Top Ten 1960s
Tuesday, June 18, 2013 at 5:30PM I still have a lot more to see from the 1960s but this top ten, more than most apart from the 1980s is a combination of films I fell for as a child on television in the 70s and 80s and films I love now as an adult. I'm bookending with two Natalie Wood features -- the first actress I ever loved -- though I recognize that they are more personal favorites than perfect films. That caveat aside I do find Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice to be grossly undervalued since it's essentiall a comedy about its time and therefore "light" and "dated" . Still, I absolutely insist, it's a wonderful wonderful light and dated thing. At the top of the list West Side Story has been my favorite film of all time for as long as I remember being conscious of movies so it'll just have to keep on being so -- it's fundamentally part of who I am -- flaws and all (and yes, I can see its flaws).
Natalie & Deneuve, the greatest of the 60s screen beauties
top ten
01 West Side Story (1961)
02 Persona (1967)
03 Psycho (1960)
04 The Sound of Music (1965)
05 Bonnie & Clyde (1967)
06 Hud (1963)
07 They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969)
08 [Cheating w/ a Deneuve Double] The Umbrellas of Cherbrough (1965) & Belle de Jour (1967)
09 The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
10 Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969)
pick a film, any film
i'll only be satisfied with a top 17
11 Rosemary's Baby (1968)
12 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
13 Splendor in the Grass (1961)
14 La Dolce Vita (1960)
15 Mary Poppins (1964).... coming up soon on "Hit Me..."
16 Playtime (1967)
17 Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
and affectionate nods to...
Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962), Breathless (1961), Whatever Happened To Baby Jane? (1962), My Fair Lady (1964), 8 ½ (1963), Darling (1965), The Apartment (1960), Bay of Angels (1963), and Rachel Rachel (1968).
Which films define you and which films can't you live without... from the subcategory of the 1960s of course?
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Reader Comments (73)
Holy crap, give me The Apartment every day of the week. Tops 10 all time and top of the 60s
1. 8 1/2
2. 2001: A Space Odyssey
3. High and Low
4. Z
5. Cries and Whispers
6. Dr. Strangelove
7. The Manchurian Candidate (I always forget about this one. Not sure why. It's fantastic.)
8. La Dolce Vita
9. Repulsion
10. Once Upon a Time in the West
My personal Top 10 of the Sixties:
1. The Apartment (Billy Wilder)
2. La Dolce Vita (Federico Fellini)
3. 2001 - A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick)
4. 8 1/2 (Federico Fellini)
5. Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock)
6. Judgment at Nuremberg (Stanley Kramer)
7. Persona (Ingmar Bergman)
8. Dr. Strangelove (Stanley Kubrick)
9. Rosemary's Baby (Roman Polanski)
10. Rocco and His Brothers (Luchino Visconti)
From the ones listed (that I've seen), Psycho, Bonnie & Clyde and Rosemary's Baby are my favorites.
Haven't seen many of them though (or in their entireness) and I feel ashamed but I'll live :p
Also like a lot : The Lion in Winter, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? and maaaaaybe Plein soleil.
My top ten of the 1960s goes something like this (in alphabetical order):
L'avventura
Blowup
Divorce Italian-Style
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
Psycho
Rosemary's Baby
The Sound of Music
Thunderball
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
Where Eagles Dare
Okay, here goes. Without over thinking it.
1. Dr. Strangelove
2. Lawrence of Arabia
3. The Apartment
4. Psycho
5. Yojimbo
6. 8 1/2
7. The Manchurian Candidate
8. 2001: A Space Odyssey
9. Once Upon a Time in the West
10.The Producers
Wow, that filled up fast. Pained to leave off --- Woman in the Dunes, Persona, The Hustler, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Andrei Rublev, Red Beard, The Battle of Algiers, A Man For All Seasons, Becket, and La Dolce Vita
I actually prefer the remake of The Manchurian Candidate to the original (Streep clause), but the Frankenheimer film is still a goodie.
1. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
2. La Dolce Vita
3. The Graduate
4. Chimes at Midnight
5. The Apartment
6. West Side Story
7. Psycho
8. 2001: A Space Odyssey
9. Bonnie and Clyde
10. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
I really like Rosemary's Baby too, more so thanks to the impending sense of doom its given this season of Mad Men.
The Leopard
Darling
The Pumpkin Eater
They Shoot Horses Don't They
Rosemary's Baby
Z
The L Shaped Room
Bonnie and Clyde
Two for the Road
and for a howl...Secret Ceremony
spitballing as I go here, so I'd probably answer differently tomorrow, but here goes:
The Leopard
Le Samourai
Once Upon a Time in the West
2001: A Space Odyssey
Lawrence of Arabia
Jules and Jim
The Apartment
Dr. Strangelove
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
Putney Swope
My favorites, in no particular order:
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
Psycho
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane
Dr. Strangelove
West Side Story
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
The Producers
Lawrence of Arabia
Hello Dolly! / Funny Girl
Sweet Bird of Youth
Never Seen: The Apartment
Don't Remember Well: Mary Poppins
Not as good as I once thought: The Graduate
Better than I once thought: The Sound of Music
Guilty Pleasure: Guess Who's Coming to Dinner and Oliver!
I love reading these Top Ten of the decade articles. Keep them coming! Also, I'm always as intrigued by the omissions as I am by what's included on the list. The Graduate is conspicuously absent from the list, I see and I don't think I've ever read your thoughts on it on the blog. Out and out disdain, good but not good enough for the list or the dreaded cinematic mediocrity? Would love to hear your brief thoughts.
In no particular order, my list would look:
Contempt, West Side Story, Belle de Jour, The Graduate, The Battle of Algiers, Psycho, The Sound of Music, L'Eclisse, Midnight Cowboy and Rosemary's Baby, with honorable mentions to 8 1/2(a movie I respect more than love), Repulsion, Breathless, The Jungle Book, To Kill a Mockingbird and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (as well as its spirit twin The Young Girls of Rochefort). I need to watch more movies from the 1960s. I'm embarrassed to say which of the films already mentioned I have yet to see.
Okay, here goes. Without over thinking it.
1. Dr. Strangelove
2. The Apartment
3. Lawrence of Arabia
4. Psycho
5. Yojimbo
6. 8 1/2
7. The Manchurian Candidate
8. 2001: A Space Odyssey
9. Once Upon a Time in the West
10.The Producers
Wow, that filled up fast. Pained to leave off --- Woman in the Dunes, Persona, The Hustler, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Andrei Rublev, Red Beard, The Battle of Algiers, A Man For All Seasons, Becket, and La Dolce Vita
1. The Graduate
2. The Apartment
3. Psycho
Those are my overwhelming favourites from that decade.
Oh, so many things I still have to see! By my count, I've only seen about 90 60s flicks. And let me stress that these are my FAVORITES, not necessarily the BEST.
1. Lolita (1962, Stanley Kubrick)
2. Valley of the Dolls (1967, Mark Robson, MADNESS)
3. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966, Mike Nichols)
4. What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?(1962, Robert Aldrich)
5. Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961, Blake Edwards)
6. The World of Henry Orient (1964, George Roy Hill)
7. My Fair Lady (1964, George Cukor)
8. On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969, Peter R. Hunt)
9. Thunderball (1965, Terence Young)
10. Z (1969, Costa-Gavras)
Just missed out: Elmer Gantry, Lawrence of Arabia, The Sound of Music, Two Thousand Maniacs
And of your top ten (ten, eleven, whatever), I've seen five: Umbrella of Cherbourg, Psycho, The Sound of Music (obviously), West Side Story, and Bonnie & Clyde.
