1964's Best Movies: 60 Years Later

In keeping with previous polls, I've gone with the contenders in the top 2,000 films, but they now offer the entire starting spreadsheet. Here are the titles that carry through through the top 5,000 films ever.

2273	2272	Fistful of Dollars, A	Leone, Sergio	1964	Italy	96
2298	2254	Pale Flower	Shinoda, Masahiro	1964	Japan	96
2305	2303	Zorba the Greek	Cacoyannis, Michael	1964	Greece	146
2323	2285	Cheyenne Autumn	Ford, John	1964	USA	145
2374	2464	Strange Voyage	Fernán Gómez, Fernando	1964	Spain	92
2538	2580	Black Peter	Forman, Milos	1964	Czechoslovakia	85
2628	2586	Seduced and Abandoned	Germi, Pietro	1964	Italy	118
2634	2563	Couch	Warhol, Andy	1964	USA	54
2833	2822	Train, The	Frankenheimer, John	1964	USA	133
2836	2746	Men and Women	Khouri, Walter Hugo	1964	Brazil	93
2893	2871	Kiss Me, Stupid	Wilder, Billy	1964	USA	126
2991	3172	Patsy, The	Lewis, Jerry	1964	USA	101
3032	3019	Mass for the Dakota Sioux	Baillie, Bruce	1964	USA	24
3042	2713	Man's Favorite Sport?	Hawks, Howard	1964	USA	120
3151	3087	Culloden [TV]	Watkins, Peter	1964	UK	69
3160	3105	Tía Tula, La	Picazo, Miguel	1964	Spain	109
3291	3539	Enchanted Desna	Solntseva, Yuliya	1964	USSR	81
3414	3522	Masque of the Red Death, The	Corman, Roger	1964	USA	86
3615	3497	Pumpkin Eater, The	Clayton, Jack	1964	UK	110
3670	3658	Married Woman, A	Godard, Jean-Luc	1964	France	95
3889	3766	Night of the Iguana, The	Huston, John	1964	USA	125
3908	3791	Assassination	Shinoda, Masahiro	1964	Japan	104
3936	4506	Seven Up! [TV]	Almond, Paul	1964	UK	39
3976	4277	Blood and Black Lace	Bava, Mario	1964	France	88
4097	3902	Welcome, or No Trespassing	Klimov, Elem	1964	USSR	74
4206	4178	Killers, The	Siegel, Don	1964	USA	95
4266	4145	At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul	Marins, José Mojica	1964	Brazil	84
4339	4676	That Man from Rio	de Broca, Philippe	1964	France	120
4400	4263	Loving Couples	Zetterling, Mai	1964	Sweden	118
4450	4303	Screen Tests	Warhol, Andy	1964-66	USA	174
4596	4451	Caça, A	Oliveira, Manoel de	1964	Portugal	21
4633	4491	Blind Child	van der Keuken, Johan	1964	Netherlands	25
4801	4656	Behold a Pale Horse	Zinnemann, Fred	1964	USA	118
4803	4660	Diary of a Chambermaid	Buñuel, Luis	1964	France	97
4899	4762	Gate of Flesh	Suzuki, Seijun	1964	Japan	90

Japan was on fire this year. Voted Woman in the Dunes (I always prefer the translation Woman of the Dunes but "in" is more common).

Oh shit, but somehow my eyes passed over Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors, which would be another strong contender. What a year.

Kwaidan, Onibaba, Woman in/of the Dunes and The Gospel According to (St) Matthew (Pasolini didn't like the 'St' in the title I believe) are among my all-timers. Had to go for Kwaidan in the end for the set design if nothing else, but it was a painful choice.

I mean

https://trailersfromhell.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/4934topKwai.jpg

God yes, the set design of Kwaidan is incredible.

