1955 Poll 2.0

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

Choose your favourite films from 1955 (according to IMDB).

Each person can vote for up to 20 films. Do not feel compelled to fill the maximum allowable number.

Twenty-film ballots can be formatted as follows:
- Five tiers of four films each, 4/4/4/4/4; scored 5-4-3-2-1 pts/film/tier
- Four tiers of five films each, 5/5/5/5; scored 4.5-3.5-2.5-1.5 pts/film/tier
- Two tiers of ten films each, 10/10; scored 4-2 pts/film/tier
- No tiers, unranked; scored 3 pts/film
- A 20-film three-tier ballot is not possible

A tiered ballot can include less than 20 films, but in that case the total number of films must still be able to be factored by the number of tiers, so:
- A five tier ballot can include only 20, 15, 10, or 5 films
- A four tier ballot can include only 20, 16, 12, 8, or 4 films
- A three tier ballot (scored 5-3-1) can include only 18, 15, 12, 9, 6, or 3 films
- A two tier ballot can include only 20, 18, 16, 14, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, or 2 films
- Ballots that are 19, 17, 13, 11, 7 or 1 films must be no tiers

Users are urged to post their provisional lists as soon as possible, so that others can use them for recommendations. You may revise your lists at any point prior to the deadline.

Deadline for 1955 lists will be Thursday, June 30th at around midnight EDT.

[greennui]

The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo (Margaret Tait)
Orquil Burn (Margaret Tait)
Islands of Fire (Vittorio De Seta)
Guys and Dolls (Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
There’s Always Tomorrow (Douglas Sirk)

She Was Like a Wild Chrysanthemum (Keisuke Kinoshita)
The Cobweb (Vincente Minnelli)
Dementia (John Parker)
All That Heaven Allows (Douglas Sirk)
Moonfleet (Fritz Lang)

House of Bamboo (Samuel Fuller)
Stranger on Horseback (Jacques Tourneur)
The Big Combo (Joseph H. Lewis)
The Doll Merchant (Jack Witikka)
Pather Panchali (Satyajit Ray)

Easter in Sicily (Vittorio De Seta)
The Age of Swordfish (Vittorio De Seta)
Sea Countrymen (Vittorio De Seta)
Bearly Asleep (Jack Hannah)
Rebel Without a Cause (Nicholas Ray)


2watch:

Stella
Ludwig II
The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz

[sally]

in no particular order:
forever yours - tawee na bangchang
the heart - kon ichikawa
mr & mrs '55 - guru dutt
les grandes manœuvres - rené clair
the moon has risen - kinuyo tanaka
fire in the night - arne skouen
magdana's donkey - tengiz abuladze, rezo chkheidze
unfinished story - fridrikh ermler
the wicked go to hell - robert hossein
seagulls die in the harbour - rik kuypers, ivo michiels, roland verhavert
pride - manuel mur oti
the widow - park nam-ok

springtime in budapest - félix máriássy
ludwig 2 - helmut käutner
captain lightfoot - douglas sirk
the leaden echo & the golden echo - margaret tait
red fish - josé antonio nieves conde
stella - mihalis kakogiannis
water-mirror of granada - josé val del omar
(all the vittorio de setas)

reeeeeeeeeeeally looking foward to:
nicht mehr fliehen
(+ a bunch of others)

[karl]

as with every other year of the 1950s, japan alone could almost fill a top 20 for me. the possibles:

the wolves (shindo)
growing up (gosho)
marital relations (toyoda)
lyana (barnet)
kokoro
smiles of a summer night
pather panchali
lola montes
the criminal life of archibaldo de la cruz
ordet
bad day at black rock
floating clouds
mr. arkadin
a bloody spear on mount fuji
she was like a wild chrystanthemum & the tattered wings (kinoshita)
springtime frost (armands & leimanis)
le amiche
taira clan saga & princess yang kwei fei (mizoguchi)
twilight saloon (uchida)
the shiinomi school (shimizu)
naked dawn
unfinished story (ermler)
the grand manoeuver (clair)
il bidone
night of the hunter
kiss me deadly
wichita
there's always tomorrow
stella
violent saturday
magdana's donkey
the sign of venus
the girls of san frediano

[flip]

left out some of the more famous films from the year if i hadn't seen them in a long time, i suspect i'd feel differently about some of them now

The Naked Dawn (Edgar Ulmer)
The Big Combo (Joseph H Lews)
Isole di Fuoco (Vittorio de Seta)
Crashout (Lewis Foster)

Blinkity Blank (Norman McLaren)
Cellbound (Tex Avery/Michael Lah)
The Indian Fighter (Andre de Toth)
New York Confidential (Russell Rouse)

Pather Panchali (Satyajit Ray)
Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton)
Dementia (John Parker/Bruno VeSota)
Man With the Gun (Richard Wilson)

The Violent Men (Rudolph Mate)
Man Without a Star (King Vidor)
Rage at Dawn (Tim Whelan)
Les Diaboliques (Henri-Georges Clouzot)

Killer's Kiss (Stanley Kubrick)
The Night My Number Came Up (Leslie Norman)
The Phenix City Story (Phil Karlson)
The Man from Laramie (Anthony Mann)

[sally]

just checked & BFI player has tons of delicious 1955 garbage to get through!

