and dramas that still had a bit of whimsy to them...which is why Days of Wine & Roses does play as a bit of a surprise considering its a darker dive into the dissolution of a marriage thanks to alcholism.
Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick (a truly underrated actress) both give devastating performances as Joe and Kristen, with the former introducing Kristen to the joys of drinking socially after having spent all of her adult life as a teetotaler. Kristen consumes a few Brandy Alexanders and realizes that she loves how drinking makes her feel...and from there, the two get married, have a daughter, and descend into full-blown alcoholism.
Joe eventually finds his way out, but it is the one whom he persuaded to drink that is still left behind. Maybe it does flirt a bit with melodrama, but Edwards does wonders here and it helps that Lemmon and Remick are at the top of their game.
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The Miracle Worker
Directed by Arthur Penn
Written by William Gibson
A legendary film based on a highly regarded play which in turn was based on the true story/1903 autobiography "The Story of My Life" by Helen Keller. As many may know even without seeing the film, Helen Keller had become deaf, blind, and mute from a severe illness at infancy. She eventually would learn to communicate with others with the work of the tireless and passionate tutor Anne Sullivan.
Anne Bancroft won her only Oscar for her work as Sullivan, although her win is often overshadowed by the drama caused by Bette Davis and Joan Crawford...which we will get to later.
Patty Duke became, to that date, the youngest person to win a competitive Oscar and while I would argue another person should've won (more on that later as well), Duke is still immensely deserving in her own right. The rigorous and rather combative work these two accomplish together has got to be some of the finest acting put onscreen up to that point. Some of their more intense scenes were so intense that each of them had to wear extensive padding under their costumes...and this also happened 8 TIMES A WEEK when Bancroft and Duke originated the roles on Broadway.
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L'Eclisse
Written & Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni
Co-written by Tonio Guerra, Elio Bartolini, & Ottiero Ottieri
Gather around everyone! Antonioni is back with the third and final entry in the "MONICA VITTI IS A HARLOT!" trilogy. Okay, I kid...it is more complicated than that.
As I stated following the 1960 entry of L'Avventura and the 1961 entry of La Notte, we now get L'Eclisse....but only as an Honorable Mention this time. When a young woman named Vittoria (Vitti) ends her most recent relationship, she tries to regroup and visits her mother at the chaotic Rome Stock Exchange. While there, she overhears a young stockbroker and takes an interest in him. That would be Piero (Alain Delon), who just so happens to be her mother's personal stockbroker.
L'Eclisse is a film that does suffer from one very glaring attribute: blackface.
Monica Vitti does blackface in a scene in which she is talking to one of her neighbors who is a white colonialist...and to be frank, it is a very offensive moment although what DOES work about it is how much it makes these rather well off rich (racist) people look absolutely pathetic as they drown in their ennui and first world problems.
Antonioni did seem to always epitomize a certain type of glamour or allure in his work, but it could be seen as alienating in a lot of ways. I do think I had to grow to appreciate his work more over time, and even so, I still wouldn't rank him as being one of my all-time favorite filmmakers. Nevertheless, he did treat film in a very poetic and literal sense and sometimes I can't help but value that.
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Jules & Jim
Written & Directed by Francois Truffaut
Co-written by Jean Gruault
As Francois Truffaut's third feature film, Jules & Jim was seen as a return-to-form following his sophomore outing Shoot the Piano Player, which I also still like a lot.
While it doesn't compare to his exquisite film debut with The 400 Blows, there is a lot to find charming about his take on a love trial set before, during, and after WWI in Paris. We meet Jim (Henri Serre), a French bohemian along with his timid best friend from Austria named Jules (Oskar Werner).
The two of them both have an encounter with a vivacious and free-spirited woman named Catherine (Jeanne Moreau) and take to her instantly. All 3 of them make for an inseperable trio, even though it is shy Jules who ends up wooing her to be his partner and eventually her husband. All the while, Jim can't help but pine for Catherine...and perhaps Jim may get his wish.
Truthfully, when I first saw Jules & Jim I wasn't quite expecting the darker turns that it did take. Serre, Werner, and especially Moreau are all splendid here.
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Sanjuro
Written & Directed by Akira Kurosawa
Co-written by Ryuzo Kikushima & Hideo Uguni
As the sequel to 1961's Yojimbo, I am by no means saying that the quality of Sanjuro is less than its predecessor, but it is also isn't helped by the fact that 1962 is such a strong year by comparison.
