best film: Lawrence of Arabia from David Lean
- The most epic of epics. Lean’s ability to capture the breathtaking locations with 65mm/70mm photography is simply unmatched in cinema history.

Like Citizen Kane, Lawrence of Arabia starts with the titular character’s death and others, in an interview, are asked to describe him. It is a biopic—one of the best—and certainly Peter O’Toole’s work is rightly cited as one of the greatest performances in cinema. Lawrence is so richly complex—it is a grand scale for such a detailed character study

It is a masterpiece made of the long shot. There are 50-100 of these shots
- The screenplay and the acting could have been shot in a barn and been compelling. It is one of the 50 or so screenplays I would happily print out and read it on a beach somewhere. “The trick is not minding that it hurts” and “nothing is written” in the dialogue.

At the 17-minute mark—like 2001: A Space Odyssey‘s falling bone to spaceship edit—we get O’Toole’s Lawrence blowing out the match dissolving into the desert and the sun rising on the horizon with Maurice Jarre’s masterful score accompanying…
- As O’Toole’s Lawrence arrives in the desert we get about 10 straight minutes (17-27 min mark) of almost all long and medium long shots of the desert with crisp clean photography

Omar Sharif’s arrival is one of the 5-10 best sequences in the film— far-off distance with the telephoto lens—Lean uses a special 482mm lens from Panavision here. It was built and used specifically for this shot
- O’Toole’s performance is transcendent. Lawrence is mercurial, angry, vain. He has a Christ complex, an out of control ego. He does have some charisma, believable as a brilliant strategist. Anthony Quinn, Sharif and Alec Guinness in particular don’t back down or blink at all. This is some of the best work from those three (it is surely Sharif’s best) –absolutely going for it
- It’s worth noting that in the 70mm run of films in the 2010’s—The Master, Interstellar, The Hateful Eight—all by all-time great filmmakers—none capture Lean’s scope and size.
most underrated: The Trial from Orson Welles is the most underrated film of 1962. There’s a case for Kurosawa’s Yojimbo sequel Sanjuro (which isn’t in the TSPDT top 1000 at all)—but Welles film should be in the top 100 of all-time and it lands at #713 on the consensus list—that’s outside top 15 of 1962.

Welles is the former wunderkind, boy genius—now an auteur martyr– takes a Kafka adaptation, blows it up with unbelievable visuals and set pieces—but there’s a dual meaning there with a second reading of Welles trapped and the victim of Hollywood
- Surrealism into a nihilistic dystopia— made with such bravado—fragmented, ambiguous, claustrophobic
- Extreme camera angles and shadow work
- There are many readings— Anthony Perkins as a homosexual. Hollywood… Nazis
- Welles as an intellectual- always an adaptation of weighty material if not his own- The Shakespeare work then Kafka
- Then we’re off- we’re in that massive office built like a maze, it’s a stunner of desks and lighting- ceiling as mise-en-scene given Welles angle work and eye for massive set pieces. As Perkins character falls more and more out of reality and into that surrealistic world we’re off from artistic standpoint

Underneath the bleachers like a spider web– bleak, baroque, a labyrinthine–Welles once said it’s “the finest film I have ever made”
- Architecture as character at its finest—apartment exterior
- A sea of extras as architecture
- clearly an influence on Soderbergh, Pakula, Fincher with their office lighting work Sam Esmail–

The house of Welles character is gorgeous—a sea of books with the girl
- Set piece after set piece of a mise-en-scene designed to perfection- not just perfection but ambition and formal consistency that is married to narrative
- The lighting in the underground tunnel

Some of the visuals are among the greatest of the decade and/or Welles’ career
- Avant-garde
- Sea of newspapers
- Steps and skyscrapers—establishing shots with framing
- masterpiece of mise-en-scene and set piece work
- Influences Blade Runner, Brazil– clearly some borrowed from Metropolis
- Some of the visuals are among the greatest of the decade, Welles’ career- the attic with light coming in and picture frames all over, the hall of cabinets going on forever
most overrated: Hatari! from Hawks is the most overrated film of 1962. The TSPDT consensus has it at #569. That would put it above of films like films like Hara-Kiri and Knife in the Water just to name a couple- far more deserving films- not to mention Welles’ masterpiece.
gem I want to spotlight: Cleo from 5 to 7 from Agnes Varda.
- This is only Vardan’s second feature- we’re in the middle of the New Wave and she hasn’t made a film since 1955 (La Pointe Courte – one of the best films of the mid-1950’s). Both a narrative and stylistic triumph—the premise, Cleo, a pop star, in nearly real-time, going about her life about to get big news on whether or not she has cancer—the timing as a formal device (chapter breaks in minutes) is genius and gives the entire film true immediacy

