1963--The Year in Review

An abysmal year for American film, with only one Best Picture nominee (Elia Kazan's beautiful memory piece America, America) worthy of the honor. The slate was rounded out with two bloated epics--the now-dull Cinerama showcase How The West Was Won and the intermittently entertaining Cleopatra (the year's most controversial work, for all the wrong reasons)--and one good-hearted drama, Lilies of the Field, starring Sidney Poitier, who probably won the '63 Best Actor award because he wasn't even nominated for his supreme screen performance the year before (for A Raisin in the Sun). The winner, ultimately, was Tony Richardson's bawdy farce Tom Jones, a handsome and totally inconsequential choice (though one that harkens to the looming sexual revolution and British Invasion). It's holds, then, that Fellini takes the prize (here, at least) for his impressively thoughtful, visually striking personal epic about a filmmaker's bout with creative ennui; it kinda goes without saying that it's a dazzling work, deserving of the award even if American movies had been ten times their power. Spearheaded by Marcello Mastroianni's complex, charismatic lead performance, Fellini's soul-baring movie would be much imitated by only the bravest directors in later years, but never with quite as much verve (though Bob Fosse would come dangerously close in 1979). Still, the great Italian auteur spars mightily with Jean-Luc Godard, another master filmmaker critically examining his chosen craft with the brightly-colored and beautifully scored Contempt. The closest the US could come to this remarkable level of filmmaking aptitude was Martin Ritt's Hud, a sourly dour look at the death of the American West, led by nasty Paul Newman as an odious drunkard causing trouble for his aging cowpoke father (a stern, lovely Melvin Douglas) and straight-talking housemaid (Patricia Neal, whose wonderfully naturalistic, Best Actress-winning role really belonged in the supporting category). Instead, for Best Actress, I initially leaned towards competing performances delivered by Ingrid Thulin in service of Ingmar Bergman (agilely directing two intensely challenging movies about religious faith), but in the end had to give the award to Julie Harris. whose manic heroine finds solace with a haunted house (for me, it's her second Best Actress award, after 1952's The Member of the Wedding). In the newly lively Documentary Feature category, it was impossible to ignore Robert Drew's Crisis, an intimate examination of President John F. Kennedy's trying battle with Alabama's governor George Wallace over allowing black students into the state university. As for the short films, none surpass The House is Black, the shockingly frank look at a leper colony from Iran's Forugh Farrokhzad--a masterpiece if there ever was one. The same goes for Stan Brakhage's silent "animated" short film Mothlight, consisting of pieces of moth wings embedded withing long strips of 16mm editing tape (both films are like nothing you've ever seen--and you can watch them here!). And, finally, in the special effects category, Ray Harryhausen finally wins, this time for his most deeply loved work. Unbelievably, it wasn't even nominated for the Special Effects award. What the hell were the voters THINKING? NOTE: These are MY choices for each category, and are only occasionally reflective of the selections made by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (aka The Oscars). When available, the nominee that actually won the Oscar will be highlighted in bold. 