You have the imminent Toshiro Mifune back as our ronin, and somehow, it proves to be an even funnier and far more violent film than the last outing. Also, the film manages to be relatively short (a little over 90 minutes) and it is a joy to just watch Mifune bemoan about how he is surrounded by idiots for most of the time.
Was Mifune one of the greatest actors to have ever lived? Yes, of course, I am not an idiot!
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#10 - WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?
Directed by Robert Aldrich
Written by Lukas Heller
Leave it to Hollywood. One might think "Oh! Look at what an event it was for people to see two legends like Bette Davis and Joan Crawford in this film together. These veteran stars are still viable and we should cast them more!"
Instead, it became: "Oooohhhh...which old crone over the archaic age of 50 could star in this knock of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" The sad truth is that Baby Jane unearthed a new form of film horror known as "hagsploitation" which did exactly as I just said. Also, I am not saying that ageism is no longer issue for women in film these days, but it does seem truly depressing how Hollywood looked at someone like Bette Davis who had given some of the finest performances of that era and said..."Naahhhh! She's...she's..53..." and then proceed to scream in terror for the next 45 minutes.
Aside from the ageism and, frankly, not going into the discord between Davis and Crawford, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? is such a delicious and campy psychological horror treat.
Jane Hudson (Davis) had been a child star of vaudeville who got a lot of love and accolades from her family and the public, meanwhile her sister Blanche (Joan Crawford) lived in her shadow and endured a lot of abuse from their father and not much support from their mother.
And yet...SURPRISE! As an adult, Jane's career floundered while Blanche became a highly respected actress, much to the dismay of Jane who longs for the glory days. However, Blanche's career is cut short when she is involved in a car accident that leaves her paralyzed. Jane, who had been on a 3 day drunken stupor, is considered to be the cause of the accident.
Now the two live in a house that Blanche had been able to purchase from her savings, but Jane is about to find the means to stage a comeback...by writing a letter to daddy. If you know, you know... ;-)
Did Bette Davis deserve to actually win Best Actress that year? Honestly, it would've been deserved. Bancroft deserved it too, but we also have one other contender I might've considered instead. Stay tuned for that one!
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#9 - VIVRE SA VIE
Written & Directed by Jean-Luc Godard
What could one say about Jean-Luc Godard? He was a bit of an interesting and mythical figure in a lot of ways, perhaps even more so than anyone else who came from either Cahiers du Cinema and/or The French New Wave. Overtly political, he often expressed Marxist and at one time, even identified as a Maoist which led to him clashing with Jane Fonda on the set of Tout va Bien. Perhaps more problematically, he was frequently labeled an antisemitic and that he might have harbored sexist tendencies on top of that.
If I were to label him strictly as a filmmaker, even at that stage I wouldn't call him my favorite of the French New Wave. I feel like I responded more to Francois Truffaut or Jacques Demy or Agnes Varda in that respect. If I can say anything about Godard as praise, I do admire the experimentation he attempted with film or what one would consider a film to actually be.
While nowhere the eventual abstract nature he would eventually become accustomed to, I have always considered Vivre sa vie to be my favorite of his works...even over Breathless; perhaps battling for the title with Pierrot le Fou.
Anna Karina is 22 year old Nana, a woman who is seeking more out of life and asks her husband Paul for a divorce so she can go off to be an actress. In the process, she is also giving up custody of her infant son. Not everything will work out smoothly for her as her desire for stardom soon leads her into a world of prostitution.
Could one read this as Godard saying "if only the woman stayed at home"? I suppose so...and that certainly goes along with the idea of him being a sexist. However, the film works so well thanks to Anna Karina's performance as Nana. She gives this character so much depth and humanity when she easily could come across as truly despicable at every turn...sort of in a similar vein as Harriet Andersson in Summer with Monika only on a darker level. I would certainly rank her as giving one of the finest performances of the 1960s at the very least.
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#8 - THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL
Written & Directed by Luis Bunuel
French filmmakers, a lot like the Brits across the Channel, do love tackling the idea of class and putting the rich through hell.
Jean Renoir did it with The Rules of the Game which is one of the gold standards, but Luis Bunuel practically honed it into an artform, with one of the best examples being The Exterminating Angel.
A group of guests gather at a very lavish dinner party at a mansion, but some mysterious force seems to keep them all there even when they express a desire to go. As the days go by, the eloquent and sophisticated attributes of these partygoers descends into something more savage and scathing...as if they are suddenly the 1% taking up a lifestyle more akin to Lord of the Flies.
