The 1964 Mini-List

An ongoing project to survey the best films of individual decades, genres, and filmmakers.
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swo17
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The 1964 Mini-List

#1 Post by swo17 » Fri Jul 01, 2022 10:12 pm

RESULTS

Below is a list of films you can vote for from this year. If you want to be able to vote for something that isn't listed here, you need to ask me to add it to the list. The only reason I won't do so is if I deem that it belongs in another year. I have my own curious system for assigning films to years, but rest assured that I will never let a film miss its chance to qualify in one year or another. I am the ultimate arbiter of year assignments.

Discussion for this mini-list and requests for additions to the list of films below will run until July 31. On August 1 I will create a form for voting that will allow you to populate anything between a top 10 and a top 25 from among the films listed below. You will have until the end of the day August 14 (first Sunday on or after the 14th) to submit a ballot that way. If you don't see a certain film listed below, you won't be able to vote for it, so please speak up before July 31 to avoid disappointment.

Sorted alphabetically by title, using the native title for German and all Romance languages other than Romanian, and the English-language title in all other cases

Adventures of Zatoichi (Kimiyoshi Yasuda)
Age of Illusions (István Szabó)
All These Women (Ingmar Bergman)
À Meia Noite Levarei Sua Alma (José Mojica Marins)
The Americanization of Emily (Arthur Hiller)
L'Amour à la mer (Guy Gilles)
…And the Fifth Horseman Is Fear (Zbyněk Brynych)
Ashima (Liu Qiong)
Assassination (Masahiro Shinoda)
Award Presentation to Andy Warhol (Jonas Mekas)
Babo 73 (Robert Downey Sr.)
Bande à part (Jean-Luc Godard)
The Beauty Jungle (Val Guest)
Becket (Peter Glenville)
Bedtime Story (Ralph Levy)
Behold a Pale Horse (Fred Zinnemann)
The Best Man (Franklin Schaffner)
Black Hair (Lee Man-hee)
Black Sun (Koreyoshi Kurahara)
Blow Job (Andy Warhol)
The Brig (Jonas Mekas)
The Cage (Shūji Terayama)
El camino (Ana Mariscal)
Carol for Another Christmas (Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
The Carpetbaggers (Edward Dmytryk)
Il castello dei morti vivi (Warren Kiefer)
I cento cavalieri (Vittorio Cottafavi)
The Chalk Garden (Ronald Neame)
Charulata (Satyajit Ray)
Le Chat dans le sac (Gilles Groulx)
Children of the Damned (Anton Leader)
Courage for Every Day (Evald Schorm)
O Crime de Aldeia Velha (Manuel Guimarães)
La cripta e l'incubo (Camillo Mastrocinque)
Cruel Gun Story (Takumi Furukawa)
Culloden (Peter Watkins)
The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (Terence Fisher)
Cyrano et d'Artagnan (Abel Gance)
Daisy (Sidney Myers)
De l'amour (Jean Aurel)
Il deserto rosso (Michelangelo Antonioni)
Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol (Glauber Rocha)
Devil Doll (Lindsay Shonteff)
Diamonds of the Night (Jan Němec)
The Disorderly Orderly (Frank Tashlin)
Dizzy Gillespie (Les Blank)
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Stanley Kubrick)
Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (Freddie Francis)
La donna scimmia (Marco Ferreri)
Dry Summer (Metin Erksan)
Duo concertantes (Lawrence Jordan)
The Earth Dies Screaming (Terence Fisher)
Eat (Andy Warhol)
Échappement libre (Jean Becker)
Empire (Andy Warhol)
El extraño viaje (Fernando Fernán Gómez)
Faces of November (Robert Drew)
Fail-Safe (Sidney Lumet)
The Fall of the Roman Empire (Anthony Mann)
Father Goose (Ralph Nelson)
Fathomless (Jim Davis)
Fight, Zatoichi, Fight (Kenji Misumi)
First Men in the Moon (Nathan Juran)
Fist Fight (Robert Breer)
Frantisek Hrubín (Tomás Skrdlant)
Os Fuzis (Ruy Guerra)
Gate of Flesh (Seijun Suzuki)
Gertrud (Carl Dreyer)
Der geteilte Himmel (Konrad Wolf)
Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (Ishirō Honda)
Girl with Green Eyes (Desmond Davis)
Goldfinger (Guy Hamilton)
Good Times, Wonderful Times (Lionel Rogosin)
The Gorgon (Terence Fisher)
Le Grand Escroc (Jean-Luc Godard)
The Great Killing (Eiichi Kudō)
Guns at Batasi (John Guillermin)
Hamlet (Grigori Kozintsev)