Had to go with DR. STRANGELOVE but my second choice would've been Glauber Rocha's BLACK GOD, WHITE DEVIL which was recently restored and now looks glorious. I think Janus has the rights so hopefully that means a Criterion edition is forthcoming. The NYFF screened it at the 2022 festival, and Luis Oliveira (I forgot his title but he was involved in the restoration) gave a terrific introduction, mentioning that in Brazil, it's basically THE movie that everyone needs to see if they have any serious interest in Brazilian cinema. Without making any direct political statements, he also mentioned it was the eve of Brazil's election, which made the screening all the more appropriate - thankfully Bolsonaro got his ass kicked and was later banned from running for office again.

fistful of dollars ahead of mary poppins i guess

I haven't seen enough of these, but Kwaidan is extraordinary.

I haven't see all that many of this year

Was defaulting for Strangelove, went with Red Desert instead... I watched it by myself on a lonely Xmas a few years back, and it made a big impression

Honorable mentions for Night of the Iguana and Zorba, which was probably the best investment of all these (budget vs. box office)

Band of Outsiders. Must be a low point for mainstream American cinema, unless '65 was worse.

For American cinema, 1965 is much worse. Andy Warhol's Vinyl is the only great American film that comes to mind.

In descending order, American favorites from 1964 including two British productions directed by Americans and financed by American studios:

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb [Stanley Kubrick]
A Hard Day's Night [Richard Lester]
Marnie [Alfred Hitchcock]
Kiss Me, Stupid [Billy Wilder]
Nothing But s Man [Michael Roemer]
My Fair Lady [George Cukor]

*Nothing But a Man

In fact only three of those films directed by Americans at all!

impossible poll

I'm embarrassed to admit I haven't watched Kwaidan.

I know Eric is going for Gertrud. It is an amazing film.

Red Desert was the first Antonioni film I saw, when I was in college. I was awed. I can’t not see it as a great film.

Brody said: “Heavy industry, atomic energy, antiseptic architecture, petroleum waste, and a little boy’s scientific precocity—converge to shatter the psyche of an engineer’s wife in the Italian port of Ravenna.”

Regarding descriptions of production/set design, everything in the landscape of Red Desert was painted. “Vitti’s masklike look of blank dread is the vanishing point for the polluted landscape of roaring machines; the metallic river, the riotous tangle of tubes and pipes, the yellow poison gas and orange flames that spout from smokestacks, and the smoldering fields of debris”

From wikipedia: “Another of Red Desert's innovations is extensive use of the telephoto and zoom lenses, even in shots where the actor stands relatively close to the camera. Antonioni wrote, "I worked a lot in Il deserto rosso with the zoom lens to try and get two dimensional effect, to diminish the distance between people and objects, make them seem flattened against each other (to contribute to) the sense of psychological oppression”

I also loved Woman In the Dunes, Charulata, and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg

In the lower list, I think every new iteration of the 7 Up! series makes it more fascinating

I realize I did watch DIAMONDS OF THE NIGHT , and not all that long ago.. it was really good, a harrowing prison escape movie

confessions: I didn’t hate The Naked Kiss as much as Shock Corridor, but didn’t like it. I thought My Fair Lady was so much better and more adult than Mary Poppins when I was a kid, maybe because I was slightly older when I saw it I had many childhood romantic fantasies spun around it. I was tempted to vote for it

I was the opposite: I watched Red Desert in college after adoring L'Avventura and thought it a silly film, such that I second guessed the adoration for L'Avventurap. I need to watch again.

I watched Black God White Devil maybe 10 years ago and found it a little on the impenetrable side, though definitely striking, should probably check out the restoration.

If you're a Sarris disciple, there's Man's Favorite Sport? (like it), Marnie (saw it years ago, don't), Kiss Me, Stupid (ditto, remember nothing), Cheyenne Autumn (haven't seen it), and...I think Preminger took the year off.

I know Eric is going for Gertrud

I would say I'm not tipping my hand, but ... yeah, I'm obviously voting for cinema's all-time ice queen

So has anyone seen Empire?

Top 5 that aren't Gertrud:

The Naked Kiss (Samuel Fuller, USA)
Yearning (Mikio Naruse, Japan)
I Am Cuba (Mikheil Kalatozishvili, USSR/Cuba)
The Patsy (Jerry Lewis, USA)
Marnie (Alfred Hitchcock, USA)

I'd say it was a reasonably normal/fine year for American cinema. (1965, though, yes, quite dire.)