The tarot card opening (in color- unlike the rest of the film) is magnificent as well. Varda interweaves the b/w narrative as a transition from the title credit (color tarot cards) to b/w narrative
- Excellent Michel Legrand score (and he’s an actor in the film with one of the most memorable scenes/shots)- Legrand worked on The Thomas Crown Affair along with Demy’s work Cherbourg and Rochefort
- When Cleo is coming down the stairs, near the beginning of the film, we get the trademark Scorsese (10 years before Scorsese of course) triple-edit shot (of same subject)—fantastic shot—gorgeous and brings your attention to how much she’s in her own head at that moment—I think it’s a signature New Wave moment
- Great to see the busy Paris streets and cafes—a true character in the film
- Shots of store-front glass reflections— otherwise mundane or innocuous tasks like shopping—she’s lost
- Female taxi drive—this is intentional from Varda—of course Cleo is subject to male gaze the entire time- she gets gazes from females too because of her beauty and celebrity status
- Elegant tracking shot around the decorative bed posts using the post as a framing device
- There’s a blend of realism (real time, real settings, no narrative) like La Pointe Courte with melodrama
- A great scene of Cleo all alone in a crowded café
- A photographer’s eye with Varda again clearly- she takes beautiful photographs—ends with the conversation with the stranger
trends and notables:
- There are least 12-13 films that are top five of the year quality. I’ll reiterate that this time period is the best stretch of cinema – it is a travesty when films like Sanjuro, Hara-Kari, Knife in the Water, Vivre Sa Vie, and Mamma Roma (probably #11-15) don’t land in the top 10

Pasolini’s second film- and second important film– Mamma Roma — one of his tableau Last Supper shots

a jaw-dropper from Hara-Kiri

early 1960’s Japanese cinema was not just about Ozu and Kurosawa- another from Kobayashi’s Hara-Kiri– a major accomplishment

full use of the aspect ratio: 2.35 : 1
- One reason for this is how fast so many of these filmmakers are making films—if you think of contemporary cinema in the 21st century- there are just long gestation periods (like say Varda has here or David Lean with his five years between River Kwai in 1957 and Lawrence in 1962). Here Pasolini, Ozu, Godard, Bunuel, Kurosawa, Antonioni all had more than stellar films come out in 1961 as well. For Antonioni with this trilogy of decadence this is three years with a top 10 film— Kurosawa just behind him going MP, MS/MP, MS from 1960-1962

There are constantly lines between Delon and Vitti in Antonioni’s masterpiece- the telephone pole, – a great shot of them separated by a column at the stock exchange (here)– might be the best in this film which could be a series of still-frame art photographs

For Antonioni with this trilogy of decadence this is three years with a top 10 film

for the entire running time of Sanjuro there are these widescreen Tohoscope compositions

Mifune’s character calls it out in the text “centipede” as Kurosawa fits all 10 heads in the frame
- Sadly, the great Yasujirô Ozu would pass away in 1963—celebrating him here in 1962 as An Autumn Afternoon is his last film. Ozu was at or near the top of his game when he passed (back to back years in the top 10). If he had lived longer, I have no doubt he would’ve been one of the best filmmakers of the 1960’s.

An Autumn Afternoon– Ozu’s final film- Ozu was at or near the top of his game when he passed (back to back years in the top 10)
- With Ozu’s passing comes a strong crop of new auteurs to pass the baton to. Tarkovky is the biggest talent with Ivan’s Childhood– his feature debut. Polanki is next with Knife in the Water, Bertolucci with The Grim Reaper, Peckinpah is here as well with Ride the High Country (not his debut but first archiveable)—so in 1962 we had the first archiveable film for four of the top 58 directors of all-time—wild

Tarkovsky arrived (Ivan’s Childhood) with preternatural sense of sublime photography

Tarkovsky is the head of the incoming class of first-time directors in the archives- a group that includes Polanski, Bertolucci, and Peckinpah

