What a banger of a year this is! 2 all timers from one of the greatest directors ever, Ingmar Bergman. One of Bollywood’s finest films. A great WWI AND WWII movie. A great merging of Akria Kurosawa and William Shakespeare. One of Disney’s great live action films. And 2 of Kirk Douglas’s greatest movies. Top to bottom, years don’t get much better than this one.
Frederico Fellini’s oft used muse Giulietta Masina is amazing in this movie of a woman down, but not broken. Masina is a woman plunging head first into relationships and situations hoping for the best, but usually receiving the worst, but in spite of it all, pushes on, hoping. This leaves the audience simultaneously heartbroken and hopeful in that way only Fellini and a talented select few can pull off; I find the director is best when his subject isn’t himself, like here.
One of Ingmar Bergman’s greatest films, the movie uses a trip the 78 year old Victor Sjöström takes to accept a degree to have him look back in time at the full life he has led. Bergman does something different, fusing flashbacks with the present day Sjöström to make the journey full of living memories that may be a tad on the nose, but still pretty powerful to witness.
A David Lean epic in every sense of the word. Alec Guinness stars as a POW General during WWII, in a camp run by Sessue Hayakawa. William Holden also shows up here as an American POW who has a different perspective than Guinness. There’s all sorts of complex ideas going on here, with a budget to back the complex storytelling, all culminating in an epic confrontation about said bridge.
Guru Dutt’s masterpiece is one of the finest examples of Bollywood fiilmmaking out there. Dutt plays a poet who cares for the poor and outcast in society, and, as a result, is ostracized by the powerful and rich in society for giving a voice to the voiceless. It’s fun, it’s gorgeous, it’s heartbreaking. It’s poetry in movie form.
A rite of passage for every child. Disney’s story of a family in the West that adopts a dog starts as a recipe for humor and hijinks. But as the story goes on, the movie becomes a beautiful, heartbreaking study of owning a pet, and of growing up, which every child will do a little by the end, with tears streaming down their faces.
Ah the dirty game of fame, power and celebrity is universal isn’t it? Burt Lancaster is a tabloid columnist, using his voice to hold people accountable in theory, but in reality it’s to exert his power. Tony Curtis is the man who wants to help him, but more importantly, will do anything to get ahead, leading to a different type of noir that makes amazing use out of the nightlife of New York City.
When you combine the greatest living director (Akira Kurosawa) with the greatest writer in history (William Shakespeare), you know something special is gonna happen. Kurosawa’s MacBeth adaptation works as well in Japan as it did in the UK, with the director using terrifying imagery, unleashing Isuzu Yamada as this story’s version of “Lady MacBeth”, and a diverging ending that actually enhances what the bard wrote, a testament to the director’s genius.
An early Stanley Kubrick effort showcases how talented he is at crafting any sort of movie, in this case a World War I film. Kirk Douglas matches the director’s talent, playing a Colonel who dissents from his superior officers because he knows of their folly, only to be made an example of, by simply calling out bad judgment, and falling on the side of empathy. Sad, but epic and potent filmmaking here.
What a year for Ingmar Bergman. This must see classic finds the perfect blend of surreal and real, as Max Von Sydow, jaded from the Crusades, goes on a quest in search of meaning, only to encounter Bengt Ekerot’s Death himself, who challenges the knight to a game of chess. The journey is fascinating and beautiful, with some of the greatest shots in movie history that more people need to see.
Before Sydney Lumet became a jaded genius, he was a wholesome genius in his feature debut. Deliberating on the fate of a man convicted of murder, the 12 jurors get sequestered and decide the man’s fate, with Henry Fonda initially as the 1 dissenting opinion. From there, Lumet paints each character as a type of thought, and teaches us about the process of changing a person’s mind, and the optimistic look at the justice system everyone hopes exists.