The idea of watching the rich suffer is something most people love to do. It was part of the reason the primetime soap opera boom of the 1980s was so popular, and why films like Parasite managed to overcome the foreign "stigma" and become a worldwide sensation in a way very few foreign films are.
The Exterminating Angel is cynically and hilariously funny, but that is in the darkest sense possible. Bunuel takes us into some pretty distressing places, but hey...I guess maybe there is one line that rings very true: "I believe the common people, the lower class people, are less sensitive to pain".
EAT THE RICH!!
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#7 - THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE
Directed by John Frankenheimer
Written by George Axelrod
Back in my middle and high school days, I found it fascinating when my classmates would respond positively to certain films that I might've expected them to find dull.
There were some examples of them not being particularly enthused. I remember my 6th Grade music teacher showing us The Sound of Music and most of the class was bored. Two years later in the same class, we were shown Amadeus which everyone adored.
I had already seen The Manchurian Candidate before we watched it in my AP 20th Century History class my junior year, but I was curious how my class would respond to it. For a film made in 1962, it DOES have a bit more bite to it; a sign of what was to come from our cinematic output by the end of the decade...and due to that, they were over the moon with it.
The Manchurian Candidate is a chilling thriller revolving around Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey), a Korean War vet who had been captured and brainwashed by communists. Once he returns to the United States, he falls into being an assassin as part of a communist conspiracy.
This is likely one of the more seen and known entries on this list, so I may not delve into this one as much.
HOWEVER - I did want to single out Angela Lansbury, who plays Raymond Shaw's mother Eleanor Shaw-Iselin, who married Senator John Iselin. He is the Vice Presidential nominee for the upcoming election but the goal is for the main candidate to be assassinated so that John Iselin can become the nominee by default.
Lansbury is the person I referred to earlier when I said that I would've voted for someone else other than Patty Duke, but it just goes to show how problematic some of these awards competitions can be. Most of us think as Lansbury these days for her work as Jessica Fletcher on Murder, She Wrote or her legendary streak of Broadway musical performances from Mame to Sweeney Todd or the fact that she was the voice of Mrs. Potts in Beauty & The Beast.
To see her in this role was an absolute mindblower for me when I first saw it. Her screen presence is pure power and could send a shiver down your spine.
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#6 - LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT
Directed by Sidney Lumet
Written by Eugene O'Neill
The fact that this film is only #7 on this list is a clear example of how strong of a year 1962 is, because I am typically a sucker for this material
Long Day's Journey into Night is the semi-autobiographical magnum opus of the luminous playwright Eugene O'Neill, who had passed away nearly a decade prior to the film getting released. In fact, he had written the play more so to work out his own family and personal demons and forbid anyone to produce it as a play even after he passed away.
When he did pass in 1953, his widow Carlotta insisted it be published. O'Neill had given a sealed manuscript of the play to Random House saying they should wait for it to be published 25 years following his death. He sent another sealed copy to the O'Neill Collection at Yale.
The results were truly stunning. I would gladly accept the claim of someone calling it the finest play ever written, and as expected, the film does excel because they use O'Neill's text without any real adjustment aside from making the film a bit more cinematic in its staging.
We watch a family crumble to their various dysfunctions throughout a single day, which includes father James (Ralph Richardson), mother Mary (Katharine Hepburn), eldest son Jamie (Jason Robards), and youngest son Edmund (Dean Stockwell).
Each of them has various resentments and bitter feelings towards the others...to put it mildly...and all of this leads up younger Edmund developing what is believed to be tuberculosis and Mary falling captive to her morphine addiction.
I have never exactly been as passionate a fan of Katharine Hepburn compared to some of her contemporaries (I responded more to Bette Davis typically), but this might very well be the finest Hepburn had ever been in a film. Mary Tyrone is such a devastating and difficult role and frankly, I think she should've won an Oscar for this over Bancroft and Davis and Remick (there was also Geraldine Page in Sweet Bird of Youth).
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#5 - IVAN'S CHILDHOOD
Written & Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky
(Although he was uncredited for writing it)
Co-written by Vladimir Bogomolov, Andrei Konchalovsky, & Mikhail Papava
It is always a treat when I get to discuss a filmmaker who hit a bullseye on their first go-round. While not as abstract or challenging as his later films would be, Ivan's Childhood is a clear sign that this Andrei Tarkovsky fellow would be going places.