PICTURE: 8½ (Italy, Federico Fellini)
(2nd: Contempt (France, Jean-Luc Godard), followed by:
Hud (US, Martin Ritt)
High and Low (Japan, Akira Kurosawa)
The Leopard (Italy/US, Luchino Visconti)
America, America (US, Elia Kazan)
Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment (US, Robert Drew)
Winter Light (Sweden, Ingmar Bergman)
The Birds (US, Alfred Hitchcock)
Shock Corridor (US, Samuel Fuller)
The Haunting (US, Robert Wise)
Billy Liar (UK, John Schlesinger)
Lord of the Flies (UK, Peter Brook)
An Actor’s Revenge (Japan, Kon Ichikawa)
The Servant (UK, Joseph Losey)
Ladybug Ladybug (US, Frank Perry)
This Sporting Life (UK, Lindsay Anderson)
The Silence (Sweden, Ingmar Bergman)
The Big City (India, Satyajit Ray)
Charade (US, Stanley Donen)
From Russia With Love (UK, Terence Young)
The Great Escape (US/UK, John Sturges)
Cleopatra (US, Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
Bye Bye Birdie (US, George Sidney)
It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (US, Stanley Kramer)
Jason and the Argonauts (UK, Don Chaffey)
The Nutty Professor (US, Jerry Lewis)
Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow (Italy, Vittorio de Sica)
La Baie des Anges (France, Jacques Demy)
Tom Jones (UK, Tony Richardson)
X--The Man with the X-Ray Eyes (US, Roger Corman)
The Cool World (US, Shirley Clarke)
Flaming Creatures (US, Jack Smith)
These are the Damned (UK, Joseph Losey)
Love with the Proper Stranger (US, Robert Mulligan)
Lilies of the Field (US, Ralph Nelson)
The Pink Panther (US, Blake Edwards)
The List of Adrian Messenger (US, John Huston)
The Cardinal (US, Otto Preminger)
Irma La Douce (US, Billy Wilder)
The Day of the Triffids (US, Steve Sekely)
Johnny Cool (US, William Asher)
Black Sabbath (Italy, Mario Bava)
Dementia 13 (US, Francis Coppola)
Blood Feast (US, Hershel Gordon Lewis))

ACTOR: Marcello Mastroianni, 8½ (2nd: Paul Newman, Hud, followed by: Toshiro Mifune, High and Low; Richard Harris, This Sporting Life; Jerry Lewis, The Nutty Professor; Dirk Bogarde, The Servant; Kazuo Hasegawa, An Actor’s Revenge; Ray Milland, X--The Man with the X-Ray Eyes; Gunnar Bjornstrand, Winter Light)



ACTRESS: Julie Harris, THE HAUNTING (2nd: Ingrid Thulin, Winter Light, followed by: Ingrid Thulin, The Silence; Tippi Hedren, The Birds; Sophia Loren, Yesterday Today and Tomorrow; Rachel Roberts, This Sporting Life; Audrey Hepburn, Charade; Madhabi Mukherjee, The Big City; Natalie Wood, Love With the Proper Stranger)



SUPPORTING ACTOR: Melvyn Douglas, HUD (2nd: Rex Harrison, Cleopatra, followed by: Walter Matthau, Charade; Larry Tucker, Shock Corridor; Robert Shaw, From Russia With Love; James Best, Shock Corridor; Roddy McDowall, Cleopatra; John Huston, The Cardinal; Paul Lynde, Bye Bye Birdie)



SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Patricia Neal, HUD (won as Best Actress) (2nd: Ethel Merman, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, followed by: Julie Christie, Billy Liar; Ann-Margret, Bye Bye Birdie; Lilia Skala, Lilies of the Field; Joyce Redman, Tom Jones; Diane Cilento, Tom Jones; Sandra Milo, 8½; Suzanne Pleshette, The Birds)



DIRECTOR: Federico Fellini, 8½ (2nd: Jean-Luc Godard, Contempt, followed by: Martin Ritt, Hud; Ingmar Bergman, Winter Light; Luchino Visconti, The Leopard; Elia Kazan, America America; Akira Kurosawa, High and Low; Alfred Hitchcock, The Birds; Samuel Fuller, Shock Corridor; Ingmar Bergman, The Silence)

NON-ENGLISH-LANGUAGE FILM: 8½ (Italy, Federico Fellini) (2nd: Contempt (France, Jean-Luc Godard); High and Low (Japan, Akira Kurosawa); The Leopard (Italy/US, Luchino Visconti); Winter Light (Sweden, Ingmar Bergman); An Actor’s Revenge (Japan, Kon Ichikawa); The Silence (Sweden, Ingmar Bergman); The Big City (India, Satyajit Ray); Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow (Italy, Vittorio de Sica); La Baie des Anges (France, Jacques Demy))

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: CRISIS: BEHIND A PRESIDENTIAL COMMITMENT (US, Robert Drew) (2nd: The Cool World (US, Shirley Clarke))

