1967--The Year in Review

1967 is famously a watershed year for movies--ground zero for a ridiculously rich Golden Age that would swirl through American and world cinema for arguably 15 years to come. With that, here it comes down to a fierce battle between US and French film; initially, I was ready to anoint Jacques Tati's bank-breaking marvel Playtime. But then I reconsidered: Playtime is best seen on the hugest screen possible, and this really hamstrings it in terms of others being able to fully grasp its appeal (even the people who already love it find Tati's complex comedic staging lacks definition in miniature). So, in the end, I had to go with the American movie that I think had the biggest impact on the culture, as it ushered in wry takes on mature themes, innovative uses of modern source music, and the rise of the "normal" movie star--in this case, an odd-duck struggling actor named Dustin Hoffman, who overcame being rather over-the-hill to play the 22-year-old Benjamin Braddock, and in doing so, delivered the performance of the year (it's a brilliant piece of casting by director Mike Nichols, who thought Hoffman's non-WASPy countenance would perfectly place him as an outsider in this white-bread world). Its fellow US competitors were difficult to overcome, though, with the groundbreaking violence of Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde (itself influenced by French film, as its subject was suggested to its screenwriters by Francois Truffaut), Richard Brooks' stunning adaptation of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, UK director John Boorman's dizzying noir film Point Blank, and Stuart Rosenberg's immensely popular, anti-establishment-flavored prison tale Cool Hand Luke. It was a terrific period for UK film, with Hammer's sci-fi thriller Quatermass and the Pit, John Schlesinger's elegant Far From the Madding Crowd, Joseph Losey's Accident and US director Stanley Donen’s twin late-period humdingers Bedazzled and Two For the Road (both of which tagged Donen as the one classic-era director who wholly embraced this new age).

As for the French, in addition to Tati, we got another superb film from Robert Bresson called Mouchette, Bunuel's sensual Belle De Jour, three films from Godard (spearheaded by the anti-car satire Weekend) and Melville's exciting Le Samourai. In a bejeweled race for the acting categories, at last I had to give Audrey Hepburn her due (she was Oscar-nominated this year for her  terrorized blind woman in Wait Until Dark, but I went instead for her luminous take as a wife struggling to make her marriage work in Two For the Road), while the Supporting Actor race was filled with delightfully venal villains--and the one I picked is easily the most becoming (and the Supporting Actress race was, for me, an easy choice). Also, this is the first year in a long while that I, like the Academy, reduced the technical categories into a combination of black-and-white and color competitors (given that black-and-white was clearly--and sadly--on its way out). The Documentary Feature category finally gets some major fire behind it, with Frederick Wiseman's debut Titicut Follies--about a scarily lax New England mental hospital--emerging as the first bonafide masterpiece from this new era of reality on film. Finally, on the short film front, experimental cinema makes a huge jump forward with Michael Snow's mystifying 42-minute zoom-in, while in the animated category, Canada's National Film Board takes hold of short-form animation and rarely lets go for a couple of decades hence. 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: THE GRADUATE (US, Mike Nichols)
(2nd: Playtime (France, Jacques Tati), followed by:
Bonnie and Clyde (US, Arthur Penn)
Weekend (France, Jean-Luc Godard)
In Cold Blood (US, Richard Brooks)
Mouchette (France, Robert Bresson)
Titicut Follies (US, Frederick Wiseman)
Belle de Jour (France, Luis Buñuel)
Point Blank (US, John Boorman)
Bedazzled (UK, Stanley Donen)
Cool Hand Luke (US, Stuart Rosenberg)
Quatermass and the Pit (aka Five Million Years to Earth) (UK, Roy Ward Baker)
Don’t Look Back (US, D.A. Pennebaker)
Le Samourai (France, Jean-Pierre Melville)
Two For The Road (UK, Stanley Donen)
The Fireman’s Ball (Czechoslovakia, Milos Forman)
Far from the Madding Crowd (UK, John Schlesinger)
In the Heat of the Night (US, Norman Jewison)
The Dirty Dozen (US, Robert Aldrich)
The Jungle Book (US, Wolfgang Reitherman)
Festival (US, Murray Lerner)
The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade (aka Marat/Sade) (UK, Peter Brook)
The Red and the White (Hungary, Miklós Jancsó)
Accident (UK, Joseph Losey)
The Whisperers (UK, Bryan Forbes)
2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (France, Jean-Luc Godard)
La Collectioneuse (France, Eric Rohmer)
Ulysses (UK, Joseph Strick)
David Holzman's Diary (US, Jim McBride)
Markéta Lazarová (Czechoslovakia, Frantisek Vlácil)
The Anderson Platoon (US, Pierre Schoendoerffer)
Elvira Madigan (Sweden, Bo Widerberg)
Grand Slam (Italy, Giuliano Montaldo)
The Fearless Vampire Killers, or: Pardon Me, But Your Teeth Are in My Neck (UK/US, Roman Polanski)
The Incident (US, Larry Peerce)
Hell’s Angels on Wheels (US, Richard Rush)
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (US, David Swift)
Beach Red (US, Cornel Wilde)
Our Mother’s House (UK, Jack Clayton)
Portrait of Jason (US, Shirley Clarke)
I am Curious…Yellow (Sweden, Vilgot Sjöman)
The Young Girls of Rochefort (France, Jacques Demy)
La Chinoise (France, Jean-Luc Godard)
Warning Shot (US, Buzz Kulik)
Privilege (UK, Peter Watkins)
Hombre (US, Martin Ritt)
To Sir With Love (UK, James Clavell)
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (US, Stanley Kramer)
Wait Until Dark (US, Terence Young)
You Only Live Twice (UK, Lewis Gilbert)
The Trip (US, Roger Corman)
I’ll Never Forget What's 'is Name (UK, Michael Winner)
In Like Flint (US, Gordon Douglas)
Mad Monster Party? (US, Jules Bass)
Poor Cow (UK, Ken Loach)
Countdown (US, Robert Altman)
The Night of the Generals (US, Anatole Litvak)
The President's Analyst (US, Theodore J. Flicker)
How I Won the War (UK, Richard Lester)
Camelot (US, Joshua Logan)
The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre (US, Roger Corman)
Reflections in a Golden Eye (US, John Huston)
Spider Baby (US, Jack Hill))