Upon its release, the Soviet Union was still in the midst of the Khrushchev Thaw, which was the ease on censorship and a quest of finding a "peaceful coexistence" with other nations following the reign of Joseph Stalin.
What better way to go after that kind of ideal than looking into the horrors of war and how it can deeply affect young children? Based on Vladmir Bogomolov's short story "Ivan", Ivan's Childhood focuses on the titular 12-year old boy who is left orphaned following his parents' murder by German forces in the midst of WWII.
Even though Tarkovsky felt passionate about conveying his hatred of war, he certainly didn't feel the film was as strong as it could of been. It may not be his best work, but I would argue that the emotional weight of it is a lot stronger. Perhaps that might be due to the film being a little more "accessible" than say Stalker or Mirror.
In the end, the artist may always bemoan their work while others praise it. Tarkovsky would further develop his craft, but considering it was his debut, he gave us one of the most beautiful and poetic war-themed films ever made.
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#4 - LAWRENCE OF ARABIA
Directed by David Lean
Written by Robert Bolt & Michael Wilson
If I were to be basing this list off of what film is most often selected as the best film from 1962, it just seems like Lawrence of Arabia would be the likely candidate.
Looking at a film like this, one might just see it as a grand sweeping epic of such scale that perhaps some directors would've relied simply on that to carry everything. Certainly it IS an epic of that scale, but David Lean was the kind of filmmaker who could find a way to portray a strong character arc within the cacophony.
Lawrence of Arabia manages to be an excellent character study that masquerades as a sweeping epic. Lean's take on the involvement of the British in Arabia is rather biting and cynical, and he certainly doesn't shy away from T.E. Lawrence's (a remarkable Peter O'Toole) tendency to be obsessed with himself and how that can cloud some of his own judgements.
Much like with The Manchurian Candidate, this is likely one of the more widely seen films on this list and I am not sure I have as much to offer to the discourse either. I will admit that perhaps this is one of those films that I admire greatly as a whole rather than the sum of its parts. It can be a bit slow moving at times, but I can't help but marvel at what David Lean accomplished here...but considering I am one of those film people who thinks Lean's best film was Brief Encounter, maybe that comment shouldn't come as a surprise.
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#3 - AN AUTUMN AFTERNOON
Written & Directed by Yosujiro Ozu
I would be remiss if I didn't say I felt a tinge of sadness as I began writing this. When I wrote about The End of Summer on my 1961 post, I mentioned we would be getting Ozu's swan song for 1962.
When it comes to a grand finale, I think Ozu should be very pleased that he was able to go out with something like An Autumn Afternoon, which I think is one of his best. Perhaps the only unfortunate aspect is that his frequent muse Setsuko Hara is not featured here, but we still have a strong ensemble of Ozu regulars including Chishu Ryu and Shima Iwashita.
As for what Ozu gives us with An Autumn Afternoon, he sticks very closely to his usual themes: family, societal expectations, and the patriarchy.
Ryu plays Shuhei, a widower with 3 adult children. The only daughter Michiko (Iwashita), who is 24, is still single and he feels he has a duty to see to it that she gets married...so in true Anatevka fashion, he tried to arrange a marriage for her.
What I always find so remarkable about Ozu's work is that he challenges some of the stuffier and archaic customs of his home country, but always does it in a way that doesn't feel preachy or melodramatic. He also handles all of his characters with grace and dignity. Ozu was a filmmaker who had no ounce of pretension; for every flash provided by Kurosawa or Mizoguchi or Teshighara or Kobayashi, Ozu was there (along with Mikio Naruse) to provide the quiet and genteel dramas and bittersweet slice-of-life stories.
In some ways, it makes me think of Ingmar Begman...although not necessarily in the visual aesthetic area as Bergman could be seen as very distinct in his style...but the comparison for me is that both he and Ozu relied a lot on the face of their actors to be their canvas.
I treasure Ozu's work, and while at first glance he may seem a bit static, the passion brimming in his work is rather glorious...and I wish I could've had more of his films to discuss for the 60s. However, one of these days I will tackle the 40s and 50s which will give me a chance to go gaga for him again.
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#2 - HARAKIRI
Directed by Masaki Kobayashi
Written by Shinobi Hashimoto
When I wrote about Kobayashi's A Soldier's Prayer in my 1961 post, I mentioned that another one of his films is the current reigning #1 film on Letterboxd as of this writing: Harakiri.