A Hard Day's Night (Richard Lester)
Harlot (Andy Warhol)
The Hat (John & Faith Hubley)
Histoires de crevettes (Jean Painlevé & Geneviève Hamon)
L'Homme de Rio (Philippe de Broca)
I Think They Call Him John (John Krish)
Identification Marks: None (Jerzy Skolimowski)
Intentions of Murder (Shōhei Imamura)
Italiani brava gente (Giuseppe De Santis)
It's Not Just You, Murray! (Martin Scorsese)
A Jester's Tale (Karel Zeman)
Les Jeux des anges (Walerian Borowczyk)
Le Journal d'une femme de chambre (Luis Buñuel)
The Killers (Don Siegel)
King & Country (Joseph Losey)
Kiss Me, Stupid (Billy Wilder)
Kitten with a Whip (Douglas Heyes)
Kwaidan (Masaki Kobayashi)
Ladybug Ladybug (Frank Perry)
The Last Man on Earth (Sidney Salkow)
The Last Trick (Jan Švankmajer)
Lemonade Joe (Oldřich Lipský)
Lilith (Robert Rossen)
Loving Couples (Mai Zetterling)
Lucky Jo (Michel Deville)
Il magnifico cornuto (Antonio Pietrangeli)
Major Dundee (Sam Peckinpah)
Man's Favorite Sport? (Howard Hawks)
Mario Banana (Andy Warhol)
Marnie (Alfred Hitchcock)
Mary Poppins (Robert Stevenson)
The Masque of the Red Death (Roger Corman)
Moonshine Mountain (Herschell Gordon Lewis)
Mothra vs. Godzilla (Ishirō Honda)
My Fair Lady (George Cukor)
The Naked Kiss (Samuel Fuller)
IX. Olympische Winterspiele Innsbruck 1964 (Theo Hörmann)
Nicht versöhnt oder Es hilft nur Gewalt, wo Gewalt herrscht (Jean-Marie Straub)
The Night of the Iguana (John Huston)
Nightmare (Freddie Francis)
Nothing But a Man (Michael Roemer)
One Potato, Two Potato (Larry Peerce)
Onibaba (Kaneto Shindō)
Pale Flower (Masahiro Shinoda)
Les Parapluies de Cherbourg (Jacques Demy)
Paris When It Sizzles (Richard Quine)
The Patsy (Jerry Lewis)
Patte mouillée (Gilles Carle)
The Peach Thief (Vulo Radev)
La Peau douce (François Truffaut)
Percé on the Rocks (Gilles Carle)
Per un pugno di dollari (Sergio Leone)
The Pink Panther (Blake Edwards)
Point of Order! (Emile de Antonio)
Prima della rivoluzione (Bernardo Bertolucci)
Psyche 59 (Alexander Singer)
Le Puits et le Pendule (Alexandre Astruc)
The Pumpkin Eater (Jack Clayton)
La ragazza di Bube (Luigi Comencini)
Rio Conchos (Gordon Douglas)
La Rivière de diamants (Roman Polański)
Robinson Crusoe on Mars (Byron Haskin)
La Ronde (Roger Vadim)
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (Larry Roemer)
Rysopis (Jerzy Skolimowski)
Sallah Shabati (Ephraim Kishon)
Salut les cubains (Agnès Varda)
The Saragossa Manuscript (Wojciech Has)
Screen Test: Ann Buchanan (Andy Warhol)
Screen Test: Billy Name (Andy Warhol)
Screen Test: Dennis Hopper (Andy Warhol)
Screen Test: Freddy Herko (Andy Warhol)
Screen Test: Jane Holzer (Toothbrush) (Andy Warhol)
Screen Tests (Andy Warhol)
Seance on a Wet Afternoon (Bryan Forbes)
Sedotta e abbandonata (Pietro Germi)
6 donne per l'assassino (Mario Bava)
Send Me No Flowers (Norman Jewison)
Server Sundaram (Krishnan–Panju)
Seven Days in May (John Frankenheimer)
Seven Up! (Paul Almond)
Sex and the Single Girl (Richard Quine)
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (Sergei Parajanov)
Shape of the Night (Noboru Nakamura)
A Shot in the Dark (Blake Edwards)
Son (Vladimir Denisenko)
Song 4 (Stan Brakhage)
Soy Cuba (Mikhail Kalatozov)
Strait-Jacket (William Castle)
Swastika (Yasuzō Masumura)
The System (Michael Winner)
The T.A.M.I. Show (Steve Binder)
The Third Secret (Charles Crichton)
36 Hours (George Seaton)
Three Outlaw Samurai (Hideo Gosha)
La tía Tula (Miguel Picazo)
Le tigre aime la chair fraîche (Claude Chabrol)
Tonio Kröger (Rolf Thiele)
The Train (John Frankenheimer)
21-87 (Arthur Lipsett)
23 Skidoo (Julian Biggs)
Two Stage Sisters (Xie Jin)
Two Thousand Maniacs! (Herschell Gordon Lewis)
Une femme mariée (Jean-Luc Godard)
An Untitled Film (David Gladwell)
The Up Series (Michael Apted & Paul Almond)
Il vangelo secondo Matteo (Pier Paolo Pasolini)
Week-end à Zuydcoote (Henri Verneuil)
What's Happening! The Beatles in the U.S.A. (Albert & David Maysles)
Woman in the Dunes (Hiroshi Teshigahara)
Woman of Straw (Basil Dearden)
The World of Henry Orient (George Roy Hill)
Yearning (Mikio Naruse)
Zatoichi and the Chest of Gold (Kazuo Ikehiro)
Zatoichi's Flashing Sword (Kazuo Ikehiro)
Zorba the Greek (Mihalis Kakogiannis)
Zulu (Cy Endfield)