In no particular order:
- Psycho
- Battle of Algiers
- Rosemary's Baby
- Once Upon a Time in the West
- Umbrellas of Cherbrough
- Dr. Strangelove
- Breathless/Pierrot le Fou (my cheat)
- Midnight Cowboy
- Purple Noon
- Bonnie and Clyde
ALTS:The Birds. The Innocents. Belle de Jour.
Not a Nichols fan? The Graduate might just be my favourite film of all time, and Virginia Woolf is definitely in my Top 10 of the '60s.
I'm so glad The Sound of Music was on your list. That has gotta be my all time most favorite movie, though it's mainly due to sentimental reason. I think it was the first movie I fell in love with. I was still a kid when I begged my grandpa to give his VCR taping of the film to me, and I watched it over and over for many times in the subsequent months. I wasn't sure whether it was edited out of the TV version due to the length or it was simply due to my grandpa switched on the TV few minutes late, somehow the iconic opening scenes of breathtaking aerial shots were missing. Of course I didn't know what I was missing back then. Only when I bought the DVD many years later that I watched the full version of the film.
I still watch it now whenever I feel happy or sad. When I'm happy, this film brings more joy to me. When I'm sad, this film can heal my sorrow. I still keep the VCR, though I can no longer find a player that can play it. The good memory will always be with me.
in alphabetical order:
Alfie
The Apartment
Billy Liar
The Birds
The League of Gentlemen
The L Shaped Room
Psycho
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
The Servant
Whistle Down the Wind
It may just be me, but I don't love very many Hollywood films from the '60s. Most of them come across as either ponderous or silly today. The French and Japanese cinema was where it was at in the '60s.
1. The Manchurian Candidate (1962, John Frankenheimer)
2. Dr. Strangelove (1964, Stanley Kubrick)
3. Cleo from 5 to 7 (1961, Agnes Varda)
4. Yojimbo (1961, Akira Kurosawa)
5. Play Time (1967, Jacques Tati)
6. Bullitt (1968, Peter Yates)
7. Medium Cool (1969, Haskell Wexler)
8. When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (1960, Mikio Naruse)
9. Kuroneko (1966, Kaneto Shindo)
10. The Apartment (1960, Billy Wilder)
Nods to: Breathless, Z, Targets, Bonnie & Clyde, Onibaba, Psycho, Battle of Algiers, Who's That Knocking at My Door
Stefano -- ugh. i can't believe i forgot about La Dolce Vita. I prefer it to 8 1/2 which i did mention.
W.J. -- i can't believe i forgot Play Time. Noooooo. definitely top 15 material
Steven -- i've never really loved The Graduate but Virginia Woolf is a-w-e-s-o-m-e.
I'm so glad Michael C. gave a shout-out to Woman in the Dunes...a friend at work lent me a copy of the film just last week and I watched it without any knowledge of the plot...if you don't know anything about the film, or the book, do as I did and watch it cold. Normally I'll watch a lengthy film in sections (I watched the 2.5 hr. director's cut)...this film I just couldn't stop watching...that is all I will say...go get it now!
So Sue -- i saw that one in college but unfortunately I remember NOTHING about it.
1 - Samurai Rebellion, Kobayashi, Japan
2 - The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Demy, France
3 - Lawrence of Arabia, Lean, England
4 - L'Eclisse, Antonioni, Italy
5 - Black God, White Devil, Rocha, Brazil
6 - Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, Paradjanov, USSR
7 - Weekend, Godard
8 - Le Bonheur, Varda, France
9 - Once Upon a Time in the West, Leone, Italy
10 - Mouchette, Bresson, France
The Wild Bunch, True Grit, Easy Rider, Once Upon a Time in the West, Night of the Living Dead, The Lion in Winter, Il Grande silenzio, Playtime, Bonnie & Clyde, Cool Hand Luke, Fahrenheit 451, Ivanovo detstvo, Andrei Rublev, Repulsion, Alphaville, Bande à part, Le mépris, Doctor Zhivago, The Birds, High and Low, El ángel exterminador, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Magnificent Seven, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, Lolita, West Side Story, Judgment at Nuremberg, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Rocco e i suoi fratelli, When a Woman Ascends the Stairs, The Graduate, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Butch Cassidy, Midnight Cowboy, Through a Glass Darkly, The Man who Shot Liberty Valiance, They Shoot Horses, Belle de Jour, Parapluies de Cherbourg, Jules et Jim, Rosemary's Baby, A Bout de Souffle, Blow Up, Il Gattopardo...