Polanski built the visual approach to Knife in the Water with such crisp angles

again from Polanski- stunning– and sort of a riff on one of Rossellini’s finest shots in Stromboli
- For actors, we have the first archiveable film for Peter O’Toole as I mentioned above (I no idea how you get the lead in a David Lean film with your first archiveable film but what an eye by Lean), Jean-Louis Trintignant in IL Sorpasso, Robert Duvall as Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird, Gena Rowlands in Lonely Are the Brave and renowned stage actor Jason Robards for Long Day’s Journey Into Night
- It took a few years after North By Northwest but we have the first James Bond film in 1962— Dr. No. It sort of plays like a mid-budget detective movie in comparison with what would come from the franchise after (even later in the decade)—but it would spark a trend and have influence over the genre for decades to come.
- Another trend you’d notice in 1962 is the ensemble epic. How the West Was Won, shot in absolutely massive Cinerama directed by multiple directors (including Ford), projected on multiple screens, would star countless stars who often didn’t share the screen with others as they would play only extended cameos (Peck, Wayne, Tracy, Henry Fonda, Cobb, Malden, Stewart, Brennen and many more). The Longest Day would aim to be THE DEFINITIVE WW2 movie with it is a massive ensemble as well (Fonda and Wayne back for this one, Burton, Connery, Mitchum, Robert Ryan, Steiger, and more) and it would fall well short of that goal, but both are very solid films and in the archives.

Another trend you’d notice in 1962 is the ensemble epic with almost almost cameos coming from big stars in the cast– this is from How the West Was Won— massive Cinerama
best performance male: The performance of the year is Peter O’Toole in the title role for Lawrence. The role has everything and admittedly O’toole is aided by both one of the best screenplays out there and being shot by some of the best photography of all-time, but he absolutely knocks the performance out of the park playing the tortured, charismatic, and ever-fascinating Lawrence. The rest of the cast in Lean’s epic is sensational so I made room here for both Omar Sharif and Anthony Quinn here in the 1962 “best of” mentions. Lean cast Sharif and O’Toole as the two leads. They were unproven and unknown (the film even boasts that this is the “debut” for O’Toole though it isn’t -at least as far as when the film premiered). Liberty Valance has a trio of actors that need to get recognized: Jimmy Stewart and John Wayne of course- but don’t discount the brutal Lee Marvin. If he isn’t a big presence in this role the film doesn’t work. If Jeanne Moreau weren’t so fabulous, it would be easier to recognize and praise the work of Oskar Werner in Jules and Jim, as is deserved. Sweaty Sinatra in Manchurian deserves some love here. Lastly, both Robert Mitchum and Gregory Peck round out the category for 1962. I’m going off my top 10-12 of the year here but once every five years or so a performance calls for it and Mitchum deserves it for the portrayal of the wicked Max Cady. Peck, Mitchum’s co-star, gets one mention for the combined work of To Kill a Mockingbird and Cape Fear.

it may not be the doorway shot from The Searchers– bug a great capture here from Ford in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

Mitchum adds another all-time great villain to his The Night of the Hunter resume– here as Max Cady in Cape Fear
best performance female: The French and Italians dominate 1962 in this category. The leader of the pack is Jeanne Moreau (her second mention in a row after La Notte in 1961 and third in five years with Elevator to the Gallows in 1958). I think there’s an argument for Monica Vitti besting Moreau with her work in L’Eclisse (the two co-stared the year before). Anna Karina gets a mention here for Vivre Sa Vie – especially when you consider she didn’t get a mention here in 1961—her strong work with Godard continues. Corinne Marchand plays the pop star Cleo in Varda’s work– her singing scene where she breaks down makes her a shoo-in for this category. I cannot picture Mamma Roma with anyone else except but Anna Magnani. Magnani is such a livewire—she’s singing, laughing, just chewing every scene for everything its worth without going too far over the top. She brings volume to the role, presence with her trademark quick-witted dialogue, heavy emotion and the bags under her eyes. The final mention does go to Angela Lansbury. She’s only three years older than her son in the film Laurence Harvey- and proves that she can portray evil just as well as Mitchum and Lee Marvin can.

