My Top 20 by Year - 1961
by miran_kor | created - 22 Apr 2014 | updated - 26 Aug 2015 | PublicUnder construction and always in progress.
The Best films from this year (according to IMDb) I've seen (so far).
Out of (only) 99 films 'seen' (ie rated at IMDb).
(Aug 2015)
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):
Kohayagawa-ke no aki (The End of Summer, Ozu, 1961) Une aussi longue absence (The Long Absence, Colpi, 1961) Matka Joanna od aniolów (Mother Joan of the Angels, Kawalerowicz, 1961) Teen Kanya (Three Daughters, S. Ray, 1961) Ningen no jôken (The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer, Kobayashi, 1961) Il giudizio universale (The Last Judgment, De Sica, 1961) Buta to gunkan (Pigs and Battleships, Imamura, 1961) La ragazza con la valigia (Girl with a Suitcase, Zurlini, 1961) Obaltan (The Stray Bullet, Yoo, 1961) The Exiles (MacKenzie, 1961) Léon Morin, prêtre (Léon Morin, Priest; Melville, 1961) Whistle Down the Wind (Forbes, 1961) Chronique d'un été (Paris 1960) (Chronicles of a Summer, Morin/Rouch, 1961) Swiadectwo urodzenia (Birth Certificate, Rózewicz, 1961) One Hundred and One Dalmatians (Geronimi/Luske/Reitherman, 1961) Shiiku (The Catch, Ôshima, 1961) L'enclos (Enclosure, Gatti, 1961) Amai yoru no hate (Bitter End of a Sweet Night, Y. Yoshida, 1961) Tsuma wa kokuhaku suru (A Wife Confesses, Masumura, 1961) L'assassino (The Assassin, Petri, 1961) Too Late Blues (Cassavetes, 1961) The Young Savages (Frankenheimer, 1961) Eien no hito (Immortal Love, Kinoshita, 1961) Kawaita mizuumi (Youth in Fury, Shinoda, 1961) Koshoku ichidai otoko (A Lustful Man, Masumura, 1961) Underworld USA (Fuller, 1961) Synoikia to Oneiro (Alexandrakis, 1961) La fille aux yeux d'or (The Girl with the Golden Eyes, Albicocco, 1961) The Comancheros (Curtiz, 1961) Fanny (Logan, 1961)
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1. Viridiana (1961)
Not Rated | 91 min | Drama
Viridiana, a young nun about to take her final vows, pays a visit to her widowed uncle at the request of her Mother Superior.
Director: Luis Buñuel | Stars: Silvia Pinal, Francisco Rabal, Fernando Rey, José Calvo
Votes: 26,117
Cinema. 10/10.
2. La Notte (1961)
Not Rated | 122 min | Drama
A day in the life of an unfaithful married couple and their steadily deteriorating relationship.
Director: Michelangelo Antonioni | Stars: Jeanne Moreau, Marcello Mastroianni, Monica Vitti, Bernhard Wicki
Votes: 24,024 | Gross: $0.04M
Cinema.
3. Last Year at Marienbad (1961)
Not Rated | 94 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
In a strange and isolated chateau, a man becomes acquainted with a woman and insists that they have met before.
Director: Alain Resnais | Stars: Delphine Seyrig, Giorgio Albertazzi, Sacha Pitoëff, Françoise Bertin
Votes: 24,877 | Gross: $0.06M
PC.
4. West Side Story (1961)
Approved | 153 min | Crime, Drama, Musical
Two youngsters from rival New York City gangs fall in love, but tensions between their respective friends build toward tragedy.
Directors: Jerome Robbins, Robert Wise | Stars: Natalie Wood, George Chakiris, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn
Votes: 121,133 | Gross: $43.66M
TV.
5. A Dance in the Rain (1961)
100 min | Drama
Peter is the dark brooding type. Leading a vacuous, shapeless life, he longs for the ideal woman, while at the same time, half heartedly continuing with his habitual girlfriend, Marusa , ... See full summary »
Director: Bostjan Hladnik | Stars: Dusa Pockaj, Miha Baloh, Rado Nakrst, Ali Raner
Votes: 410
Orig. title: Ples v dežju.
PC.
6. Placido (1961)
85 min | Comedy, Drama
In a small Spanish town, a group of old ladies decides to celebrate Christmas Eve with a "seat a poor man at your table" dinner: each wealthy household of the town will have a homeless ... See full summary »
Director: Luis García Berlanga | Stars: Cassen, José Luis López Vázquez, Elvira Quintillá, Manuel Alexandre
Votes: 3,768
PC. 10/10.
7. Through a Glass Darkly (1961)
Not Rated | 90 min | Drama
Recently released from a mental hospital, Karin rejoins her emotionally disconnected family in their island home, only to slip from reality as she begins to believe she is being visited by God.
Director: Ingmar Bergman | Stars: Harriet Andersson, Gunnar Björnstrand, Max von Sydow, Lars Passgård
Votes: 27,366
PC. 9.5/10.
8. The Substitute (1961)
10 min | Animation, Short, Comedy
Simple story about the man who comes to the beach and uses inflatable objects for all of his needs.
Director: Dusan Vukotic
Votes: 1,260
OL. 9/10.
9. Il posto (1961)
Not Rated | 93 min | Drama
Bursting with big dreams and plans, an Italian teen goes to Milan to work in a big impersonal corporate office, where he becomes disillusioned and drained of all his individualism.