One of these:

Before the Revolution
Charulata
The Naked Kiss
I Am Cuba
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg

I'm not mad about this year either.

Antonioni > Bertolucci

Normally, yes. But Red Desert I always found a stupid movie.

although, in its defense, it's the film equivalent of the Spandau Ballet Dictum: "True" exists so that the awesome "Set Adrift on Memory Bliss" can exist. MTV stole so many shots and ideas from RS.

I seem to have a high tolerance for his movies in general. I can't think of one I've seen I don't at least like more than dislike. Bertolucci, on the other hand ...

I prefer Zabriskie Point!

I prefer The Dreamers!

Red Desert is all about Monica Vitti's moss-green coat

What a year for absolutely beautiful colour films - Kwaidan, Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors, Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Red Desert

Mary Poppins even, tbh

1. Strangelove
2. Red Desert (but curious about Alfred’s reaction)
3. Gertrud / Umbrellas of Cherbourg

I like almost everything in the list that I’ve seen though. Stan Brakhage, I admit, I find hard to get into.

(xxp) OTM. Also Richard Harris reminds me of my dad in Red Desert.

Plenty I haven't seen here, but going with my favorite Godard.

Red Desert (but curious about Alfred’s reaction)

Sure, thanks. What I loved or at worst admired in its predecessors has curdled into vague atmospheric posing. I wish it were more lurid.

Eros is a little too sick

Speaking of beautiful color, what about Blood and Black Lace, down there in the supplementary list. That’s a pretty amazing and I would say influential film.

Agreed - it's better than bloody Goldfinger, that's for sure!

Agreed that Kwaidan is absolutely jaw-drop gorgeous ... there are a few pacing issues tho

Speaking of beautiful color, what about Blood and Black Lace, down there in the supplementary list. That’s a pretty amazing and I would say influential film.

― Josefa,

otm

RE: Kwaidan - didn't the original American release remove one of the stories entirely? Again, agreed that it's a little slow, but not sure that was the way to solve the pacing issues!

The word, people, is 'hypnotic'. Hope they removed the last story on the US release! It is the weakest.

Killers, The Siegel, Don 1964 USA

Not sure I've ever seen this, wonder if it holds up against the earlier version of the story?

It's punchy. Dickinson and Reagan were well-cast.

If not for Shirley Bassey, Goldfinger wouldn't have cracked the top 2000.

It wouldn't have had the range

Intentions of Murder is great, and Shohei Imamura is a very underrated director

Bump

It makes me unreasonably happy that Gertrud and A Hard Day's Night are from the same year.

Yearning for me. All the other directors in contention made as good if not better films, but that Naruse probably hasn't been topped.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

As glorious as Yearning is, I've seen a few other Naruses that are practically up to that level, and I haven't even seen that many of his yet.

yeah, same.

I've seen 19 of the 30 poll options, and like or love all of them except for The Naked Kiss, which I found ridiculous. I'm voting for Red Desert over Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors. Diary of a Chambermaid and A Married Woman from the lower list are also favourites, I prefer the latter to Bande à part.
I've wanted to see more films by Rocha and Guerra ever since I read about them in a 1970 book called Second Wave: Newer Than New Wave Names in World Cinema, but I haven't seen these.

I always prefer the translation Woman of the Dunes but "in" is more common

Down at my local cinematheque we call it Woman o' the Dunes cos we don't like to put on airs.

It makes me unreasonably happy that Gertrud and A Hard Day's Night are from the same year.

It's a good thing that Dreyer and Lester exchanged scripts before shooting, Ringo would have really been taxed portraying a former opera singer in Stockholm in the early 20th century.

I get to vote for Kozintsev's Hamlet so I will. Smoktunovsky is outstanding.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I AM CUBA (Mikhail Kalatozov; Cuba) [#323]	0

Straight up negligence

Somehow I didn't see Dog Star Man. Impressed it got two votes!