Bah it's impossible to choose just 10...
My top-5: Andrei Rublev, Persona, Psycho, 8 1/2 and 2001: A Space Odyssey.
I Love people are mentioning a lot of Japanese movies. When a Woman Ascends the Stairs, High and Low, Woman of the Dunes, and a lot of other movies I love, like Kwaidan, Harakiri, Death By Hanging. 50's and 60's in cinema of Japan were truly magic.
France, too. From Tati to Godard, from Truffaut (and I mean everything Truffaut in the 60's), from Bresson to Resnais. So many greats to see.
Since my list has no American movies, I'll make a top ten:
1 - Underworld USA, Fuller
2 - In Cold Blood, Brooks
3 - To Kill a Mockingbird, Mulligan
4 - The Sound of Music, Wise
5 - The Apartment, Wilder
6 - The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Ford
7 - Psycho, Hitchcock
8 - One-Eyed Jacks, Brando
9 - Splendor in the Grass, Kazan
10 - The Wild Bunch Peckinpah
OMG, forgot The Servant!
01. Breathless
02. Bay of Angels
03. 2001: A Space Odyssey
04. An Autumn Afternoon
05. The Apartment
06. The Exterminating Angel
07. Midnight Cowboy
08. Playtime
09. Psycho
10. Lola
Blow-up
Sound of Music
Midnight Cowboy
Contempt
Barefoot in the Park
Umbrellas of Cherbourg
The Birds
Sparticus
Up the Down Staircase
Inside Daisy Clover
Alfie
Lolita
The Birds
The Entertainer
Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe
Breakfast at Tiffany's
Lawrence of Arabia
There are others, but these came to mind first. Contempt is probably at the top.
Only ten is tough so I'm going to follow your example Nathaniel and do a top 10 (my personal favs not necessarily what I'd list if it was a list of best made films) followed by a secondary list, all together 25 and I still had to leave off a bunch that I really like.
Top 10:
Funny Girl
How The West Was Won
Inherit the Wind
Gypsy
The Birds
The Lion in Winter
Cat Ballou
Pocketful of Miracles
The Manchurian Candidate
Breakfast at Tiffany's
The next 15 honorable mentions:
I Could Go On Singing
Barefoot in the Park
The Sound of Music
Splendor in the Grass
The Misfits
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Dear Heart
Fahrenheit 451
Ship of Fools
The Graduate
Love With the Proper Stranger
Spartacus
Baby, the Rain Must Fall
The Pumpkin Eater
Flight of the Phoenix
STRICTLY 60´S:
1-THE SOUND OF MUSIC
2-ROSEMARY´S BABY
3-PSYCHO
4-THE BIRDS
5-BELLE DU JOUR
6-BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY´S
7-2001: A SPACE ODISSEY
8-MARY POPPINS
9-DIAS DE OTOÑO (MEXICO)
10-ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST
Let's pick by screenplay, that's more telling.
Apartment
To Kill a Mockingbird
In Cold Blood
Bonnie and Clyde
The Graduate
They Shoot Horses
The Lion In Winter
81/2
Sons and Lovers
and of course Hud
1. Bonnie and Clyde
2. 2001: A Space Odyssey
3. Psycho
4. Doctor Strangelove
5. Belle de Jour
6. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
7. Persona
8. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
9. Woman in the Dunes
10. The Trial
with apologies to Once Upon a Time in the West, Lawrence of Arabia, West Side Story, They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, and A Hard Day's Night.