Jeanne Moreau frozen in one of Truffaut’s most famous images– immaculate– Truffaut (and Moreau) are on fabulous runs going back to the late 1950’s. For Truffaut this is three top 100 films in four years

you think of Seberg, Moreau, Leaud, Belmondo– but Anna Karina may be the face of the French New Wave– here in Vivre Sa Vie

Angela Lansbury proves that she can portray evil just as well as Mitchum and Lee Marvin can in The Manchurian Candidate
top 10
- Lawrence of Arabia
- Jules and Jim
- The Trial
- L’Eclisse
- The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
- Cleo from 5 to 7
- The Manchurian Candidate
- An Autumn Afternoon
- The Exterminating Angel
- Ivan’s Childhood

The Manchurian Candidate– easily the best work from John Frankenheimer

one of Bunuel’s greatest achievements- The Exterminating Angel
Archives, Directors, and Grades
Advise and Consent- Preminger | R |
An Autumn Afternoon – Ozu | MS |
Billy Budd- Ustinov | R |
Birdman of Alcatraz- Frankenheimer | R |
Cape Fear – Thompson | HR |
Cleo from 5 to 7 – Varda | MS/MP |
Dr. No – Young | R |
Hara-kiri- Kobayashi | MS |
Hatari- Hawks | R |
How the West Was Won – Ford, Hathaway, G. Marshall | HR |
Il Sorpasso- Risi | R |
Ivan’s Childhood- Tarkovsky | MS |
Jules and Jim- Truffaut | MP |
Knife in the Water- Polanski | HR/MS |
Lawrence of Arabia – Lean | MP |
Le Doulos -Melville | |
L’Eclisse – Antonioni | MP |
Lolita- Kubrick | R |
Lonely Are the Brave- D. Miller | R |
Long Day’s Journey Into Night- Lumet | R |
Mafioso – Lattuada | HR |
Mamma Roma – Pasolini | HR/MS |
Requiem For a Heavyweight- Nelson | R |
Ride the High Country- Peckinpah | HR |
Salvatore Giulano- Rosi | |
Sanjuro – Kurosawa | MS |
The Days of Wine and Roses- Edwards | R |
The Exterminating Angel- Bunuel | MS |
The Grim Reaper- Bertolucci | R |
The Intruder – Corman | |
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner- Richardson | R/HR |
The Longest Day- Annakin, Marton, Wicki | R |
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance- Ford | MP |
The Manchurian Candidate – Frankenheimer | MS/MP |
The Miracle Worker- Penn | R |
The Music Man- DaCosta | R |
The Trial of Joan of Arc- Bresson | R |
The Trial – Welles | MP |
To Kill a Mockingbird – Mulligan | HR |
Vivre Sa Vie- Godard | HR |
What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? – Aldrich | R |
*MP is Masterpiece- top 1-3 quality of the year film
MS is Must-See- top 5-6 quality of the year film
HR is Highly Recommend- top 10 quality of the year film
R is Recommend- outside the top 10 of the year quality film but still in the archives
Don’t you think it would be Fellini? it’s a suggestion i have no idea, anyway, there doesn’t always have to be someone who dominates, who would you say in the eighties?
The consensus has Scorsese as the best of the 80s. They have the best of every director for every decade.
I just saw the 80s list, Scorsese only has two movies, obviously he has the best one, Greenaway, Coppola and Spielberg have 3, De Palma 4, woow Allen 6, so i would say it is not Scorsese
yes, i agree but he does have the best one. anyways, i was only saying what the consesus said, i do disagree with the consesus
Let me rephrase my question. Which director had the best decade in your opinion (TSPDT has best direvtor of the decade lists)?
Kurosawa and Hitchcock 1950s. Pretty unassailable.
That’s nonsense plenty of directors challenge those two like Billy Wilder from the same decade, the archers from the 40s, Coppola from the 70s, Antonioni from the 60s, Renoir from the 30s, Ford from the 40s, Hawks from the 40s, and Godard from the 60s among others. Those two aren’t untouchable.
Fellini made 4 films in the 1960s decade, 3 of which are in my top 50 and the last I expect to put in my top 100 (yes, that’s Satyricon I’m talking about), and his 60s is pretty underrated in this vein as well in regards to most people thinking he just had LDV and 8 1/2 and then he was done.
You say you have no doubt Ozu would have been one of the greatest filmmakers of the 1960s but for his tragic passing. I certainly would have liked to see that counterfactual, however, I wonder how the collapse of the Japanese film industry would have effected his work. We have the example of Kurosawa, who opens the decade with an incandescent six year stretch, only to have it all crumble in the back half of the decade. I wonder how confident you are that Ozu would have fared differently.
@Matt Harris— good point. My comment is assuming Ozu would proceed unencumbered– which may have not have been realistic. Even a few more years would have been great- if he could have squeezed in two more films from 1963-1965.
Also under the exact same photo(photo of Sherif’s arrival)it should be it was built and use”d” specifically for this shot. “used” should be taken instead of “use”
@Malith- thank you
Drake,