ACTOR: Dustin Hoffman, THE GRADUATE (2nd: Paul Newman, Cool Hand Luke, followed by: Robert Blake, In Cold Blood; Rod Steiger, In the Heat of the Night; Alain Delon, Le Samourai; Albert Finney, Two for the Road; Warren Beatty, Bonnie and Clyde; Lee Marvin, Point Blank; Dudley Moore, Bedazzled; Spencer Tracy, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner)

ACTRESS: Audrey Hepburn, TWO FOR THE ROAD (2nd: Edith Evans, The Whisperers, followed by: Anne Bancroft, The Graduate; Catherine Deneuve, Belle Du Jour; Faye Dunaway, Bonnie and Clyde; Nadine Nortier, Mouchette; Audrey Hepburn, Wait Until Dark; Barbara Jefford, Ulysses; Julie Christie, Far From the Madding Crowd; Katharine Hepburn, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner) 

SUPPORTING ACTOR: Peter Cook, BEDAZZLED (2nd: Alan Arkin, Wait Until Dark, followed by: Gene Hackman, Bonnie and Clyde; Strother Martin, Cool Hand Luke; Scott Wilson, In Cold Blood; John Cassavetes, The Dirty Dozen; George Kennedy, Cool Hand Luke; Michael J. Pollard, Bonnie and Clyde; Peter Finch, Far from the Madding Crowd; Rudy Vallee, How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Katherine Ross, THE GRADUATE (2nd: Jo Van Fleet, Cool Hand Luke, followed by: Estelle Parsons, Bonnie and Clyde; Lee Grant, In The Heat of the Night; Haydée Politoff, La Collectionneuse; Eleanor Bron, Bedazzled; Genevieve Page, Belle de Jour; Mildred Natwick, Barefoot in the Park; Carol Channing, Thoroughly Modern Millie)

DIRECTOR: Mike Nichols, THE GRADUATE (2nd: Jacques Tati, Playtime, followed by: Jean-Luc Godard, Weekend; Frederick Wiseman, Titicut Follies; Arthur Penn, Bonnie and Clyde; Luis Bunuel, Belle de Jour; John Boorman, Point Blank; Robert Bresson, Mouchette; Stanley Donen, Bedazzled; Stuart Rosenberg, Cool Hand Luke)



NON-ENGLISH-LANGUAGE FILM: PLAYTIME (France, Jacques Tati) (2nd: Weekend (France, Jean-Luc Godard), followed by: Mouchette (France, Robert Bresson); Belle de Jour (France, Luis Buñuel); Le Samourai (France, Jean-Pierre Melville); The Fireman’s Ball (Czechoslovakia, Milos Forman); The Red and the White (Hungary, Miklós Jancsó); 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (France, Jean-Luc Godard); La Collectioneuse (France, Eric Rohmer); Markéta Lazarová (Czechoslovakia, Frantisek Vlácil); Elvira Madigan (Sweden, Bo Widerberg); I am Curious…Yellow (Sweden, Vilgot Sjöman); La Chinoise (France, Jean-Luc Godard))

