My Top 20 by Year - 1964
by miran_kor | created - 25 Mar 2014 | updated - 23 Sep 2016 | PublicUnder construction and always in progress.
The Best films from this year (according to IMDb) I've seen (so far).
Out of (only) 138 films 'seen' (ie rated at IMDb).
(Sep 2016)
Notes:
- Features, shorts, docs and TV movies eligible ("A film is a film is a film.").
- TV mini-series are NOT (unless stated otherwise).
- My humble rates added (for films with the same rate just once or twice though).
- Films with the same rate are ordered arbitrarily. Feel free to re-order them at your will.
- When I saw more than 20 excellent films (9/10 or above in my book) from a certain year I'll try and list them ALL. That would make some lists much longer but all the excellentia deserves to be mentioned.
Cinema = cinema (big screen) viewing TV = TV viewing PC = download OL = online viewing VHS = VHS viewing
Yet to see (among many):
Gertrud (Dreyer, 1964) Sedotta e abbandonata (Seduced & Abandoned, Germi, 1964) Kaidan (Kwaidan, Kobayashi, 1964) Álmodozások kora (Age of Illusions, Szabó, 1964) The Train (Frankenheimer, 1964) Gamlet (Hamlet, Kozintsev, 1964) The Pumpkin Eater (Clayton, 1964) Akai satsui (Intentions of Murder, Imamura, 1964) Zulu (Endfield, 1964) Lilith (Rossen, 1964) Kawaita hana (Pale Flower, Shinoda, 1964) Adauchi (Revenge, Imai, 1964) Dai satsujin (The Great Killing, Kudô, 1964) Ansatsu (Assassination, Shinoda, 1964) Nikutai no mon (Gate of Flesh, Suzuki, 1964) Lola (Dimopoulos, 1964) The Patsy (J. Lewis, 1964)
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1. Diamonds of the Night (1964)
Not Rated | 67 min | Drama, War
Two Jewish boys escape from a train transporting them from one concentration camp to another. The film goes beyond the themes of war and anti-Nazism and concerns itself with man's struggle to preserve human dignity.
Director: Jan Nemec | Stars: Ladislav Jánsky, Antonín Kumbera, Ilse Bischofova, Jan Riha
Votes: 2,888
PC. 10/10.
2. I Am Cuba (1964)
Not Rated | 141 min | Drama
Four vignettes about the lives of the Cuban people set during the pre-revolutionary era.
Director: Mikhail Kalatozov | Stars: Sergio Corrieri, Salvador Wood, José Gallardo, Raúl García
Votes: 10,595
PC.
3. The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964)
Not Rated | 137 min | Biography, Drama, History
The life of Jesus Christ according to the Gospel of Matthew. Pasolini shows Christ as a Marxist avant-la-lettre and therefore uses half of the text of Matthew.
Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini | Stars: Enrique Irazoqui, Margherita Caruso, Susanna Pasolini, Marcello Morante
Votes: 13,603
Cinema.
4. Diary of a Chambermaid (1964)
Not Rated | 97 min | Crime, Drama
A sophisticated and self-assured woman from Paris joins a middle-class rural estate as a maid and causes quite a stir among the variously uptight, perverse and violent inhabitants.
Director: Luis Buñuel | Stars: Jeanne Moreau, Georges Géret, Michel Piccoli, Daniel Ivernel
Votes: 9,743 | Gross: $0.02M
Cinema.
5. Zorba the Greek (1964)
Not Rated | 142 min | Comedy, Drama
An uptight English writer travelling to Crete, on a matter of business, finds his life changed forever when he meets the gregarious Alexis Zorba.
Director: Michael Cacoyannis | Stars: Anthony Quinn, Alan Bates, Irene Papas, Lila Kedrova
Votes: 24,049
Cinema.
6. Charulata (1964)
Not Rated | 117 min | Drama, Romance
The lonely wife of a newspaper editor falls in love with her visiting cousin-in-law, who shares her love for literature.
Director: Satyajit Ray | Stars: Soumitra Chatterjee, Madhavi Mukherjee, Shailen Mukherjee, Shyamal Ghoshal
Votes: 7,174 | Gross: $0.08M
PC.
7. Canon (1964)
10 min | Animation, Short
Perhaps the only film whose content is totally based on the musical form known as canon. The first sequence is a simple demonstration of the canon "Frere Jacques" where four cubes dance and... See full summary »
Directors: Norman McLaren, Grant Munro
Votes: 429
OL.