I know I brought it up on a different page recently but Welles was annoyed when Roger Ebert asked if he would be interested in a Citizen Kane commentary as he pointed out that he made others great movies besides Kane.
You mentioned that Welles considered The Trial to be his finest movie.
I wonder if this is common with other directors; what they consider to be their best movie vs the general public consensus
@James Trapp- yeah it would be fascinating to see how often that matches up. I get why Welles wanted to talk about something else after 20-30 years.
Great page again haha.
It’s interesting how Karina is unlucky, if you contrast this with Vitti who is in the best Antonioni films, while Karina is not in the best Godard films.
She refuses to be in Breathless because there was a nude scene (was there a nude scene? i can’t remember) and Godard didn’t put her in Contempt because he didn’t want her to come out naked (contradictory, right?)
I would have put Delon before Peck, Peck is not very good, Mitchum takes him off the screen.
As for The trial, it is easy to tell why it is underrated, the quality of the copies is not very good. There are decent copies but not the high quality
@Aldo- Thank you for the kind words on the page. That’s an interesting contrast- I do feel like there are certainly actors that just get lucky or are always one film off working with a great auteur (not saying Karina or Vitti are either of those). I don’t have a major issue with Delon being a mention here- I considered him– Peck is here for two films remember though (Cape Fear and Mockingbird).
I think that plays a part of it for The Trial. But Chimes at Midnight has always had a much better critical ranking/reputation and only recently has a remastered copy of it come widely available. I remember years ago bidding on a bad VHS copy of Chimes at Midnight on Ebay– haha. and at the time it’s ranking was still in the all-time top 200. So that’ not the whole story with The Trial.
You left out Robert Duvall. It’s his archival debut with To kill a mockingbird.
@Malith- wow- great catch here! As always- I appreciate your help cleaning this up.
Is there a modern day Anna Karina? Hard question to answer I know, given how much the movie industry has changed since the 60s (her prime)
To me she really was the epitome of effortlessly cool
I really love the work she does with Godard, she’s so good in Vivre Sa Vie, she reminds me of Margot Robbie’s character In Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (yes I realize she was portraying Sharon Tate but still)
Putting The Passion of Joan of Arc in Vivre Sa Vie was a brilliant move it being a movie where a woman’s ultimate fate is determined by men
I love that Tarantino used her look for Uma Thurman’s character in Pulp Fiction, when I first got into French New Wave I instantly recognized that look but it took me a little to figure it out
Have you seen Carnival of Souls (1962)?
– If not I would definitely recommend
– makes great use of atmosphere as most of the movie takes place in a run down dilapidated town, almost feels like a ghost town
– There is a eerie disconnect between the main character and the town where most of the action in the movie takes place
– It’s a low budget movie and it definitely shows at times but for the most part does not distract from its overall quality
– It feels like a David Lynch movie in certain ways (mainly the atmosphere)
– The director, Herk Harvey, also plays one of the movies main characters and it is a really creepy performance
– Definitely has some religious undertones
– Fascinating watch
@James Trapp- I have not yet had the chance to catch Carnival of Souls- thanks for the recommendation
@Drake – did a rewatch to close out my Horror film binge and this viewing reinforced my initial feelings that this an atmospheric master work and probably has replaced Detour (1945) as my favorite ultra low budget film. Sadly the director never made a single other film.
https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/carnival-of-souls-the-strange-story-behind-the-greatest-horror-movie-you-ve-never-seen/
@James Trapp- I was actually able to catch Carnival of Souls recently as well. It will be added to the archives.
@Malith- thank you
No mention for Anthony Quinn in Lawrence? You can feel his screen presence the moment he strolls into the film. And of the title characters in Jules and Jim, I can understand if you’d want to leave out Henri Serre but I’d definitely mention Oskar Werner. I think he’s fantastic in it.
@Zane- 100% agree. Added them both. Good catch- thank you.
Hatari! Isn’t overrated it deserves the praise that it gets.
Posting these long overdue notes on Il Sorpasso which I caught a month ago, Drake you need to see this again.
Kicking it off with the camera mounted to the back of Gassman’s car as that jazzy soundtrack plays; I know I’m in for something fun that I can just kick back to