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: TITICUT FOLLIES (US, Frederick Wiseman) (2nd: Don’t Look Back (US, D.A. Pennebaker), followed by: Festival (US, Murray Lerner); The Anderson Platoon (US, Pierre Schoendoerffer); Portrait of Jason (US, Shirley Clarke))

ANIMATED FEATURE: THE JUNGLE BOOK (US, Wolfgang Reitherman) (2nd: Mad Monster Party? (US, Jules Bass))



ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: David Newman and Robert Benton, BONNIE AND CLYDE (2nd: Frederic Raphael, Two for the Road, followed by: Nigel Kneale, Quatermass and the Pit (aka Five Million Years to Earth); Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, Bedazzled; Sterling Silliphant, In The Heat of the Night)



ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Buck Henry and Calder Willingham, THE GRADUATE (2nd: Richard Brooks, In Cold Blood, followed by: Luis Bunuel and Jean-Claude Carriere, Belle Du Jour; Alexander Jacobs, David Newhouse, and Rafe Newhouse, Point Blank; Donn Pierce and Frank Pierson, Cool Hand Luke)



LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM: WAVELENGTH (Canada, Michael Snow) (2nd: Report (US, Bruce Conner), followed by: Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB (US, George Lucas); A Place to Stand (Canada, Christopher Chapman); The Perfect Human (Denmark, Jorgen Leth); Rail (UK, Geoffrey Jones))



ANIMATED SHORT FILM: WHAT ON EARTH! (Canada, Les Drew and Kaj Pindal) (2nd: The House That Jack Built (Canada, Ron Tunis), followed by: Samadhi (US, Jordan Belson); Historia Naturae, Suita (Czechoslovakia, Jan Svankmajer); Everything is a Number (Poland, Stefan Schabenbeck); Marvin Digs (US, Ralph Bakshi))

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Robert Surtees, THE GRADUATE (2nd: Conrad Hall, In Cold Blood, followed by: Jean Badal and Andreas Winding, Playtime; Burnett Guffey, Bonnie and Clyde; Nicolas Roeg, Far from the Madding Crowd)

ART DIRECTION: PLAYTIME, The Graduate, You Only Live Twice, Point Blank, Camelot

COSTUME DESIGN: BONNIE AND CLYDE, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Camelot, The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade, Far From the Madding Crowd

FILM EDITING: BONNIE AND CLYDE, The Graduate, In Cold Blood, Point Blank, In the Heat of the Night 

SOUND: THE DIRTY DOZEN, In the Heat of the Night, Point Blank, Cool Hand Luke, Don't Look Back


ORIGINAL SCORE: Lalo Schifrin, COOL HAND LUKE (2nd: Quincy Jones, In Cold Blood, followed by: Richard Rodney Bennett, Far from the Madding Crowd; Elmer Bernstein, Thoroughly Modern Millie; John Barry, You Only Live Twice)  



ADAPTED OR MUSICAL SCORE: Michel Legrand, THE YOUNG GIRLS OF ROCHEFORT (2nd: Richard Peaslee, The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade, followed by: Dudley Moore, Bedazzled; Charles Strouse, Bonnie and Clyde; Alfred Newman and Ken Darby, Camelot)

 

ORIGINAL SONG: “The Look of Love” from CASINO ROYALE (Music by Burt Bacharach, lyrics by Hal David) (2nd: “You Only Live Twice” from You Only Live Twice (Music by John Barry, lyrics by Leslie Bricusse), followed by: "To Sir With Love" from To Sir With Love (Music by Mark London, lyrics by Don Black); "In The Heat of the Night" from In the Heat of the Night (Music by Quincy Jones, lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman); "The Bare Necessities" from The Jungle Book (Music and lyrics by Terry Gilkyson); "Theme from Valley of the Dolls" from Valley of the Dolls (Music by Andre Previn, lyrics by Dore Previn); "I Wanna Be Like You (The Monkey Song)" from The Jungle Book (Music and lyrics by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman); "Trust in Me" from The Jungle Book (Music and lyrics by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman); "Bedazzled" from Bedazzled (Music and lyrics by Dudley Moore); "Fowl Owl on the Prowl" from In the Heat of the Night (Music by Quincy Jones, lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman); "Talk to the Animals" from Doctor Doolittle (Music and lyrics by Leslie Bricusse); "It's The Little Things" from Good Times (Music and lyrics by Sonny Bono))

SPECIAL EFFECTS: YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE, Doctor Doolittle

