Top 10 films 1965, 75, 85, 95, 05, and 2015. All Countdowns Complete!

[Kalo]

#10 of 1965 Chimes at Midnight - 16 points 

 

 

A personal viewpoint, it mixes the grotesque, bawdy, comic and heroic, and does have a melancholy under its carousing and battles. - Variety 

 

 

Storyline: .Sir John Falstaff is the hero in this compilation of extracts from Shakespeare's 'Henry IV' and other plays, made into a connected story of Falstaff's career as young Prince Hal's drinking companion. The massive knight roisters with and without the prince, philosophizes comically, goes to war (in his own fashion), and meets his final disappointment, set in a real-looking late-medieval England. Written by Anonymous  - IMDB

 

Rotten Tomatoes Critic approval rating: 95% average of 8.6/10

 

IMDB rating: 8.0

 

 

Chimes at midnight first premiered at the 1966 Cannes Film Festival, to a positive audience response, however when it was released in the US a year later, it's critical response was initially unfavorable, being criticized for its "Poor audio track and called it "a confusing patchwork of scenes and characters" but in retrospection is now considered one of Orson Wiles best films, Orson himself stated it was his favorite work, even stating:

 

"If I wanted to get into heaven on the basis of one movie, that's the one I would offer up. I think it's because it is to me the least flawed; let me put it that way. It is the most successful for what I tried to do. I succeeded more completely in my view with that than with anything else"  

Chimes at midenight was Nominated for a BAFTA ward in 1968 Best Foreign Actor: Orson Wiles

[Jake Gittes]

Chimes at Midnight seriously needs that Criterion treatment.

[Kalo]

#9 of 1965 Red Beard - 16 points

 

 

 

Akira Kurosawa's Red Beard is assembled with the complexity and depth of a good l9th-century novel, and it is a pleasure, in a time of stylishly fragmented films, to watch a director taking the time to fully develop his characters. - Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times. 

 

Storyline: In a charity hospital, a hard-bitten but honorable older doctor, Dr. Niide, takes a young intern under his guidance through the course of a number of difficult cases. Written by Jim Beaver <jumblejim@prodigy.net>

 

 

Rotten Tomatoes Critic approval rating: 77% average of 7.5/10

 

IMDB Rating: 8.3

 

Coming in at #9 on the list is Japanese made film Red Beard or Akahige. directed by Akira Kurosawa, the film was released April 3rd 1965 in Japan and January 19th 1966 in the US. it is the last of 16 films Kurosawa worked with actor Toshirô Mifune, the actor had to maintain his beard length throughout the lengthy production, which made Mifune unable to act in other films, part of the reason for the director actor split, it is also the last of Kurosawa's films to be presented in black and white. The film stands at a very lengthy runtime of 185 minutes.

 

 

Red Beard was nominated for a golden-globe award in 1966. for Best Foreign Language film Japan. 

 

*Red Beard was in a tie other two other films on the last edging out Chimes at Midnight by have a higher placement. 

[Jake Gittes]

Red Beard was a reminder that I actually really like life-affirming, inspirational movies, as long as they aren't patting themselves on back for it. It's a story about a guy becoming a better human being that manages to stay entirely believable. 

[Kalo]

#8 of 1965 Juliet of the Spirits - 16 points

 

 

 

A mad, resplendent peacock of a film, a cinematographic riot of color and sensuality that evokes its era -- the swinging mid-'60s -- as much as any movie made during those giddy years. -Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune.

 

Storyline: Juliet lives in a beautiful house by the ocean. Her sisters, and especially her Mother overshadow her with their beauty. She is a spiritual, superstitious and naive woman. She visits a psychic seer who tells her she must follow the sex trade in order to be happy. Not long after she meets her eccentric and sexy neighbour, Suzy, who, by all counts appears to be a high class prostitute and encourages Juliet into sexual acts which make her guilty and nervous. A rare night when her husband is at home she wakes up to catch him talking to another woman on the phone. He calls out the name "Gabriella" while sleeping, but when she questions him he lies his way out of it. She finds out who Gabriella is and fears her husband will leave her. Juliet begins having visions who accuse and terrorize her. The pinnacle of the visions comes at the end where it is implied she realizes she would be better off without her husband and is ultimately emotionally emancipated. Written by kwedgwood@hotmail.com

 

 

Rotten Tomatoes Critic approval rating: 86% average of 7.2/10

 

IMDB Rating: 7.7 

 

Coming in at #8 on the list is Italian/French made film Juliet of the Spirits or Giulietta degli spiriti. is Drama, Fantasy, Comedy film, directed by 12 time Academy nominated italian director Federico Fellini, and starring Giulietta Masina, Sandra Milo, Mario Pisu, Valentina Cortese, and Valeska Gert. it was released on October 22nd 1965 in France, October 23rd 1965 in Italy and November 3rd 1965 in the US. It was Fellini's first full length film to be released in color. it is known for it's use of caricatural types and dream situations to represent a psychic landscape. 