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:  Federico Fellini, Ennio Flaiano, Tulio Pinelli and Brunello Rondi, 8 ½ (2nd: Samuel Fuller, Shock Corridor, followed by: Ingmar Bergman, Winter Light; Eleanor Perry and Lois Dickert, Ladybug Ladybug; Elia Kazan, America, America)

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Irving Ravetch and Harriett Frank Jr., HUD (2nd: Akira Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni, Ryuzo Kikushima and Eijiro Hisaita, High and Low, followed by: Harold Pinter, The Servant; David Storey, This Sporting Life; Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall, Billy Liar)



LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM: THE HOUSE IS BLACK (Iran, Forugh Farrokhzad) (2nd: Showman (US, Albert and David Maysles), followed by: Towers Open Fire (UK, Antony Balch); What’s a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This? (US, Martin Scorsese); The Five Cities of June (US, Walter de Hoog and Bruce Herschensohn))


 
ANIMATED SHORT FILM: MOTHLIGHT (US, Stan Brakhage) (2nd: Labyrinth (Poland, Jan Lenica), followed by: The Critic (US, Ernest Pintoff); Automania 2000 (UK, John Halas); Le Nez (France, Alexander Alexeieff, Claire Parker))

BLACK-AND-WHITE CINEMATOGRAPHY: Gianni di Venanzo, 8½ (2nd: James Wong Howe, Hud, followed by: Sven Nykvist, Winter Light; Haskell Wexler, America America; David Boulton, The Haunting)
 

COLOR CINEMATOGRAPHY: Raoul Coutard, CONTEMPT (2nd: Leon Shamroy, Cleopatra, followed by: Giuseppe Rotunno, The Leopard; Robert Burks, The Birds; Walter Lassally and Manny Wynn, Tom Jones)

BLACK-AND-WHITE ART DIRECTION: THE HAUNTING, 8½, Hud, America America, Love with the Proper Stranger

COLOR ART DIRECTION: CLEOPATRA, The Leopard, Tom Jones, The Cardinal, Contempt 

BLACK-AND-WHITE COSTUME DESIGN: 8½, The Stripper, Love with the Proper Stranger, America America, Toys in the Attic

 COLOR COSTUME DESIGN: CLEOPATRA, The Leopard, Tom Jones, The Cardinal, Irma La Douce 

FILM EDITING: 8 1/2, Hud, The Great Escape, The Birds, America America 



SOUND: THE BIRDS, The Haunting, Bye Bye Birdie, The Great Escape, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World



ORIGINAL SCORE: Georges Delerue, CONTEMPT (2nd: Nino Rota, 8½, followed by: Henry Mancini, The Pink Panther; John Barry, From Russia with Love; John Addison, Tom Jones; Elmer Bernstein, Hud)



ADAPTED OR MUSICAL SCORE: John Green, BYE BYE BIRDIE (2nd: Andre Previn, Irma La Douce)




ORIGINAL SONG: "More" from MONDO CANE (Music by Riz Ortolani and Nino Oliviero, lyrics by Norman Newell) (2nd: "Bye Bye Birdie" from Bye Bye Birdie (Music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Lee Adams), followed by: "A Gringo Like Me" from Gunfight at Red Sands (Music by Ennio Morricone, lyrics by Dicky Jones); "Call Me Irresponsible" from Papa's Delicate Condition (Music by James Van Heusen, lyrics by Sammy Cahn); "Charade" from Charade (Music by Henry Mancini, lyrics by Johnny Mercer))



SPECIAL EFFECTS: JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS, The Birds, Cleopatra