MAKEUP: THE PERSECUTION AND ASSASSINATION OF JEAN-PAUL MARAT AS PERFORMED BY THE INMATES OF THE ASYLUM OF CHARENTON UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE MARQUIS DE SADE, You Only Live Twice, Quatermass and the Pit (aka Five Million Years to Earth)

1966--The Year in Review

This, the year of my birth, proved to be a bear. Any one of the top ten could have emerged victorious, but I must confess that Mike Nichols’ debut filming of Edward Albee’s landmark play had an immense impact on me as a child and even further as an adult. It really clued me in to the mature notes that cinema—American cinema, at least–could hit, and I still regard it as a breakthrough for filmmaking, and the single best adaptation of a stage play to film (and also career-best performances by its small cast, including its two superstar leads; it's also nearly the final great film of the black-and-white era and, for some time to come, the last black-and-white film to top my yearly lists). Still, I had to give the director’s award to Ingmar Bergman, as his stunning personal musing on female identity--so stimulating to look at and think about--would remain my favorite of his movies for decades to come. I should add: it kills me that Antonioni's eerily confounding Blow Up couldn’t land but one of my top votes, and that I have, in the past few years, returned to the Academy's chosen film A Man for All Seasons repeatedly for its articulate conclusions about power and faith. But similar feelings brook Robert Bresson's soaring masterpiece following a sanctified donkey named Balthazar and Sergio Leone's epic final entry in his Man With No Name trilogy. With the short films, I strode outside the norm with the second straight Animated Short citation for the Peanuts gang, and the first win for documentarians Albert and David Maysles. As for the very competitive Original Score category, there was really only one ultimate choice: the greatest film score ever composed. 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: WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? (US, Mike Nichols)
(2nd: Persona (Sweden, Ingmar Bergman), followed by:
Blow Up (UK, Michelangelo Antonioni)
A Man for All Seasons (UK, Fred Zinnemann)
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Italy, Sergio Leone)
Au Hasard, Balthazar (France, Robert Bresson)
Masculin Feminin (France/Sweden, Jean-Luc Godard)
Closely Watched Trains (Czechoslovakia, Jiri Menzel)
The Round Up (Hungary, Miklos Jancso)
Seconds (US, John Frankenheimer)
The Battle of Algiers (Italy/Algeria, Gillo Pontecorvo)
Andrei Rublev (USSR, Andrei Tarkovsky)
Cul de Sac (UK, Roman Polanski)
Lord Love a Duck (US, George Axelrod)
Daisies (Czechoslovakia, Vera Chytilova)
The Shooting (US, Monte Hellman)
The Pornographers (Japan, Shohei Imamura)
Tokyo Drifter (Japan, Seijun Suzuki)
Fahrenheit 451 (UK, François Truffaut)
The Endless Summer (US, Bruce Brown)
Morgan! A Suitable Case for Treatment (UK, Karel Reisz)
Young Torless (West Germany, Volker Schlöndorff)
The Professionals (US, Richard Brooks)
Hunger (Denmark, Henning Carlsen)
A Man and a Woman (France, Claude Lelouch)
Harper (US, Jack Smight)
Is Paris Burning? (US/France, Rene Clement)
La Guerre est Finie (France, Alain Resnais)
The Rise of Louis XIV (France, Roberto Rossellini)
Made in USA (France, Jean-Luc Godard)
Seven Women (US, John Ford)
Alfie (UK, Lewis Gilbert)
The Velvet Underground and Nico (US, Andy Warhol)
What's Up Tiger Lily? (US/Japan, Woody Allen and Senkichi Taniguchi)
Fantastic Voyage (US, Richard Fleischer)
The Fortune Cookie (US, Billy Wilder)
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (UK, Richard Lester)
This Night I’ll Possess Your Corpse (Brazil, José Mojica Marins)
The Plague of the Zombies (UK, John Gilling)
Django (Italy, Sergio Corbucci)
The Wild Angels (US, Roger Corman)
Our Man Flint (US, Daniel Mann)
King of Hearts (UK/France, Phillippe de Broca)
Chappaqua (US, Conrad Rooks)
Thunderbirds Are GO! (UK, David Lane)
Mondo Topless (US, Russ Meyer)
War of the Gargantuas (Japan, Ishiro Honda)
Dracula, Prince of Darkness (UK, Terence Fisher)
The Oscar (US, Russell Rouse)
Manos: The Hands of Fate (US, Harold P. Warren))



ACTOR: Richard Burton, WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? (2nd: Paul Scofield, A Man for All Seasons, followed by: Per Oscarsson, Hunger; Clint Eastwood, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly; Rock Hudson, Seconds; Jean-Pierre Leaud, Masculin Feminin; Donald Pleasence, Cul de Sac) 