[Lencho of the Apes]

Glad to see so many votes for Dementia/Daughter Of Darkness. Do you have a markeed preference for narrated version ver silent one? I 've forgotten which is which, though I'm likely to ewatch.

Anyway, here's my starters, unranked:

All That Heaven Allows - Sirk
The Big Combo - Lewis
Cupido Pierde A Paquita - Ismael Rodriguez
Dementia
Ensayo De Un Crimen - Bunuel
Espaldas Mojadas - Alejandro Galindo
Kiss Me Deadly - Aldrich
Maria La Voz - Bracho
Mr. Arkadin - Welles
Mr And Mrs 55 - Dutt
Moonfleet
The Naked Dawn - Ulmer
The Night Of The Hunter
Rebel Without A Cause - Ray
La Sospechosa - Gout
Tennessee's Partner - Dwan
La Tierra Del Fuego Se Apaga - Emilio Fernandez
The Trouble With Harry - Hitchcock

[sally]

godziny nadziei / the hours of hope - jan rybkowski #CoMoPoland (dammit!)

this wasn't very good (germans cartoon baddies, russians are SAINTS) but it did have a very young leon niemczyk in pretending to be american (and worse, dance) - he's an old friend now from may, best nose ever. possibly him (16 films seen) & gustaw holoubek (15 films seen) were in every single film i watched for CoMo...

[rischka]

i got some to watch for this year!! they shall include

tales of the taira clan
twilight saloon
artists and models (maybe)
the tall men

no long gray line?? thought it was just my navy bias hmmm. i absolutely recommend shindo's the wolves (karl's #1)

[nrh]

still trying to figure out list but long gray line is fighting for #1 with there's always tomorrow, naked dawn and tennessee's partner (damn this year is some jerry johnson shit).

[rischka]

i hope someone who doesn't hate musicals watches it's always fair weather

i might line up some rewatches too..

[nrh]

damn it's always fair weather this year? that is my favorite hollywood musical without a doubt. basically justifies the form.

[lineuphere]

Things I like and things in my queue:

Jibun no ana no nakade | A Hole of My Own Making
Chibusa yo eien nare | The Eternal Breasts
Violent Saturday
Aguaespejo granadino | Water-Mirror of Granada
Ludwig II: Glanz und Ende eines Königs
It's Always Fair Weather
Chua Fah Din Sa Lai | Forever Yours
Isole di fuoco
L'angelo bianco
I Kalpiki Lira | The Counterfeit Coin
Mugibue | Love Never Fails
Death of a Cyclist
A Bloody Spear on Mount Fuji
Shree 420
House of Bamboo
The Naked Dawn
I Live in Fear
The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz
Yôkihi | Princess Yang Kwei-fei
Onna Doshi | Women's Ways
Dobrý voják Svejk | The Good Soldier Schweik
Der letzte Akt
Nogiku no gotoki kimi nariki | She Was Like a Wild Chrysanthemum
Ukigumo | Floating Clouds
Lola Montès
Pather Panchali
Ordet
Les mauvaises rencontres
Los peces rojos

[Holdrüholoheuho]

preliminary selection...

God Shiva (Bert Haanstra, 1955, 11m)
Mechanics of Love (Willard Maas, Ben Moore, 1955, 7m) → https://youtu.be/XqqaSno6EoI
No More Fleeing (Herbert Vesely, 1955, 68m) → in Res.!
Centuries of June (Stan Brakhage, Joseph Cornell, 1955, 11m)
House: After Five Years of Living (Charles Eames, Ray Eames, 1955, 11m)
Gnir Rednow (Joseph Cornell, 1955, 6m)
The Wonder Ring (Stan Brakhage, 1955, 6m)
Journey to the Beginning of Time (Karel Zeman, 1955, 93m)
Lola Montès (Max Ophüls, 1955, 116m)
Conscience (Jiří Krejčík, 1955, 101m)
Sky Without Stars (Helmut Käutner, 1955, 108m)

[sally]

the welsh bird artist charles tunnicliffe:



evidently got given a moviecamera in the 50's and made a series of 'cinematic sketches' of his home in anglesey:

malltraeth: birds observed (1955)
landmarks and seagulls (1955)





also watched:

reed marsh - john chear

[Holdrüholoheuho]

landmarks and seagulls (1955)

strange! strange! miracle???
earlier this day, i was able to watch "landmarks and seagulls".
and now, when i wanted to watch the rest, it is geoblocked as usual (including the previously accessible "landmarks and seagulls").

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

Heavens to Betsy, I wish those bird movies were available to view region-free. Look wonderful.

[sally]

ah don't worry, you're not missing that much!





nukkekauppias ja kaunis lilith / the doll merchant - jack witikka



i........................was not expecting this....i have no idea but was thinking it was gonna be like some dark swedish noir, o no, nowhere near....always with beloved aki echoing through everything finnish, set in a very contemporary helsinki, but also a dystopian comic fairy-tale, akin to something maybe czech....or s-a furat o bombă maybe?.....