Samurai films are certainly known for their action sequences, and sure, those are done to absolute perfection here, but what makes Harakiri so spellbinding is how its story is structured and how well it uses the flashback motif as way to give us information without it seeming like an earful of exposition.
The story is pretty straightforward in that Tsugumo Hanshiro (Tatsuta Nakadai) is a veteran who has lost everything good in his life. He has no job and he has no family to call his own, so he comes into the courtyard of the House of Iyi with one mission in mind: to find someone to help him commit seppuku (or "harakiri"), or rather - a ritualistic suicide.
Instead, the senior counselor of the Iyi clan Saito (Rentaro Mikuni) tries to disaude him from doing this by telling him the story of Motome, another ronin veteran who approached the clan for the same exact ritual and the painful details of what occurred when the clan took offense to the increased number of suicides that had come about.
Harakiri is a brutal and devastating film; Kobayashi's visions come off as very dark compared to other similar Japanese filmmakers like Kurosawa or Mizoguchi, but I am shocked at how often I end up overlooking him. It seems like more people are taking notice of his work (hence the Letterboxd rankings) and the more I think about Harakiri, the more I compelled to revisit it again.
It is hard to truly convey the experience that a lot of these post-war Japanese films can bring, even the smaller ones like those by Ozu or Naruse.
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#1 - CLEO FROM 5 TO 7
Written & Directed by Agnes Varda
If I were to come up with a Mount Rushmore of films that would be symbolic of representing the finest of the French New Wave, Cleo from 5 to 7 would undoubtedly be on it.
It gives me great joy whenever I get to talk about the badass and groundbreaking filmmaker that was Belgian-born Agnes Varda, a true icon for women in film and also the spouse of another icon of French cinema, Jacques Demy, who will we see making some appearances in the coming years.
Varda was, in my opinion, the filmmaker who should truly be given the distinction of starting the French New Wave with her debut 1955 film La Pointe Courte. Although, Cleo from 5 to 7 was something else entirely. I can still vividly remember watching it for the first time.
I was 15 years old and it was January of 2004. We were in the midst of the award season where Sofia Coppola was getting a lot of attention for her wonderful film Lost in Translation which she make her the first American (and only 3rd ever overall) to get an Oscar nomination for Best Director.
My local library had a great film curator who recommended I check out the works of two beloved female filmmakers, one was Chantal Akerman (who was also Belgian) and Agnes Varda.
It took me a little while to warm up to Akerman, but Varda had me compelled from the very beginning. We watch a professional singer known as Cleo Victoire (Corrine Marchand) who attends a tarot card reading. She is a bit on edge because she is awaiting the results of a biopsy to learn if she has stomach cancer. When the reader pulls the Death card, she tries to quell Cleo's fears that it just means a big transformation is coming; it doesn't have to mean that it is anything bad. Cleo takes it to heart and we proceed to follow her life for the next hour and a half while she waits to hear back from her doctor.
I know that sounds simple and it might sound like I am just trying to sound like I am wanting to praise something for being profound even if it seems like not much happens. All I can say was that this is one of those films that felt like a game changer when I saw it that cold January evening.
On the surface, this may be a film about a singer waiting to find out if she does have cancer, but Varda makes it so much more. A lot of the film has us seeing Cleo through her reflections in mirrors...including ones that are broken (like the one above). She has an image for herself, even if the idea of "Cleo" is not entirely real to her, and she is not willing to be looked at as an object no matter how others might try. She is a woman of individuality...and in terms of presence, it is hard to take your eyes off of her.
When Agnes Varda passed away at the age of 90 in 2019, I mourned her death just as many film fans and filmmakers did. Varda herself was a woman of individuality and I treasure everything she was able to give to us. What I would give for her to be able to live another 90 years.
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FINAL THOUGHTS:
Yeah, I would say 1962 lives up to its reputation. This isn't even taking into account that I didn't call out some films that were fun, but not quite up to snuff to make a list like this. One example was the rather solid film adaptation of Meredith Wilson's seminal Broadway hit The Music Man or the very first James Bond outing with Dr. No or Stanley Kubrick's respectable though rather hollow adaptation of Lolita or perhaps one of the more glaring omissions from this list that some might have noticed: To Kill a Mockingbird.
As we come to the end of this post, I will mention again that I approach 1963 with a little bit of gloom. There WILL be some fantastic films on it, but it was a year that Hollywood greatly struggled and won't make as much of a dent.
We do have some of our best masters making more appearances, so that is always something to rejoice.
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