8. Rhinoceros (1964)
10 min | Animation, Short
A short monochrome animated film. The animation is predominantly drawn, with a short sequence made of photographic images. The sound track is mainly musical, with some spoken words.
Director: Jan Lenica
Votes: 119
OL.
10. The Pink Phink (1964)
Approved | 7 min | Animation, Family, Comedy
A house painter uses blue as his color of choice, while the Pink Panther has a different selection in mind.
Directors: Friz Freleng, Hawley Pratt
Votes: 1,515
OL. 10/10.
11. Woman in the Dunes (1964)
Not Rated | 147 min | Drama, Thriller
An entomologist on vacation is trapped by local villagers into living with a woman whose life task is shoveling sand for them.
Director: Hiroshi Teshigahara | Stars: Eiji Okada, Kyôko Kishida, Kôji Mitsui, Hiroko Itô
Votes: 22,550
PC. 9.5/10.
12. The Guns (1964)
80 min | Drama
In an extremely poor region in the Northeast of Brazil, a group of soldiers try to stop the population from sacking a food deposit.
Director: Ruy Guerra | Stars: Átila Iório, Nelson Xavier, Maria Gladys, Leonidas Bayer
Votes: 732
PC. 9.5/10.
13. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
PG | 95 min | Comedy, War
An insane American general orders a bombing attack on the Soviet Union, triggering a path to nuclear holocaust that a war room full of politicians and generals frantically tries to stop.
Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, Keenan Wynn
Votes: 516,485 | Gross: $0.28M
Cinema. 9/10.
14. Red Desert (1964)
Not Rated | 117 min | Drama
In an industrial area, unstable Giuliana attempts to cope with life by starting an affair with a co-worker at the plant her husband manages.
Director: Michelangelo Antonioni | Stars: Monica Vitti, Richard Harris, Carlo Chionetti, Xenia Valderi
Votes: 17,532
Cinema.
15. Onibaba (1964)
Not Rated | 103 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller
Two women kill samurai and sell their belongings for a living. While one of them is having an affair with their neighbor, the other woman meets a mysterious samurai wearing a bizarre mask.
Director: Kaneto Shindô | Stars: Nobuko Otowa, Jitsuko Yoshimura, Kei Satô, Jûkichi Uno
Votes: 21,700
Cinema.
16. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)
Not Rated | 91 min | Drama, Musical, Romance
A young woman separated from her lover by war faces a life-altering decision.
Director: Jacques Demy | Stars: Catherine Deneuve, Nino Castelnuovo, Anne Vernon, Marc Michel
Votes: 31,159 | Gross: $0.03M
PC.
17. Black Peter (1964)
85 min | Comedy, Drama
Reality movie of a few days in the life of a Czech teenager when he starts work.
Director: Milos Forman | Stars: Ladislav Jakim, Pavla Martinkova, Jan Vostrcil, Bozena Matuskova
Votes: 3,091
TV.
18. The Pawnbroker (1964)
Approved | 116 min | Drama
A Jewish pawnbroker, victim of Nazi persecution, loses all faith in his fellow man until he realizes too late the tragedy of his actions.
Director: Sidney Lumet | Stars: Rod Steiger, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Brock Peters, Jaime Sánchez
Votes: 10,665
TV.
19. Band of Outsiders (1964)
Not Rated | 95 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
Two crooks with a fondness for old Hollywood B-movies convince a languages student to help them commit a robbery.
Director: Jean-Luc Godard | Stars: Anna Karina, Claude Brasseur, Danièle Girard, Louisa Colpeyn
Votes: 26,969 | Gross: $0.04M
PC.
20. Culloden (1964 TV Movie)
69 min | Drama, History, War
The 1746 Battle of Culloden, the last land battle fought in the British Isles and the battle that ensured that Scotland was controlled by England.
Director: Peter Watkins | Stars: Tony Cosgrove, Olivier Espitalier-Noel, Don Fairservice, George McBean
Votes: 1,724
PC.
21. King & Country (1964)
Not Rated | 86 min | Drama, War
During World War I, Army Private Arthur James Hamp is accused of desertion during battle. The officer assigned to defend him at his court-martial, Captain Hargreaves, finds out there is more to the case than meets the eye.
Director: Joseph Losey | Stars: Dirk Bogarde, Tom Courtenay, Leo McKern, Barry Foster
Votes: 2,467
Cinema.