Director: Ermanno Olmi | Stars: Sandro Panseri, Loredana Detto, Corrado Aprile, Guido Chiti
Votes: 6,731 | Gross: $0.01M
PC.
10. Very Nice, Very Nice (1961)
Not Rated | 7 min | Short
Through an unconventional use of concise narrative, a conceptual collage of sounds and images, and a rapid-fire montage, Arthur Lipsett's first film vividly portrays the urban estrangement in the times of social erosion and materialism.
Director: Arthur Lipsett
Votes: 883
OL.
11. Allures (1961)
8 min | Short
An experimental short film by Jordan Belson which combines various colors and shapes.
Director: Jordan Belson
Votes: 505
OL.
12. One, Two, Three (1961)
Not Rated | 104 min | Comedy
In West Berlin during the Cold War, a Coca-Cola executive is given the task of taking care of his boss' socialite daughter.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: James Cagney, Horst Buchholz, Pamela Tiffin, Arlene Francis
Votes: 22,952
TV.
13. Munro (1961)
9 min | Animation, Comedy, Short
A four-year-old boy is drafted into the army.
Director: Gene Deitch | Stars: Howard Morris, Seth Deitch, Marie Deitch, Jules Feiffer
Votes: 595
PC.
14. Mir vkhodyashchemu (1961)
90 min | Drama, War
On the last day of World War II in Europe (May 8th, 1945) three Soviet soldiers are assigned the thankless task of taking a frightened pregnant German woman, whom they are unable to communicate with, to a hospital.
Directors: Aleksandr Alov, Vladimir Naumov | Stars: Viktor Avdyushko, Aleksandr Demyanenko, Stanislav Khitrov, Lidiya Shaporenko
Votes: 165
TV.
15. Thigh Line Lyre Triangular (1961)
5 min | Short
An experimental short film of flashing images made by Stan Brakhage.
Director: Stan Brakhage
Votes: 289
OL.
16. Yojimbo (1961)
Not Rated | 110 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
A crafty ronin comes to a town divided by two criminal gangs and decides to play them against each other to free the town.
Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Toshirô Mifune, Eijirô Tôno, Tatsuya Nakadai, Yôko Tsukasa
Votes: 131,282
Cinema.
17. One-Eyed Jacks (1961)
Not Rated | 141 min | Drama, Western
After robbing a Mexican bank, Dad Longworth takes the loot and leaves his partner Rio to be captured, but Rio escapes and searches for Dad in California.
Director: Marlon Brando | Stars: Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Pina Pellicer, Katy Jurado
Votes: 13,259 | Gross: $9.37M
TV.
18. Divorce Italian Style (1961)
Not Rated | 105 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A married Sicilian baron falls in love with his cousin and vows to wed her, but with divorce illegal he must concoct a crime of passion to do away with his wife.
Director: Pietro Germi | Stars: Marcello Mastroianni, Daniela Rocca, Stefania Sandrelli, Leopoldo Trieste
Votes: 14,168
PC.
19. And Love Has Vanished (1961)
88 min | Drama, Romance
A young man falls in love with the girl who he met by accident.
Director: Aleksandar Petrovic | Stars: Beba Loncar, Miha Baloh, Milos Zutic, Borislav Radovic
Votes: 224
Cinema.
20. Terminus (1961)
33 min | Short, Documentary
The movie follows the routine of a busy train station - London's Waterloo Station - making a brief yet important cultural portrait of 1960s England, mixing reality and fiction.
Director: John Schlesinger | Stars: Margaret Ashcroft, Gertrude Dickin, Margaret Lacey, Matthew Perry
Votes: 406
PC.
21. Arabesque for Kenneth Anger (1961)
5 min | Short
A short by Marie Menken who pays homage to the work of Kenneth Anger is this colorful film.
Director: Marie Menken | Stars: Kenneth Anger, Willard Maas
Votes: 206
OL.
22. Baltie zvani (1961)
24 min | Short, Adventure
Monochrome split screen film. Left-hand side shows studio-based cellist playing the musical accompaniment to the film. The right hand-side shows exterior images of people in a cityscape, with main focus being on a girl's journey.
Director: Ivars Kraulitis | Star: Ilze Zarina
Votes: 83
OL.
23. Do It Yourself Cartoon Kit (1961)
6 min | Animation, Short, Comedy
A mock promotional short cartoon film for the 'Do-It-Yourself Cartoon Kit'
Director: Bob Godfrey | Star: Michael Bentine
Votes: 235
PC.
24. Sunday (1961)
17 min | Documentary, Short
Dan Drasin's documentary short, shot in a single afternoon in 1961, is often cited as the first major social protest film of the Sixties. When 19-year-old Drasin and his friends joined folk... See full summary »
Director: Dan Drasin | Star: Izzy Young
Votes: 135
OL.
25. Fire in Castilla (Tactilvision from the Moor of the Fright) (1960)
20 min | Documentary, Short
Short documentary featuring sculptures of Alonso de Berruguete and Juan de Juni in the Valladolid National Museum.
Director: José Val del Omar | Star: José Val del Omar
Votes: 460
OL.
26. Catalog (1961)
7 min | Short
An abstract color display using an analog computer and such effects as extended exposure, kaleidoscopic mirroring, optical manipulation, and frame by frame editing in a way that anticipated 2001:A Space Odyssey seven years later.
Director: John Whitney Sr.
Votes: 102
OL. 9/10.
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