Some screenwriting by Ettore Scola who would of course also become a major Italian director on the more provincial (as opposed to international like Fellini or Antonioni) side
When he first meets Gassman, Trintignant has this totally blank expression on his face; I honestly don’t think he’s ready yet; not at the level he’d be in, say, The Conformist; he’s kind of reminding me of Anthony Perkins in The Trial also in 1962
A nice shot with 3 doorways at 6 minutes
Honestly Trintignant is really blown off the screen by Gassman here; he’s so damn watchable
Funny reference as Gassman has like a picture of Brigitte Bardot in his car that Trintignant looks at; she and Trintignant had been in a relationship about 4 years back after And God Created Woman which is not in the archives… which I won’t comment on.
Almost an entire film just spent watching the the land pass by; it’s beautiful
I laughed so damn hard at the bit where Gassman is talking about Antonioni, asks Trintignant if he’s seen L’Eclisse (also 1962) and then says he slept through it at, calling Antonioni a great director nonetheless; honestly, as much as I love Antonioni, L’Eclisse is probably my least favorite of his works (still a MP) so I can’t fully disagree
Great use of the rear view mirror that we can see Gassman in when the camera is mounted on the back of the car
Clearly influential to Alfonso Cuaron’s Y Tu Mama Tambien which I adore; lots of vignettes about people they see on the road like some German girls that Gassman pursues (Gassman is half-German himself actually) or some priests in a broken-down car
A Great wall-art shot of a man eating a sandwich in his house, before the camera pulls back and we realize it’s in a truck and not a house
Stellar shaky cam in one particularly violent scene following the two on the road
I feel like the work of Howard Hawks is crucial to Risi here; it’s like a bromantic screwball comedy with Gassman as like Kat Hepburn in BUB and Trintignant as Cary Grant (but not as good as Grant is)
Haha; Gassman gets ticketed for speeding and he tries to point to a sign on his windshield saying he’s a Deputy in the Italian Parliament, which should make him immune to prosecution; hilarious
Gassman definitely gives one of the best performances of 1962 in this… Trintignant… uhh… well at least he has The Conformist
Very referential; They talk about topics as varied as Khrushchev and obscure serial killers
Small details like Gassman taking a glance at a Chinese woman are great here
Funny scene as Trintignant accidentally breaks the handle on the door of the bathroom stall he’s in and a line of people waiting builds up and when Gassman and them try to open it up they break the other handle; Trintignant just breaks down the door afterwards
There is an entire LEGACY of playboy characters in movies descending from Vittorio Gassman here
A great shot as Trintignant is now alone at the diner they are at and a waitress he and Gassman are interested in is also there with him
Gassman honks the horn SO much
Trintignant looks a bit better in scenes where he doesn’t have Gassman sitting there right next to him; one with a voiceover as he imagines himself achieving his dreams in the presence of his family
While leaving Trintignant’s family’s mansion, Gassman refers to it as a “morgue” haha
There’s actually a bit where Gassman gets out Groucho glasses and scares Trintignant with them
Wonderful Chiaroscuro in some night scenes along the roads solely lit by car lights
A dissolve in a scene where Trintignant is attempting to hit on a young woman; very strong work; occasionally you hear the sounds of passing trains (they are at a train station)
A few great camera pans and refocuses between Trintignant and a woman he meets at a fancy restaurant he and Gassman are at
A really nice chiaroscuro shot in a forest at night as Gassman’s lights eventually turn up; we cut to them in the car and see Trintignant (not Gassman) driving with the Groucho glasses on
Trintignant’s utterly blank expression actually kind of works here comedically in this scene where he is supposed to be dead drunk
Funny bit where characters talk about making a short drive and talking like it was very long and Gassman makes fun of them, but it won’t land if you don’t know about Italian geography
Wow; a stunning shot using windows at 79 minutes; there’s the left window that Gassman’s wife is in, the doorway that Trintignant is in, and the right window where Gassman and his daughter are in; gorgeous; the divide between Gassman and his wife here
Hallway shot with a mirror on the wall that Gassman’s face appears in at 81 minutes
An interesting conversation between Trintignant and Gassman as they lie down on beach chairs at the coast; they go to sleep and wake up to an utterly packed beach; almost feels a bit unrealistic that Gassman at least (Trintignant got up earlier) didn’t wake up even earlier