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Rayon Vert
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Re: The 1964 Mini-List

#2 Post by Rayon Vert » Fri Jul 01, 2022 10:30 pm

I'm not 100% sure I'll vote for it, but it will possibly be at the bottom of my list: Woman of Straw (Basil Dearden). Same with Father Goose (Ralph Nelson).

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swo17
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Re: The 1964 Mini-List

#3 Post by swo17 » Fri Jul 01, 2022 10:42 pm

I've added those, thanks

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domino harvey
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Re: The 1964 Mini-List

#4 Post by domino harvey » Fri Jul 01, 2022 11:25 pm

My shortlist. Swo, as usual, please add anything that needs adding
SpoilerShow
Bande a part
Bedtime Story
Children of the Damned
Daisy (campaign ad)
De l'amour
Échappement libre
Il deserto rosso
Gate of Flesh
Kiss Me, Stupid
La ragazza di Bube
La rivière de diamants (Polanski’s retracted segment from Les plus belles escroqueries du monde)
La ronde
Le Grand escroc (Godard’s segment from Les plus belles escroqueries du monde)
Le Puits et le pendule
Le Tigre aime la chair fraîche’
Lilith
the Night of the Iguana
Paris— When it Sizzles
Seven Days in May
Sex and the Single Girl
Soy Cuba
36 Hours
Une femme mariée
the World of Henry Orient
Zorba the Greek

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Never Cursed
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Re: The 1964 Mini-List

#5 Post by Never Cursed » Sat Jul 02, 2022 12:12 am

SpoilerShow
No Parapluies for you, domino? I mean sure it isn't as good as its successor, but what is?