 

 

The film was acclaimed by critics and was nominated for two Oscars in 1967; Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color,

Piero Gherardi, and Best Costume Design, Color, Piero Gherardi. it also was nominated and won the Golden Globe award in 1966, for Best Foreign-Language Foreign Film, Italy.

 

*Juliet of the Spirits was in a tie other two other films edging out the other two by having the highest placement. 

[Kalo]

Red Beard was a reminder that I actually really like life-affirming, inspirational movies, as long as they aren't patting themselves on back for it. It's a story about a guy becoming a better human being that manages to stay entirely believable. 

 

I haven't seen it, it sounds very interesting though, I may have to check it out.

[Kalo]

#7 of 1965 The Saragossa Manuscript - 18 points

 

 

 

Infus[es] a similar unearthly cadenceo the swashbuckling genre that Jodorowski did to the western with El Topo. - Derek Adams, Time Out. 

 

Storyline: In the Napoleonic wars, an officer finds an old book that relates his grandfather's story, Alfons van Worden, captain in the Walloon guard. A man of honor and courage, he seeks the shortest route through the Sierra Morena. At an inn, the Venta Quemada, he sups with two Islamic princesses. They call him their cousin and seduce him; he wakes beside corpses under a gallows. He meets a hermit priest and a goatherd; each tells his story; he wakes again by the gallows. He's rescued from the Inquisition, meets a cabalist and hears more stories within stories, usually of love. He returns to Venta Quemada, the women await with astonishing news. Written by <jhailey@hotmail.com>

 

 

Rotten Tomatoes Critic approval rating: 92% average of 7.8/10

IMDB Rating: 8.0

 

Coming at #7 is yet another foreign film, this time a Polish, Fantasy Adventure, directed by polish director, Wojciech Has, and based on the 1815 novel The Manuscript Found in Saragossa by Jan Potocki. it tells it's story using gothic, picaresque and erotic elements. The film was shot near Częstochowa and in Wrocław, Poland. the film was released in Poland on February 9th uncut at a lengthy 182 minutes, but was shortened significantly in the UK and US for a cut for 147 minutes and 125 minutes respectively. until the 1990s when filmmakers Jerry Garcia, Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola, financed a restoration and subtitling of an uncut print of the film. The restored film, re-released in 2001, which is now available commercially on DVD.

 

 

The Saragossa Manuscript is the first film in the top 10 to receive a number #1 placement.

[Jake Gittes]

That movie is 3 hours of delightful weirdness. 

[4815162342]

Still need to work through a bunch of Kurosawa's lesser known films.

 

 

My favorites of his are Ran and The Bad Sleep Well

[Kalo]

#6 of 1965 Pierrot le fou - 19 Points 

 

 

 

There's cool and then there's Jean-Paul Belmondo. No one ever made being bored look so exciting, and the effortlessly graceful and impossibly hip actor gave the mid-'60s nouvelle vague a needed macho punch. - Corey Hall, Metro Times, Detroit MI.

 

Storyline: Pierrot escapes his boring society and travels from Paris to the Mediterranean Sea with Marianne, a girl chased by hit-men from Algeria. They lead an unorthodox life, always on the run.- IMDB

 

 

Rotten Tomatoes Critic approval rating: 85% average of 7.8/10

IMDB Rating: 7.7

 

 

Ranking at #6 of the countdown is French film Pierrot le fou or "Pierrot the Madman" written and directed by french director Jean-Luc Godard, and starring Anna Karina and Jean-Paul Belmondo. And based upon the 1962 novel, Obsession, by Lionel White. the film was released on november 5th 1965 in france.  budgeted at $300,000. Pierrot le fou  was the 15th highest grossing film in france that year with 1,310,579 admissions. the film was not released in the US until January 8th 1969. 