While Trintignant is on the beach, some girl comes up to him with a cast and asks him to sign it, mentioning a few famous Italian personalities (including Gina Lollobrigida) who have signed it themselves
Closeup editing and blocking faces with faces in a dancing scene tracking Trintignant at 97 minutes; we watch Trintignant as he walks over to a telephone and calls a girl he has been open about his love for to Gassman over the entire film
Gassman beats his daughter’s significantly older (and I mean older than Gassman) boyfriend at table tennis and wins a bunch of money off him… which the boyfriend just himself won at poker off some other guy
And the film’s ending comes much as it started; the two of them screaming wildly at passersby on the road as Gassman keeps honking that damn horn
Honestly Trintignant always seems to play characters that think they’re more than they are but really have no goddamn clue what the hell they are doing; here, The Conformist, My Night at Maud’s…
The two are driving recklessly in an attempt to pass another car on the road – Trintignant now egging Gassman along here – but they just cannot; in time a much-larger truck comes along ahead of them and Gassman vigorously swerves to the side to avoid it and takes the car off a cliff; Gassman is able to jump out of the car in time but Trintignant goes down with the ship and is killed; when asked by a passing policeman if he knew Trintignant’s last name (Mariani, which Trintignant mentions several times over the course of the film and, again, they even visit Trintignant’s villa), Gassman replies that he does not as he only met Trintignant yesterday
I was a bit skeptical of this film’s supposed masterpiece status since Drake has it as only a R, it’s outside the TSPDT Top 1000 and Big Deal on Madonna Street, which I also saw recently, was more around the HR – HR/MS range, but clearly that was not the case here
Must-See after one viewing but I called it a Masterpiece right as it finished and I could do so again with another watch
Drake, if you’ve seen La Jetée, what do you think of it? I think it’s a masterpiece and tied virtually with Keaton’s Sherlock Jr. for the best film ever made under an hour (will wait to get to these films in my all-time list to determine which is better).
@Zane- I have seen La Jetée. I shared my thoughts on one of these pages- sorry- can’t find it now. I do not hold it in the high esteem many cinephiles do.
Jeanne Moreau is soooo good in Jules and Jim. Oskar Werner gives the film’s 2nd best performance but as great as he is Moreau is on another level. She is simultaneously compelling and revolting at the same time. I mean she is clearly a narcissist, nothing makes this more clear than the ending scene of course, but throughout the film she has a compulsive need for admiration and attention. She is a ticking time bomb who you cannot take your eyes off.
I would never want another actress playing this role given her performance but I am curious which of the following actresses would be most compelling in the role? Forget about possible language barriers for the time being.
1. Anna Karina
2. Monica Vitti
3. Sophia Loren
4. Catherine Deneuve
5. Julie Christie
@James Trapp- My vote would be for Deneuve here.
@JamesTrapp- Oh wow!!
Julie Christie would be my pick. If you forget about age and language. There’s something in Christie that reminds me of Moreau.
@M*A*S*H – yeah I am torn between Anna Karina and Julie Christie. I love Christie in McCabe and Mrs. Miller. I think they would all be fascinating in the role but like I said I am glad we got what we got. It is such a magnetic performance.
I recently watched Hatari. I first saw it in the theater when it came out (I was about 9 or 10). I thought it was one of the best movies I’d ever seen! Unfortunately, this film is not only overrated, it doesn’t even warrant the Top 5000. Ludicrously unlikely romance between Wayne and Martinelli, wince-worthy repeat jokes (mostly Red Buttons-related), and thinly plotted. Horrible dialogue. Sure, the action shots are exciting, but to watch what they are doing to these poor animals just seems cruel nowadays.
@Philip Tone- Thanks for sharing this- yes, I’ll certainly see it again (I’m overdue)- but we’re on the same page here with this one being overrated by the consensus.
Have you seen Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam(1962)? An acclaimed Indian film. Not as much as Pyaasa and Kaagaz Ke Phool but still. It is said that Guru Dutt is the mastermind behind this film even though he didn’t take directing credits like George Lucas and Empire Strikes Back.
@Lionel- I have not – but thank you for the heads up
Have you seen Therese Desqueyroux(1962) starring Emanuelle Riva directed by Georges Franju(Eyes without a Face)?