ACTRESS: Elizabeth Taylor, WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? (2nd: Bibi Andersson, Persona, followed by: Chantal Goya, Masculin Feminin; Vanessa Redgrave, Morgan! A Suitable Case for Treatment; Anouk Aimée, A Man and a Woman; Liv Ullmann, Persona; Lynn Redgrave, Georgy Girl)

SUPPORTING ACTOR: Robert Shaw, A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS (2nd: Lionel Stander, Cul de Sac, followed by: Eli Wallach, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly; John Randolph, Seconds; George Segal, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; John Hurt, A Man for All Seasons; Walter Matthau, The Fortune Cookie) 

SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Wendy Hiller, A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS (2nd: Sandy Dennis, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, followed by Vanessa Redgrave, Blow Up; Jocelyn LaGarde, Hawaii; Vivien Merchant, Alfie; Geraldine Page, You're A Big Boy Now; Jessica Walter, The Group)



DIRECTOR: Ingmar Bergman, PERSONA (2nd: Michelangelo Antonioni, Blow Up, followed by: Mike Nichols, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; Sergio Leone, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly; Fred Zinnemann, A Man for All Seasons; Robert Bresson, Au Hasard, Balthazar; Gillo Pontecorvo, The Battle of Algiers)

NON-ENGLISH-LANGUAGE FILM: PERSONA (Sweden, Ingmar Bergman) (2nd: Au Hasard, Balthazar (France, Robert Bresson), followed by: Masculin Feminin (France/Sweden, Jean-Luc Godard); Closely Watched Trains (Czechoslovakia, Jiri Menzel, won in 1967); The Round Up (Hungary, Miklos Jancso); The Battle of Algiers (Italy/Algeria, Gillo Pontecorvo); Andrei Rublev (USSR, Andrei Tarkovsky); Daisies (Czechoslovakia, Vera Chytilova); The Pornographers (Japan, Shohei Imamura); Tokyo Drifter (Japan, Seijun Suzuki); Young Torless (West Germany, Volker Schlöndorff);  Hunger (Denmark, Henning Carlsen); A Man and a Woman (France, Claude Lelouch); La Guerre est Finie (France, Alain Resnais); The Rise of Louis XIV (France, Roberto Rossellini))



DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: THE ENDLESS SUMMER (US, Bruce Brown) (2nd: The Velvet Underground and Nico (US, Andy Warhol)



ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Robert Bresson, AU HASARD, BALTHAZAR (2nd: Michelangelo Antonioni, Tonino Guarra and Edward Bond, Blow Up, followed by: Ingmar Bergman, Persona; Franco Solinas and Gillo Pontecorvo, The Battle of Algiers; Sergio Leone, Luciano Vincenzoni, Agenore Incrocci. Furio Scarpelli, and Mickey Knox, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly)



ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Robert Bolt, A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS (2nd: Ernest Lehman, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, followed by: Bohumil Hrabal and Jiri Menzel, Closely Watched Trains; Lewis John Carlino, Seconds; Larry H. Johnson and George Axelrod, Lord Love a Duck)



LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM: MEET MARLON BRANDO (US, Albert and David Maysles) (2nd: Snow (UK, Geoffrey Jones), followed by: Outer and Inner Space (US, Andy Warhol); The Devil’s Toy (Canada, Claude Jutra); The Odds Against (US, Lee R. Bobker))


 
ANIMATED SHORT FILM: IT'S THE GREAT PUMPKIN, CHARLIE BROWN! (US, Bill Melendez) (2nd: Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (US, Wolfgang Reitherman, followed by: How the Grinch Stole Christmas (US, Chuck Jones); The Pink Blueprint (US, Fritz Freling); Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass Double Feature (US, John and Faith Hubley))

BLACK-AND-WHITE CINEMATOGRAPHY: Haskell Wexler, WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? (2nd: James Wong Howe, Seconds, followed by: Tamas Somlo, The Round Up; Sven Nykvist, Persona; Ghislain Cloquet, Au Hasard, Balthazar)

COLOR CINEMATOGRAPHY: Carlo di Palma, BLOW UP (2nd: Nicolas Roeg, Fahrenheit 451, followed by: Tonino Delli Colli, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly; Conrad Hall, The Professionals; Ted Moore, A Man for All Seasons) 

BLACK-AND-WHITE ART DIRECTION: WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?, Seconds, Is Paris Burning?, The Fortune Cookie, The Round Up 

COLOR ART DIRECTION: FANTASTIC VOYAGE, The Rise of Louis XIV. The Good the Bad and the Ugly, Blow Up, Fahrenheit 451 