The Apartment is my favorite movie of all time. I think I've seen it over 100 times, and every time I find something new to love.
Top 10:
The Apartment
The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg
Love With A Proper Stranger
Psycho
Divorce, Italian Style
West Side Story
To Kill A Mockingbird
Dr. Zhivago
Once Upon A Time In The West
A Shot In The Dark
But the 60's are easily the decade with the most blindspots for me. In my childhood film life I skipped right from 50's glamour to 70's grit and the job of filling the decade-long hole of the 1960's has been left shamefully unfulfilled.
I loved Natalie Wood ... she was and is my all time favorite movie star ... not necessarily my favorite all time actress...
I loved her in Rebel (50's ) ... Splendor, Bob, Carol... West Side Story, This Property is Condemned ... and my most favorite, Love With the Proper Stranger...
She was a very inconsistent actress and needed a great director to guide her ..
She seemed so self conscious of herself in many movies..
This might very well be my favorite decade, movie-wise. Great films coming from pretty much all over the world.
My Top 9, in chrono order:
The Apartment (Billy Wilder)
Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock)
Last Year at Marienbad (Alain Resnais)
The Exterminating Angel (Luis Buñuel)
Dr. Strangelove (Stanley Kubrick)
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy)
The Jungle Book (Wolfgang Reithermann)
Rosemary's Baby (Roman Polanski)
2001 - A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick) (which just might be my pick for greatest film of all time)
And a huge bunch tied for 10th place:
Peeping Tom (Michael Powell)
Mamma Roma (Pier Paolo Pasolini)
The Manchurian Candidate (John Frankenheimer)
My Life to Live (Jean-Luc Godard)
8 1/2 (Federico Fellini)
El verdugo (Luis García Berlanga)
Bande à part (Jean-Luc Godard)
Woman in the Dunes (Hiroshi Teshigahara)
Blowup (Michelangelo Antonioni)
Closely Observed Trains (Jirí Menzel)
Persona (Ingmar Bergman)
Seconds (John Frankenheimer)
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Mike Nichols)
The Firemen's Ball (Milos Forman)
Week End (Jean-Luc Godard)
The Bride Wore Black (François Truffaut)
The Lion in Winter (Anthony Harvey)
The Producers (Mel Brooks)
My warmest recommendation would go for El verdugo, if only because it's probably the least known and least seen film I mentioned here.
Possibly my favorite decade for movies.
1. An Autumn Afternoon
2. La Dolce Vita
3. Persona
4. High and Low
5. Gertrud
6. Viridiana
7. 2001: A Space Odyssey
8. The Leopard
9. La Jetee
10. The Exterminating Angel
Honorable mentions:
My Night at Maud's
Au Hasard Balthazar
Belle de Jour
Rosemary's Baby
Yojimbo
Viridiana and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? are the Top of the 60's for me (at least of what I have seen).
In no particular order:
1. Jules and Jim (1962, François Truffaut)
2. The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967, Jacques Demy)
3. Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962, Agnes Varda)
4. Stolen Kisses (1968, François Truffaut)
5. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962, Robert Mulligan)
6. Peppermint Frappe (1968, Carlos Saura)
7. La Collectionneuse (1967, Eric Rohmer)
8. Les Biches (1968, Claude Chabrol)
9. Masculin Feminin (1966, Jean-Luc Godard)
10. Th Sound of Music (1965, Robert Wise)
The 1960s are for me still cinema's strongest decade - more for the European and Asian contributions. American cinema kinda disappeared up its own vacuum in the mid-60s only to reemerge revitalised and galvanising in 1967.
I'm actually currently going through a 1968 phase. I'm trying to see every notable film made in that awesome awesome year. And I'm making a discovery every other day - I recently watched Memories of Underdevelopment - a hypnotic, hyper-inventive (in a typical 60s way) Cuban film I wish I could find space for in the below list.