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domino harvey
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Re: The 1964 Mini-List

#6 Post by domino harvey » Sat Jul 02, 2022 12:22 am

Never loved it as much as everyone else. Good movie, but not making my list

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swo17
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Re: The 1964 Mini-List

#7 Post by swo17 » Sat Jul 02, 2022 1:01 am

domino harvey wrote:
Fri Jul 01, 2022 11:25 pm
My shortlist. Swo, as usual, please add anything that needs adding
Done, and I'm always happy to do this, though in general, I would welcome you in particular reviewing the whole first post closely in case you have better information than me regarding any year assignments

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Re: The 1964 Mini-List

#8 Post by therewillbeblus » Sat Jul 02, 2022 1:33 am

My shortlist (films not on master list in bold, and 29 films listed, in case any or all four are ineligible):
SpoilerShow
At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul
Bande à part
Bedtime Story
A Carol for Another Christmas
Children of the Damned
De l'amour
Il deserto rosso
Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Goldfinger
Le Journal d'une femme de chambre
Kiss Me, Stupid
Kitten with a Whip
Lilith
Loving Couples
Lucky Jo
Man's Favorite Sport?
Marnie
The Masque of the Red Death
Pale Flower
Paris When It Sizzles
Robinson Crusoe on Mars
Seance on a Wet Afternoon
Sex and the Single Girl
Soy Cuba
Three Outlaw Samurai
Une femme mariée
Il vangelo secondo Matteo
YoYo

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Re: The 1964 Mini-List

#9 Post by yoshimori » Sat Jul 02, 2022 1:54 am

IMDB lists Kwaidan as 1964. I'd also likely include Lawrence Jordan's "Duo concertantes" in my list.

Oh! And Arthur Lipsett's "21-87", which I'd had as 1963, but is apparently more commonly taken as a '64 show.

Fascinating lack of interest in the Paradjanov in the short lists above. Would also recommend Naked Kiss to any who don't know it. The musical number in the children's hospital, mid-movie, is stunning. As is the Stanley Cortez photography.

And Point of Order ... And ...

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swo17
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Re: The 1964 Mini-List

#10 Post by swo17 » Sat Jul 02, 2022 3:15 am

Hmmm...apparently Kwaidan had its premiere in the final days of 1964 before opening wide in Japan right at the start of 1965. It also played Cannes that year. Criterion calls it 1965 while Eureka, IMDb, and Letterboxd all say 1964. Also worth considering is how it was treated for awards. Cannes and the Oscars called it a 1965 film, while Kinema Junpo had it competing against Woman in the Dunes for best film of 1964. I feel like that cinches it--I'll move it here.

YoYo is 1965 everywhere though, as far as I can tell

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Matt
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The 1964 Mini-List

#11 Post by Matt » Sun Jul 03, 2022 12:02 am

Is Agnes Varda’s Salut les Cubains eligible for 1964? That’s the date Criterion gives it (which is when it showed at festivals), though IMDb and Ciné-Tamaris say 1963 (when the production visa was granted).

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swo17
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Re: The 1964 Mini-List

#12 Post by swo17 » Sun Jul 03, 2022 12:10 am

I'll say 1964 because it's too late for 1963 but I think I'd prefer Criterion's release year anyway

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Matt
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Re: The 1964 Mini-List

#13 Post by Matt » Sun Jul 03, 2022 12:33 am

Thank you, Your Honor. I find this a really joyous, humane film, so I hope at least one other voter out there thinks so.

This is going to be a tough list—lots to rewatch or catch up on in the next month (and a good excuse to prioritize my Second Run kevyip). I know 1964 marks a time when more portable camera and sound equipment really started becoming more available worldwide, I wonder if increased film stock availability and affordability was a factor as well. There’s just so much filmmaking going on this year, and such creativity and excellence from all quarters (experimental, documentary, features and shorts from Hollywood and elsewhere).

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Matt
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Re: The 1964 Mini-List

#14 Post by Matt » Mon Jul 04, 2022 9:36 pm

Another request for addition: Evald Schorm’s Courage for Every Day, available on the Criterion Channel

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swo17
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Re: The 1964 Mini-List

#15 Post by swo17 » Mon Jul 04, 2022 10:42 pm

Added, thanks

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Re: The 1964 Mini-List

#16 Post by TMDaines » Tue Jul 05, 2022 5:11 pm

Pretty sure My Way Home (Miklós Jancsó) should be 1965.