BLACK-AND-WHITE COSTUME DESIGN: WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?, Morgan! A Suitable Case for Treatment, Lord Love a Duck, Andrei Rublev, Mister Buddwing

COLOR COSTUME DESIGN: A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS, The Rise of Louis XIV, Blow Up, Daisies, Hawaii



FILM EDITING: WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?, Grand Prix, Blow Up, The Good the Bad and the Ugly, A Man for All Seasons



SOUND: GRAND PRIX, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Professionals, Blow Up, Gambit



ORIGINAL SCORE: Ennio Morricone, THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY (2nd: Alex North, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, followed by: John Barry, Born Free; Walter Georis, John Blakely, and Gaston Georis, The Endless Summer; Herbie Hancock, Blow Up)

ADAPTED OR MUSICAL SCORE: Ken Thorne, A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM (2nd: Elmer Bernstein, Return of the Magnificent Seven)



ORIGINAL SONG: “Darling, Be Home Soon” from YOU’RE A BIG BOY NOW (Music and lyrics by John Sebastian) (2nd: “Alfie” from Alfie (Music by Burt Bacharach, lyrics by Hal David), followed by: "Born Free" from Born Free (Music by John Barry, lyrics by Don Black); "Django" from Django (Music by Luis Bacalov, lyrics by Franco Migliacci); "Georgy Girl" from Georgy Girl (Music by Tom Springfield, lyrics by Jim Dale); "A Must to Avoid" from Hold On! (Music and lyrics by P.F. Sloan); "Navajo Joe" from Navajo Joe (Music and lyrics by Ennio Morricone); "After the Fox" from After the Fox (Music by Burt Bacharach, lyrics by Hal David))

SPECIAL EFFECTS: FANTASTIC VOYAGE, Thunderbirds are GO!, Hawaii

MAKEUP: THE PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES, The Reptile, Seconds

1965--The Year in Review

It's no surprise that Robert Wise's immensely popular The Sound of Music garnered most of the 1965 awards; a box-office smash, it's the most loved movie of its period, with scads of fans still attending sing-a-longs while watching the original film. Maybe it IS the correct choice for Best Picture, but I've never much cottoned to it, even though Julie Andrews is photographed sublimely while jaunting about its impressive landscapes (seeing it with an adoring audience sure helps one understand its appeal, though the experience rarely converts those unready for overripe sentiment). For me, this year connotes a race between two harrowing films: Repulsion, Roman Polanski's horrific tale of isolation (starring a seriously diseased Catherine Deneuve, run ragged by her director) and Sidney Lumet's nearly-forgotten prison yarn The Hill involving a band of imprisoned British soldiers rising up against their sadistic jailers (the cast is led by Sean Connery, taking a break from Bond to show he could REALLY act, alongside a superb lineup of character performers who deserved to own the Supporting Actor category). Others might see David Lean's Russian epic Doctor Zhivago as the best of the year (it looks and sounds glorious but is seriously flabby around its midsection), or Godard's perfectly odd one-two punch of Pierrot le Fou and Alphaville. Other contenders included Orson Welles' last lavish movie Chimes at Midnight, or even Richard Lester's Palme D'Or winner at Cannes, a sly British sex comedy called The Knack, and How to Get It. And the year was punctuated by fantastic works from artistically-freed Czechoslovakian masters Jan Kadar, Milos Forman, Jiri Trinka, Jan Lenica, and Ivan Passer. But, in the end, Polanski had to take the top prize for the most intense of his many claustrophobic masterpieces. Even so, among the most lasting of 1965 titles were lesser-talked-about films: The War Game, Peter Watkins' sickening account of a possible nuclear-devastated Britain; Jim Henson's amusingly experimental work Time Piece, and perhaps the most universally loved movie of the year A Charlie Brown Christmas, which many see, even 50 years on, as a work they have to experience again before their holiday feels complete. There was no way I could choose between that film's sweetly jazzy score by Vince Guaraldi and the sweeping work of Doctor Zhivago composer Maurice Jarre, so I had to result in a rare tie in the Original Score race. Meanwhile, in the newly lively Best Song category, the Beatles battle in a VERY tight competition which they easily could've lost. 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: REPULSION (UK, Roman Polanski)
(2nd: The Hill (US/UK, Sidney Lumet), followed by:
The Knack, And How to Get It (UK, Richard Lester)
The War Game (UK, Peter Watkins)
Pierrot le Fou (France, Jean-Luc Godard)
Chimes at Midnight (Spain/US, Orson Welles)
Doctor Zhivago (US/UK, David Lean)
War and Peace (USSR, Sergei Bondarchuk)
Alphaville (France, Jean-Luc Godard)
Rapture (UK, John Guillermin)
The Flight of the Phoenix (US, Robert Aldrich)
The Loved One (UK, Tony Richardson)
The Shop on Main Street (Czechoslovakia, Jan Kadar)
It Happened Here (UK, Kevin Brownlow and Andrew Mollo)
Loves of a Blonde (Czechoslovakia, Milos Forman)
The Sound of Music (US, Robert Wise)
Intimate Lighting (Czechoslovakia, Ivan Passer)
Mickey One (US, Arthur Penn)
Juliet of the Spirits (Italy, Federico Fellini)
The Bedford Incident (US, James B. Harris)
The Pawnbroker (US, Sidney Lumet)
The Agony and the Ecstasy (UK, Carol Reed)
Shakespeare Wallah (UK, James Ivory)
Faster, Pussycat, Kill! Kill! (US, Russ Meyer)
Othello (UK, Lawrence Olivier)
The Ipcress File (UK, Sidney J. Furie)
For a Few Dollars More (Italy, Sergio Leone)
The Collector (US/UK, William Wyler)
Ride in the Whirlwind (US, Monte Hellman)
Tokyo Olympiad (Japan, Kon Ichikawa)
The Saragossa Manuscript (Poland, Wojciech Has)
The Eleanor Roosevelt Story (US, Richard Kaplan)
Help! (UK, Richard Lester)
The Nanny (UK, Seth Holt)
Darling (UK, John Schlesinger)
Bunny Lake is Missing (UK, Otto Preminger)
Thunderball (UK, Terence Young)
The Naked Prey (US/UK, Cornel Wilde)
A Patch of Blue (US, Guy Green)
Inside Daisy Clover (US, Robert Mulligan)
The Slender Thread (US, Sydney Pollack)
The Spy Who Came In From the Cold (UK/US, Martin Ritt)
The Great Race (US, Blake Edwards)
The Greatest Story Ever Told (US, George Stevens)
Who Killed Teddy Bear? (US, Joseph Cates)