[Holdrüholoheuho]

1955, the old good days when the fossil brands were still alluring & oil drilling was still imbued with poetry...

THE SAP OF THE EARTH (Alexander Alexeieff, 1955)

https://youtu.be/bOKPKNe-z1I

[Holdrüholoheuho]

in 1955 (seems like), the inhabitants of the NYC had nothing better to do than roaming across the city by train with a movie camera.
i think it is quite likely they captured each other in their particular films.
now, trying to notice Carson Davidson in "The Wonder Ring" while making "3rd AVE. EL" or Stan Brakhage in "3rd AVE. EL" while making "The Wonder Ring".

https://youtu.be/uD7uqs4y7tQ
https://youtu.be/wRF58QZV4SU

[rischka]

love those ♥♥

[rischka]

giving mizo a chance - didn't realize he made only 2 color films. and both of them in 1955

https://twitter.com/rbgscfz/status/1533 ... bHndP7GRpQ

pretty spectacular staging, costumes and sets here! and a cast of thousands

[rischka]

aaaaaaaaand machiko kyo won me over. glorious color, magnificent staging. princess yang kwei-fei might make the list

https://twitter.com/rbgscfz/status/1534 ... 6MHqZy__7g

[St. Gloede]

My top 20:

1955 stands out to me first and foremost for the explosive James Dean double-feature, though it has been too long since I saw either, and I do wonder if they will rank as high in my esteem of a rewatch, the same goes for many of the other films below:

Rebel Without a Cause (1955, Nicholas Ray)
East of Eden (1955, Elia Kazan)
Lola Montès (1955, Max Ophüls)
Il Bidone / The Swindlers (1955, Federico Fellini)
Kokoro / The Heart (1955, Kon Ichikawa)

The Night of the Hunter (1955, Charles Laughton)
Ikimono no kiroku / I Live in Fear (1955, Akira Kurosawa)
Pather Panchali (1955, Satyajit Ray)
Les Diaboliques (1955, Henri-Georges Clouzot)
Picnic (1955, Joshua Logan)

The Desperate Hours (1955, William Wyler)
Sommarnattens leende / Smiles of a Summer Night (1955, Ingmar Bergman)
Wichita (1955, Jacques Tourneur)
Takekurabe / Growing Up (1955, Heinosuke Gosho)
The Seven Year Itch (1955, Billy Wilder)

Du rififi chez les hommes (1955, Jules Dassin)
We're No Angels (1955, Michael Curtiz)
Himmel ohne Sterne / Sky Without Stars (1955, Helmut Käutner)
The Big Combo (1955, Joseph H. Lewis)
The Ladykillers (1955, Alexander Mackendrick)

Honourable mentions:

La 'Moara cu noroc' / The Mill of Good Luck (1955, Victor Iliu)
Kiss Me Deadly (1955, Robert Aldrich)
Volca noc / Wolf's Night (1955, France Stiglic)
Yôkihi / Princess Yang Kwei-fei (1955, Kenji Mizoguchi)
The Man with the Golden Arm (1955, Otte Preminger)
Salna pavasari (1955, Pavel Armand & Leonids Leimanis)
Stranger on Horseback (1955, Jacques Tourneur)
Kvinnodröm / Journey Into Autumn (1955, Ingmar Bergman)
Bad Day at Black Rock (1955, John Sturges)
Des Teufels General / The Devil's General (1955, Helmut Käutner)
The Dam Busters (1955, Michael Anderson)
El río y la muerte / The River and Death (1955, Luis Buñuel)
Gli sbandati / The Abandoned (1955, Francesco Maselli)

[rischka]

the devil's general (kautner) - a little too much ACTUALLY SOME GERMAN OFFICERS WERE GOOD energy. kautner was extremely talented but some of his work was a little self serving. everyone wanted to pretend they were part of the resistance in post war germany. we get it.

[sally]

i watched sadatsugu matsuda's foul play but have nothing to say about it. in addition, the current weather (occasionally not raining) is making it very hard to sit down and watch movies when there's exciting things like trees and mud to go look at)

[Lencho of the Apes]

The Littlest Outlaw - R. Gavaldon.

It's Gavaldon's The Naked Dawn, at least in superficial ways -- goofy-looking HollyCartoonMexico where simple peasant folk confront ethical ambiguities above their paygrade. And it's PACKED with players from the Mexican industry, playing Spot The Pigeon sometimes distracted me. Big Gavaldon moment: Rodolfo Acosta's short-lived spiritual awakening when cathedral splendor briefly overwhelms his desire to get out there and kill that horse motherfucker with some deadness.

[Lencho of the Apes]

I forgot to mention "in English" and :"Disney Studios:"

[rischka]

OMG i think i knew of it's existence, now i'll have to watch it

https://twitter.com/rbgscfz/status/1536 ... ejHCysR6Eg

i watched the gosho and :devilhorns: FUCK THE PATRIARCHY

[Lencho of the Apes]

The Growing-Up Gosho? I watched. Got the idea the 1890s source novel might be somewhere in the DNA of Bound For The Fields Etc by Obayashi, homage or parody or sumpm.