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swo17
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Re: The 1964 Mini-List

#17 Post by swo17 » Tue Jul 05, 2022 5:46 pm

Second Run and several other online sources say 1964, though others obviously say 1965. I'd welcome more solid information on this

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Matt
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Re: The 1964 Mini-List

#18 Post by Matt » Tue Jul 05, 2022 8:37 pm

I can’t find any definitive documentation (in English), but it looks like it was unquestionably made in 1964. Then it looks like it may have been immediately suppressed as an "ideologically mistaken enterprise,” and then opinions were revised after positive reception by a delegation from the Moscow Film Academy. (This info all comes, with no citations, from Censorship: A World Encyclopedia. United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis, 2001.)

Multiple sources give the Hungarian premiere date as January 14, 1965, but again I can find any definitive documentation (in English).

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swo17
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Re: The 1964 Mini-List

#19 Post by swo17 » Tue Jul 05, 2022 9:10 pm

The SR release includes a 1969 Sight & Sound article that only repeats that it was made in 1964.

Also, I have family that speak Hungarian if that might help with anything

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Matt
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Re: The 1964 Mini-List

#20 Post by Matt » Tue Jul 05, 2022 9:43 pm

Two Thousand Maniacs (H.G. Lewis)

I’m pretty certain I will find a place for this film in the nether regions of my list. It’s a gleefully sadistic cartoon of an undead Confederacy that also skewers self-important Yankees (We’re nobodies, but we’re the guests of honor for this town festival!), and it still feels grimly relevant, down to the rebel-flag-waving crowds cheering on ceremonial violence.

I suppose the basic story has been redone better by others (Tobe Hooper, John Boorman), but Lewis’ film is a milestone of some sort.

Arrow’s 1.85 aspect ratio, however, does the film no favors. Lewis was no great master of shot composition, but what sense of framing might have been there is obscured by what often seems like an indifferent reframing. Can’t beat those colors, though!

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Re: The 1964 Mini-List

#21 Post by TMDaines » Wed Jul 06, 2022 2:39 am

swo17 wrote:
Tue Jul 05, 2022 5:46 pm
Second Run and several other online sources say 1964, though others obviously say 1965. I'd welcome more solid information on this
It’s definitely a 1964 production, but every source I have seen shows the first screening/premiere as 1965.

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swo17
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Re: The 1964 Mini-List

#22 Post by swo17 » Wed Jul 06, 2022 2:49 am

Well, and January 1965 at that, so even if there was a delay it wouldn't have been a very long one. I can push this one to next year

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Matt
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Re: The 1964 Mini-List

#23 Post by Matt » Wed Jul 06, 2022 10:41 pm

The Fifth Horseman Is Fear (Zbynek Brynych)

Thanks to this project, I finally made time to watch my Second Run BD of this film. Folks, don’t make my mistake of sleeping on this one. It is top notch, both in dramatics and cinematic technique. It doesn’t appear on any “Best Czech Films” list that I’ve seen, but I think maybe that’s due to it not being in circulation. It’s absolutely the peer of other Czech films of the 1960s on the WWII period such as Diamonds of the Night and The Shop on Main Street.

I could do more than gush about it, but I think the film definitely benefits from knowing little about the plot before viewing. It’s not exactly a shocking whodunit, but the film does expertly parcel out knowledge in order to build suspense and it would be a shame to ruin that part of the experience.

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The 1964 Mini-List

#24 Post by MichaelB » Thu Jul 07, 2022 2:48 am

I think it fell victim to the same ageism that sidelined other unarguable masterpieces like Marketa Lazarová (all but unknown outside its native country for its first four decades) and All My Good Countrymen - which is that Zbyněk Brynych, František Vláčil and Vojtěch Jasný were all slightly older than the FAMU-trained generation that kickstarted the New Wave, they’d already made features prior to the earliest New Wave films, and so they were regarded as part of the establishment (however absurd this might seem when set against the originality and invention of their best work).

Although at the time The Fifth Horseman is Fear actually had a higher profile than many now better-known Czech and Slovak films, even securing a theatrical release in the US.

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Re: The 1964 Mini-List

#25 Post by alacal2 » Thu Jul 07, 2022 8:47 am

The Beauty Jungle (Val Guest)
Could you add to the list please? Thanks.

Very pleased you've included the groundbreaking 7Up series to the list but are we supposed to be voting just for the first episode?

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