[Kalo]

#5 of 1965 Thunderball - 25 points 

 

 

 

If Thunderball's gimmickry seems to overreach at times, Actor Connery gains assurance from film to film, by now delivers all his soppiest Jimcracks martini-dry. - TIME Magazine

 

Storyline: In the fourth of the Sean Connery James Bond films, Bond matches wits with the sinister espionage organization SPECTRE. This time, SPECTRE hijacks a NATO nuclear bomber, hiding the bombs under the ocean depths and threatening to detonate the weapons unless a ransom of 100,000,000 pounds is paid. - Rotten Tomatoes. 

 

 

Rotten Tomatoes Critic approval rating: 85% average of 6.8/10

 

IMDB Rating: 7.0

 

At #5 on the list is the fourth entry in the insanely lucrative espionage James Bond series (24 films and counting). released on december 20th 1965 and starring Sean Connery and directed by Terence Young, it is the first in the series, to introduce the organization known as SPECTRE, which subsequently is the title of the upcoming Daniel Craig bond film. while it was not considered the best film film to date, it was still generally liked by audiences, and earned mostly favorable reviews from critics, especially for it's technical achievements. the film was also a massive finally success grossing $141.2 million, on a $9 Million dollar budget. the highest grossing in the series at the time. 

 

 

Thunderball was nominated for and won the Oscar for Best Effects, Special Visual Effects 1966.

John Stears.
 

 

* Thunderball was originally meant as the first James Bond film, and was the centre of legal disputes that began in 1961 and ran until 2006

Edited September 3, 2015 by Kalo

[Kalo]

#4 of 1965 Doctor Zhivago - 37 Points 

 

 

 

Literate, old fashioned, soul-filling and thoroughly romantic. -  TIME Magazine

 

Storyline: The life of a Russian physician and poet who, although married to another, falls in love with a political activist's wife and experiences hardship during the First World War and then the October Revolution. -IMDB

 

 

Rotten Tomatoes Critic approval rating: 85% average of 7.3/10

IMDB Rating: 8.0

 

 

Making its way into the #4 spot, is the British-american epic drama-romance, Doctor Zhivago. The film is directed by David Lean and starring Omar Sharif and Julie Christie. upon initial release, the critical reception was somewhat mixed, claiming the film was too long (197 minutes long). also criticizing it for trivialising history. however over time it has become regarded as one of Lean's finest films, and one of the best of the Epic genre. the film was a massive financial success grossing $111,721,910 on a 11 million dollar budget and is the second highest grossing film of 1965.

 

 

*As with the novel itself, the film was banned in the Soviet Union. It was not shown in Russia until 1994.

 

despite it's initial reaction the film was nominated for 10 Oscars, including a best picture nom, winning five of them.

 

*Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium
Robert Bolt'

 

*Best Cinematography, Color

Freddie Young

 

*Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color

John Box
Terence Marsh
Dario Simoni

 

*Best Costume Design, Color

Phyllis Dalton

 

*Best Music, Score - Substantially Original
Maurice Jarre

 

 

#1 placements: 2

[Kalo]

#3 of 1965 Repulsion - 44 Points 

 

 

 

A peerless Freudian nightmare, frequently revisited but seldom matched in its desire and terror, its visual-aural flow, and its queasy voyeuristic pleasure in seeing a frosty princess picking at her own skin - Fernando F. Croce, CinePassion 

 

Storyline: Left alone when her sister goes on vacation, a young beauty finds herself besieged on all sides by the demons of her past.

 

 

Rotten Tomatoes Critic approval rating: 100% average of 8.9/10

 

IMDB Rating: 7.8

 

 

Coming at #3 on this list is the British psychological horror film Repulsion, directed by polish director/actor Roman Polanski, (Chinatown, Rosemary's Baby). and stars Catherine Deneuve, Ian Hendry, John Fraser and Yvonne Furneaux. Repulsion first premiered at the cannes film festival in 1965 to critical acclaim and is to this day considered one of Polanski's finest works and a classic of the psychological thriller genre. it is considered the first Polanski's "apartment trilogy" as it preceded Rosemary's Baby (1968) and The Tenant (Le Locataire, 1976). it was released theatrically in the UK on June 11th 1965, and October 3rd 1965 in the US.