  MAKEUP: CLEOPATRA, 8 1/2, The List of Adrian Messenger

1957--The Year in Review

Another remarkable year for movies. Ingmar Bergman makes a splash with TWO masterpieces (how was he able to do it??), while Fellini, Kurosawa (also with two), Kalatozov, Wajda, Malle and Ozu contribute essential works. David Lean became the big winner this year, as far as the Oscars go, and his popular tale of WWII heroism cannot be denied respect. But it's a very different war movie--Stanley Kubrick's true breakthrough as a visionary of ultimate import--that resonates above all, at least in my estimation, with his recounting of WWI futility and injustice. It's simply the most exciting movie of the year; Paths of Glory goes by in a flash--in a way I've never seen a movie do since--and is totally a punch in the gut when it's all over (and made with an incredibly though imperceptibly low budget). In the acting races, it's mostly triumph of foreign output, with old-timer Sjostrom (a former silent filmmaker in both Sweden and America) and newcomers Giulietta Masina (Fellini's bonafide muse) and Sweden's Ingrid Thulin out front. Even so, it's a completely lucrative year for Hollywood, with great westerns, horror, noir, sci-fi, musical, and war movies dotting the screens. Otherwise, as far as the US output goes, it was New York's newcomer Sidney Lumet who provided the movie that most Americans return to again and again--a tribute to the US justice system, one that realizes its faults and merits, with twelve very deeply nuanced and well-performed characters (it was so painfully difficult to choose amongst them for the supporting actor prize). Meanwhile, a transplanted British director delivers a gorgeously scathing indictment of US entertainment journalism. As for the short films, Mexico's Alejandro Jodorowsky arrives on the scene with a vibrantly colored bit of dark whimsy, while Chuck Jones provides perhaps the crown jewel of the Warner Brothers team's rich output. Elvis Presley makes further marks on the film landscape, as do nuclear-driven sci-fi and Hammer horror. NOTE: These are MY choices for each category, and are only occasionally reflective of the selections made by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (aka The Oscars). When available, the nominee that actually won the Oscar will be highlighted in bold. 

PICTURE: PATHS OF GLORY (US, Stanley Kubrick)
(2nd: Wild Strawberries (Sweden, Ingmar Bergman), followed by:
12 Angry Men (US, Sidney Lumet)
The Seventh Seal (Sweden, Ingmar Bergman)
Sweet Smell of Success (US, Alexander Mackendrick)
Nights of Cabiria (Italy, Federico Fellini)
A Face in the Crowd (US, Elia Kazan)
Throne of Blood (Japan, Akira Kurosawa)
Funny Face (US, Stanley Donen)
The Cranes are Flying (USSR, Mikhail Kalatozov)
On the Bowery (US, Lionel Rogosin)
Kanal (Poland, Andrzej Wajda)
The Bridge on the River Kwai (UK/US, David Lean)
Witness for the Prosecution (US, Billy Wilder)
Night of the Demon (UK, Jacques Tourneur)
Crime of Passion (US, Gerd Oswald)
The Tall T (US, Budd Boetticher)
The Tin Star (US, Anthony Mann)
The Incredible Shrinking Man (US, Jack Arnold)
Elevator to the Gallows (France, Louis Malle)
Men in War (US, Anthony Mann)
Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (US, John Huston)
The Tarnished Angels (US, Douglas Sirk)
Tokyo Twilight (Japan, Yasujiro Ozu)
Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (US, Frank Tashlin)
3:10 to Yuma (US, Delmer Daves)
An Affair to Remember (US, Leo McCarey)
Love in the Afternoon (US, Billy Wilder)
Peyton Place (US, Mark Robson)
Gunfight at the OK Corral (US, John Sturges)
Fear Strikes Out (US, Robert Mulligan)
The Curse of Frankenstein (UK, Terence Fisher)
Old Yeller (US, Robert Stevenson)
Forty Guns (US, Samuel Fuller)
The Strange One (US, Jack Garfein)
A Hatful of Rain (US, Fred Zinnemann)
Enemy From Space (UK, Val Guest)
The Lower Depths (Japan, Akira Kurosawa)
The Prince and the Showgirl (US/UK, Laurence Olivier)
The Bachelor Party (US, Delbert Mann);
Desk Set (US, Walter Lang)
Man of a Thousand Faces (US, Joseph Pevney)
The Spirit of St. Louis (US, Billy Wilder)
Il Grido (Italy, Michelangelo Antonioni)
Run of the Arrow (US, Samuel Fuller)
The Pajama Game (US, Stanley Donen)
Zero Hour (US, Hall Bartlett)
Sayonara (US, Joshua Logan)
Silk Stockings (US, Rouben Mamoulian)
The Three Faces of Eve (US, Nunnally Johnson)
Not of This Earth (US, Roger Corman)
The Amazing Colossal Man (US, Burt I. Gordon)
The Pride and the Passion (US, Stanley Kramer)
20 Million Miles to Earth (US, Nathan Juran)
Jailhouse Rock (US, Richard Thorpe)
The Delinquents (US, Robert Altman)
The Monster That Challenged the World (US, Arnold Laven)
I Was a Teenage Werewolf (US, Gene Fowler Jr.))