ACTOR: Sean Connery, THE HILL (2nd: Rod Steiger, The Pawnbroker, followed by: Orson Welles, Chimes at Midnight; Laurence Olivier, Othello; James Stewart, The Flight of the Phoenix; Jean-Paul Belmondo, Pierre Le Fou; Richard Burton, The Spy Who Came In From the Cold)

ACTRESS: Catherine Deneuve, REPULSION (2nd: Julie Andrews, The Sound of Music, followed by: Ida Kaminska, The Shop on Main Street; Giulietta Masina, Juliet of the Spirits; Patricia Gozzi, Rapture; Tura Satana, Faster, Pussycat, Kill! Kill!; Samantha Eggar, The Collector; Julie Christie, Doctor Zhivago)

SUPPORTING ACTOR: Harry Andrews, THE HILL (2nd: Ian Bannen, The Hill, followed by: John Gielgud, Chimes at Midnight; Ossie Davis, The Hill; Ian Hendry, The Hill; Tom Courtenay, Doctor Zhivago; Richard Attenbourough, The Flight of the Phoenix)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Shelley Winters, A PATCH OF BLUE (2nd: Peggy Wood, The Sound of Music, followed by: Joyce Redman, Othello; Maggie Smith, Othello; Jill Bennett, The Nanny; Ruth Gordon, Inside Daisy Clover; Joan Blondell, The Cincinatti Kid)

DIRECTOR: Roman Polanski, REPULSION (2nd: Orson Welles, Chimes at Midnight, followed by: Sidney Lumet, The Hill; Richard Lester, The Knack, And How to Get It;  Jean-Luc Godard, Pierrot le Fou; Peter Watkins, The War Game; David Lean, Doctor Zhivago)


 
NON-ENGLISH-LANGUAGE FILM: PIERROT LE FOU (France, Jean-Luc Godard) (2nd: War and Peace (USSR, Sergei Bondarchuk), followed by: Alphaville (France, Jean-Luc Godard); The Shop on Main Street (Czechoslovakia, Jan Kadar); Loves of a Blonde (Czechoslovakia, Milos Forman); Intimate Lighting (Czechoslovakia, Ivan Passer); Juliet of the Spirits (Italy, Federico Fellini); The Saragossa Manuscript (Poland, Wojciech Has))



DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: THE WAR GAME (UK, Peter Watkins (wins in 1966)) (2nd: Tokyo Olympiad (Japan, Kon Ichikawa), followed by: The Eleanor Roosevelt Story (US, Richard Kaplan))