My top 10 of the decade:
1. 8 1/2
2. In Cold Blood
3. Psycho
4. Dr Strangelove
5. 2001: A Space Odyssey
6. Viridiana
7. The Battle of Algiers
8. The Trial
9. Breakfast at Tiffany's
10. Jules and Jim
And I'm very angry that I can't find space in there for Man Is Not a Bird, My Night at Maud's, Weekend, Bonnie and Clyde, Vivre sa vie, If.., Lawrence of Arabia, Ivan's Childhood etc etc.
Tier One (in no particular order)
Play Time, Psycho, Jules et Jim, To Kill a Mockingbird, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Charade, Lion in Winter, Sound of Music/Mary Poppins (cheating with a Julie Andrews double), Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Bonnie & Clyde
Tier Two (in no particular order)
Inherit the Wind, The Trial, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, 2001, Pocketful of Miracles, Breathless, Judgment at Nuremburg, Cleo de 5 a 7, Dr. Strangelove, Manchurian Candidate
Honorable Mention: Zazie dans le metro, Shoot the Piano Player, Wings, Victim, Elmer Gantry, The Virgin Spring, Divorce Italian Style, I Fidanzati, The Shop on Main Street, Last Year at Marienbad
DAMMIT, can't believe I forgot The Producers and A Shot in the Dark, both of which are totally Top 20 material!
Nathaniel...you have to watch Woman in the Dunes again...you were too young at the time, you need to watch it from an adult's perspective now! It's sooo good.
It would actually make a really fascinating theatrical staging as well.
So glad you have the site so we can blab on about our favorite movies! Thank you!
I realize that I've seen so little of the decade especially the foreign fare. Can't wait to catch up though. I've been so stuck in the 99 as of late; another decade would do me good.
1. To Kill a Mockingbird
2. Hud
3. Lawrence of Arabia
4. The Sound of Music (I love it too much to not include it.)
5. 8 1/2
6. The Graduate
7. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
8. Bonnie & Clyde
9. Dr. Strangelove
10. The Battle of Algiers
Runners Up:
Sons and Lovers
West Side Story
The Hustler
Mary Poppins
Darling
What a glorious decade the 60s were!
01. 8 1/2
02. Andrei Rublev
03. Playtime
04. Once Upon A Time in the West
05. The Exterminating Angel
06. 2001: A Space Odyssey
07. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
09. Night of the Living Dead
10. Le Boucher
Plus about fifty others.
Can't believe no one mentioned A Man and a Woman, which was excellent.
The Apartment
Belle de Jour
Blowup
Darling
Funny Girl
Hud
La Dolce Vita
The Manchurian Candidate
Rosemary's Baby
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Also love A Man for All Seasons, Anne of a Thousand Days, Bonnie and Clyde, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Cool Hand Luke, Jules and Jim, Georgy Girl, Midnight Cowboy, The Miracle Worker, Psycho, The Thomas Crown Affair, and Z.
Oh, and 2001, Fahrenheit 451, Persona, and They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
Mareko: A Man and a Woman is SO GOOD! Thanks for reminding me.
10:
1. Dr. Strangelove
2. I Am Cuba
3. 2001: A Space Odyssey
4. Andrei Rublev
5. Lawrence of Arabia
6. A Man for All Seasons
7. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
8. 8 1/2
9. Once Upon a Time in The West
10. Breathless
20:
11. Rosemary's Baby
12. Yojimbo (have only seen it once with not a shred of dialogue heard (the disc I got was dubbed and, unless it's animated, I CAN'T STAND dubbing) and I could still follow the entire piece. That's pure high filmmaking.)
13. La Dolce Vita
14. Le Samourai
15. Viridiana
16. The WIld Bunch
17. The Hustler
18. The Apartment
19. The Graduate
20. The Battle of Algiers
Also: Can't believe NO ONE ELSE has mentioned I Am Cuba. Just AMAZING and if you haven't seen it and can see the thing, DO SO NOW.
Midnight Cowboy is one of the best oscar winners ever and is from the 60's.