22. The Ape Woman (1964)
92 min | Comedy, Drama
A modest Neapolitan man meets a young woman with excessive hairiness. He exhibits her at fairs and marries her. It is after marriage that he receives a tempting offer from a French manager.
Director: Marco Ferreri | Stars: Ugo Tognazzi, Annie Girardot, Achille Majeroni, Elvira Paolini
Votes: 966
Cinema.
23. The Night of the Iguana (1964)
Approved | 125 min | Drama
An ostracized Episcopal clergyman leads a busload of middle-aged Baptist women on a tour of the Mexican coast and comes to terms with the failure haunting his life.
Director: John Huston | Stars: Richard Burton, Ava Gardner, Deborah Kerr, Sue Lyon
Votes: 13,039 | Gross: $9.43M
Cinema.
24. Alleman (1963)
90 min | Documentary
How do the Dutch people live? Hidden cameras filmed the crowds on the beach, during carnival time, skating on the ice plains...
Director: Bert Haanstra | Stars: Simon Carmiggelt, Bert Haanstra, Peter Ustinov
Votes: 497
PC.
25. Dog Star Man: Part IV (1964)
6 min | Drama, Short
The fourth and final part of Dog Star Man (1964), an experimental film wherein a man climbs a mountain along with his dog.
Director: Stan Brakhage | Stars: Stan Brakhage, Jane Wodening
Votes: 1,174
PC.
26. Go! Go! Go! (1964)
12 min | Short
A short experimental film made by New York visual and avant-garde artist Marie Menken.
Director: Marie Menken
Votes: 396
OL.
27. My Fair Lady (1964)
G | 170 min | Drama, Family, Musical
In 1910s London, snobbish phonetics professor Henry Higgins agrees to a wager that he can make crude flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, presentable in high society.
Director: George Cukor | Stars: Audrey Hepburn, Rex Harrison, Stanley Holloway, Wilfrid Hyde-White
Votes: 101,534 | Gross: $72.00M
TV.
28. Fail Safe (1964)
Approved | 112 min | Drama, Thriller
A technical malfunction sends American planes to Moscow to deliver a nuclear attack. Can all-out war be averted?
Director: Sidney Lumet | Stars: Henry Fonda, Walter Matthau, Fritz Weaver, Dan O'Herlihy
Votes: 24,310
PC.
29. Dear John (1964)
115 min | Drama, Romance
John is a shipmaster on a very small transportation boat which regularly attends a very small harbour to buy food, actually from Anna's father. She is a waitress and has a young daughter. ... See full summary »
Director: Lars-Magnus Lindgren | Stars: Jarl Kulle, Christina Schollin, Helena Nilsson, Erik Hell
Votes: 389
PC.
30. Valparaiso (1963)
27 min | Documentary, Short
A travelogue of Valparaiso, Chile, a city built on steep hills. Life is a constant struggle against geography. Neighbourhoods are reached by series of ramps, staircases, and funicular ... See full summary »
Director: Joris Ivens | Star: Roger Pigaut
Votes: 1,315
Cinema.
32. Free Fall (1964)
Not Rated | 10 min | Short
An experimental film from Arthur Lipsett, FREE FALL is an assortment of film trimmings assembled to make a wry comment on humankind in today's world. It evokes a surrealist dream of our fall from grace into banality.
Director: Arthur Lipsett
Votes: 205
OL.
33. Mass for the Dakota Sioux (1964)
Not Rated | 24 min | Short
A short experimental film about the Dakota Sioux directed by Bruce Baillie.
Director: Bruce Baillie
Votes: 201
OL.
34. Memory (1964)
6 min | Animation, Short
Explores the pros, cons and the nature of memory.
Director: Osamu Tezuka | Stars: Shinsuke Chikaishi, Adolf Hitler
Votes: 234
OL.
35. Don't Cry Peter (1964)
92 min | Adventure, War
Two partisan coalminers need to take three orphan children away from dangerous area to the liberated land.
Director: France Stiglic | Stars: Lojze Rozman, Bert Sotlar, Majda Potokar, Zlatko Sugman
Votes: 788
Cinema. 9/10.
36. Marriage Italian Style (1964)
Not Rated | 102 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Wealthy businessman Domenico and penniless prostitute Filumena share a large part of their lives in post-WWII Italy.
Director: Vittorio De Sica | Stars: Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni, Aldo Puglisi, Tecla Scarano
Votes: 10,997
PC. 8.5/10.
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