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Ladislav Grosman, THE SHOP ON MAIN STREET (2nd: Jean-Luc Godard, Pierrot le Fou; Roman Polanski, Gerard Brach, and David Stone, Repulsion; Milos Forman, Jaroslav Papousek, Ivan Passer, and Vaclav Sasek, Loves of a Blonde; Jean-Luc Godard, Alphaville)



ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:  Ray Rigby, THE HILL (2nd: Terry Southern and Christopher Isherwood, The Loved One, followed by: James Poe, The Bedford Incident; Robert Bolt, Doctor Zhivago; Charles Wood, The Knack, and How to Get It)


 
LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM: TIME PIECE (US, Jim Henson) (2nd: Now (Cuba, Santiago Alvarez), followed by: To Be Alive! (US, Alexander Hackenschmied and Francis Thompson); Skaterdater (US, Noel Black); The Railrodder (Canada, Gerald Potterton, Buster Keaton and John Spotton))



ANIMATED SHORT FILM: A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS (US, Bill Melendez) (2nd: The Dot and the Line (US, Chuck Jones), followed by: La Gazza Ladra (Italy, Giulio Gianini and Emanuele Luzzati); The Hand (Czechoslovakia, Jiri Trnka); Rhinoceros (Czechoslovakia, Jan Lenica))



BLACK-AND-WHITE CINEMATOGRAPHY: Raoul Coutard, ALPHAVILLE, followed by: David Watkin, The Knack, and How to Get It; Marcel Grignon, Rapture; Haskell Wexler, The Loved One; Oswald Morris, The Hill)

COLOR CINEMATOGRAPHY: Frederick A. Young, DOCTOR ZHIVAGO (2nd: William C. Mellor and Loyal Griggs, The Greatest Story Ever Told, followed by: Ted McCord, The Sound of Music; Anatoli Petritsky, War and Peace; Gianni di Venanzo, Juliet of the Spirits)

BLACK-AND-WHITE ART DIRECTION: THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD, A Patch of Blue, Alphaville, King Rat, Ship of Fools

COLOR ART DIRECTION: DOCTOR ZHIVAGO, The Agony and the Ecstasy, The Sound of Music, War and Peace, Inside Daisy Clover

BLACK-AND-WHITE COSTUME DESIGN: DARLING, Chimes at Midnight, The Slender Thread, Ship of Fools, The Loved One

COLOR COSTUME DESIGN: DOCTOR ZHIVAGO, The Agony and the Ecstasy, War and Peace, Inside Daisy Clover, The Greatest Story Ever Told 

FILM EDITING: THE HILL, The Sound of Music, The Flight of the Phoenix, The Bedford Incident, Pierrot le Fou 

 
SOUND: THE SOUND OF MUSIC, Doctor Zhivago, The Flight of the Phoenix, The Great Race, The Agony and the Ecstasy






ORIGINAL SCORE: TIE: Vince Guaraldi, A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS and Maurice Jarre, Doctor Zhivago (2nd: John Barry, The Knack, and How to Get It, followed by: Chico Hamilton, Repulsion; Jerry Goldsmith, A Patch of Blue; Georges Delarue, Rapture)  

ADAPTED OR MUSICAL SCORE: Irwin Kostal, THE SOUND OF MUSIC (2nd: George Martin, Help!, followed by: Frank DeVol, Cat Ballou)



ORIGINAL SONG: "Ticket to Ride" from HELP! (Music and lyrics by John Lennon and Paul McCartney) (2nd: "The Shadow of Your Smile" from The Sandpiper (Music by Johnny Mandel, lyrics by Paul Francis Webster), followed by: "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" from Help! (Music and lyrics by John Lennon and Paul McCartney); "Christmas Time is Here" from A Charlie Brown Christmas (Music by Vince Guaraldi, lyrics by Lee Mendelson); "What's New, Pussycat?" from What's New, Pussycat? (Music by Burt Bacharach, lyrics by Hal David); "Ferry Cross The Mersey" from Ferry Cross The Mersey (Music and lyrics by Gerry Marsden); "Faster, Pussycat" from Faster, Pussycat, Kill! Kill! (Music by Paul Sawtell and Bert Shefter, lyrics by Rick Jarrard); "Help!" from Help!' (Music and lyrics by John Lennon and Paul McCartney); "Thunderball" from Thunderball (Music by John Barry, lyrics by Don Black); "Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows" from Ski Party (Music by Marvin Hamlisch, lyrics by Howard Liebling); "Baby, The Rain Must Fall" from Baby, The Rain Must Fall (Music by Elmer Bernstein, lyrics by Ernest Sheldon))

SPECIAL EFFECTS: THUNDERBALL, The Greatest Story Ever Told

MAKEUP: THE WAR GAME, The Flight of the Phoenix, Doctor Zhivago