ACTOR:  Andy Griffith, A FACE IN THE CROWD (2nd: Victor Sjöstrom, Wild Strawberries, followed by: Burt Lancaster, Sweet Smell of Success; Henry Fonda, 12 Angry Men; Kirk Douglas, Paths of Glory; Tony Curtis, Sweet Smell of Success; Alec Guinness, The Bridge on the River Kwai; Charles Laughton, Witness for the Prosecution; Toshiro Mifune, Throne of Blood; Ben Gazzara, The Strange One) 
 

ACTRESS: Giulietta Masina, NIGHTS OF CABIRIA (2nd: Tatiana Samoilova, The Cranes Are Flying, followed by: Audrey Hepburn, Funny Face; Joanne Woodward, The Three Faces of Eve; Marlene Dietrich, Witness for the Prosecution; Deborah Kerr, Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison; Jeanne Moreau, Elevator to the Gallows; Patricia Neal, A Face in the Crowd; Isuzu Yamada, Throne of Blood; Barbara Stanwyck, Forty Guns)

SUPPORTING ACTOR: Lee J. Cobb, 12 ANGRY MEN (2nd: George Macready, Paths of Glory, followed by: Ed Begley, 12 Angry Men; Bengt Ekerot, The Seventh Seal; Timothy Carey, Paths of Glory; Aldo Ray, Men in War; Sessue Hayakawa, The Bridge on the River Kwai; Red Buttons, Sayonara; Adolphe Menjou, Paths of Glory; Karl Malden, Fear Strikes Out) 

SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Ingrid Thulin, WILD STRAWBERRIES (2nd: Elsa Lanchester, Witness for the Prosecution, followed by: Miyoshi Umeki, Sayonara; Kay Thompson, Funny Face; Carol Haney, The Pajama Game; Isuzu Yamada, Tokyo Twilight; Ineko Arema, Tokyo Twilight; Carolyn Jones, The Bachelor Party; Diane Varsi, Peyton Place; Hope Lange, Peyton Place) 

DIRECTOR: Stanley Kubrick, PATHS OF GLORY (2nd: Ingmar Bergman, Wild Strawberries, followed by: Ingmar Bergman, The Seventh Seal; Mikhail Kalatozov, The Cranes are Flying; Sidney Lumet, 12 Angry Men; Alexander Mackendrick, Sweet Smell of Success; Akira Kurosawa, Throne of Blood; Elia Kazan, A Face in the Crowd; Federico Fellini, Nights of Cabiria; Andrzej Wajda, Kanal)

NON-ENGLISH-LANGUAGE FILM: WILD STRAWBERRIES (Sweden, Ingmar Bergman), followed by: The Seventh Seal (Sweden, Ingmar Bergman); Nights of Cabiria (Italy, Federico Fellini); Throne of Blood (Japan, Akira Kurosawa); The Cranes are Flying (USSR, Mikhail Kalatozov); Kanal (Poland, Andrzej Wajda); Elevator to the Gallows (France, Louis Malle); Tokyo Twilight (Japan, Yasujiro Ozu); The Lower Depths (Japan, Akira Kurosawa); Il Grido (Italy, Michelangelo Antonioni))



ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Ingmar Bergman, THE SEVENTH SEAL (2nd: Ingmar Bergman, Wild Strawberries, followed by: Budd Schulberg, A Face in the Crowd; Jerry Stefan Stawinski, Kanal; Joel Kane, Dudley Nichols, and Barney Slater, The Tin Star; John Lee Mahin and John Huston, Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison)



ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Clifford Odets and Ernest Lehman, SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS (2nd: Stanley Kubrick, Calder Willingham and Jim Thompson, Paths of Glory, followed by: Reginald Rose, 12 Angry Men; Michael Wilson and Carl Foreman, The Bridge on the River Kwai; Federico Fellini, Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli, and Pier Paulo Pasolini, Nights of Cabiria; Burt Kennedy, The Tall T)



LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM: LA CRAVATE (Mexico, Alejandro Jodorowsky) (2nd: Les Mistons (France, François Truffaut), followed by: 8×8: A Chess Sonata in Eight Movements (France, Jean Cocteau and Hans Richter)

ANIMATED SHORT FILM: WHAT'S OPERA, DOC? (Chuck Jones) (2nd: Ali Baba Bunny (Chuck Jones), followed by: Birds Anonymous (Friz Freleng); A Chairy Tale (Canada, Norman McLaren); Three Little Bops (Friz Freleng); Let's All Go to the Lobby (director unknown))

 

BLACK-AND-WHITE CINEMATOGRAPHY: James Wong Howe, SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS (2nd: Sergei Urusevsky, The Cranes are Flying, followed by: Gunnar Fischer, The Seventh Seal; Asaichi Nakai, Throne of Blood; Georg Krause, Paths of Glory; Gunnar Fischer, Wild Strawberries)



COLOR CINEMATOGRAPHY: Ray June, FUNNY FACE (2nd: Jack Hildyard, The Bridge Over the River Kwai, followed by: Oswald Morris, Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison; William H. Mellor, Peyton Place; Milton Krasner, An Affair to Remember; Jack Asher, The Curse of Frankenstein)  

BLACK-AND-WHITE ART DIRECTION: SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS, Throne of Blood, Paths of Glory, Love in the Afternoon, Witness for the Prosecution

COLOR ART DIRECTION: FUNNY FACE, Desk Set, Raintree Country, Silk Stockings, Les Girls

BLACK-AND-WHITE COSTUME DESIGN: THRONE OF BLOOD, The Seventh Seal, Paths of Glory, Love in the Afternoon, Sweet Smell of Success

COLOR COSTUME DESIGN: FUNNY FACE, Les Girls, Raintree Country, Peyton Place, The Prince and the Showgirl

FILM EDITING: PATHS OF GLORY, 12 Angry Men, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Witness for the Prosecution, 3:10 to Yuma
 
SOUND: PATHS OF GLORY, Witness for the Prosecution, A Face in the Crowd, Funny Face, Gunfight at the OK Corral



ORIGINAL SCORE: Malcolm Arnold, THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI (2nd: Nino Rota, Nights of Cabiria, followed by: Franz Waxman, Peyton Place; Elmer Bernstein, Sweet Smell of Success; Miles Davis, Elevator to the Gallows; Masaru Sato, Throne of Blood) 

ADAPTED OR MUSICAL SCORE: Adolph Deutsch, FUNNY FACE (2nd: Ray Heindorf and Howard Jackson, The Pajama Game, followed by: Andre Previn and Conrad Salinger, Silk Stockings; Jeff Alexander, Jailhouse Rock; Saul Chaplin and Adolph Deutsch, Les Girls)



ORIGINAL SONG: "All the Way" from THE JOKER IS WILD (Music by James Van Heusen, lyrics by Sammy Cahn) (2nd: "It's Not for Me to Say" from Lizzie (Music by Robert Allen, lyrics by Al Stillman), followed by: "Jailhouse Rock" from Jailhouse Rock (Music and lyrics by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller); "Teddy Bear" from Loving You (Music and lyrics by Kal Mann and Bernie Lowe); "Tammy" from Tammy and the Bachelor (Music and lyrics by Ray Evans and Jay Livingston); "Treat Me Nice" from Jailhouse Rock (Music and lyrics by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller); "Think Pink" from Funny Face (Music by Roger Edens, lyrics by Leonard Gershe))

SPECIAL EFFECTS: THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN, 20 Million Miles to Earth, The Enemy Below

MAKEUP: THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, The Seventh Seal, Man of a Thousand Faces