 

 

In 1966, Repulsion was nominated for a BAFTA: Best British Cinematography (B/W)

Gilbert Taylor

[Kalo]

#2 of 1965 For a Few Dollars More - 63 Points

 

 

 

A hard-hitting western with upper-case values out of the busy Italo stable, this is a topnotch action entry. - Variety 

 

Storyline: Monco is a bounty killer chasing El Indio and his gang. During his hunting, he meets Col. Douglas Mortimer, another bounty killer, and they decide to make a partnership, chase the bad guys together and split the reward. During their enterprise, there will be lots of bullets and funny situations. In the end, one of the bounty hunters shows the real intention of his hunting. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

 

 

Rotten Tomatoes Critic approval rating: 94% average of 7.8/10

 

IMDB Rating: 8.3 (Ranks #97 on IMDB's top 250 films)

 

 

Making it's way to the runner up position of #2 is Sergio Leone's spaghetti western and Stars Clint Eastwood. "For a Few Dollars More" it is the second of the "Dollars" trilogy" (A fistful of dollars (1964, The Good the Bad and the Ugly (1966),  being the others two that complete the trilogy, A Few dollars more received critical acclaim, and today the Dollars or Man with No Name Trilogy, are known for establishing the spaghetti western genre. and are revered as some of the best in the genre. 

 

 

*Screenwriter Luciano Vincenzoni wrote the screenplay for the film in nine days.

 

 

despite being #2 on the list For a Few Dollars more received the most number #1 placements: 4. 

Edited September 7, 2015 by Kalo

[Kalo]

#1 of 1965 The Sound of Music - 81 Points

 

 

 

Unapologetically sweet and maybe even a little corny, The Sound of Music will win over all but the most cynical filmgoers with its classic songs and irresistible warmth. - Rotten Tomatoes critic consensus 

 

Storyline: A woman leaves an Austrian convent to become a governess to the children of a Naval officer widower.

 

 

Rotten Tomatoes Critic approval rating: 85% average of 7.9/10

IMDB Rating: 8.0

 

 

And the #1 ranking film of 1965, is probably pretty obviously, not because it is necessarily everyone's favorite film of 1965. but the fact the most people have likely seen it. not to downgrade the film, it is a smashing warm hearted musical, with grand set pieces and acted splendidly, with memorable songs like "Do re mi" and "sixteen going on seventeen" and with a box office admission to be reckoned with. it is by far the highest grossing film of 1965. and ranks 3rd of all time adjusted for inflation with over 283.3 million admissions worldwide. based on the 1959 musical of the same name. directed by robert wise and starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer. The Sound of Music is considered one of the most culturally important films in history and regarded as one of the best musicals of all time. while it's critical consensuous was somewhat mixed the film still managed to score Best Picture in 1996. as well as four other wins, and 10 nominations in all. including a best director win, best score, sound and film editing actresses Julie Andrews and Peggy Wood both received best actress and best supporting actress noms. 

 

 

*in 1998 the American Film Institute (AFI) listed The Sound of Music as the fifty-fifth greatest American movie of all time, and the fourth greatest movie musical.

*In 2001, the United States Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry, finding it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwK_WOXjfc0

 

#1 placements: 3

 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_KfL71yf2Y

Edited September 8, 2015 by Kalo

[Kalo]

Well there you have it the top 10 films of 1965 according to Box office theory. hope you enjoyed reading.

 

Rankings:

 

#1 The Sound of Music - 81 Points

#2 For a Few Dollars More - 63 Points

#3 Repulsion 44 Points

#4 Doctor Zhivago - 37 Points

#5 Thunderball - 25 Points

#6 Pierrot le fou - 19 Points

#7 The Saragossa Manuscript - 18 Points 

#8 Juliet of the Spirits - 16 Points 

#9 Red Beard - 16 Points

#10 Chimes at Midnight - 16 points

 

well maybe you liked these film, maybe you want to watch them now, maybe 50 years is a bit too long ago for you. well you may be in luck because we will be moving up 10 years for the top 10 films of 1975 countdown starting soon!

[Kalo]

Here it is folks, time for films celebrating their 40th anniversary to be reflected upon and time to reveal the

 

Top 10 films of 1975.

 

And here we go 

 

 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btPJPFnesV4

[Kalo]

There we actually the fewest individual films listed in 1975 only 21, but the top 10 films points were more broadly distributed it was a very interesting year in film, and there were several pretty significant films that year. 

 

a few honorable mentions 

 

 

 

[Kalo]

#10 of 1975 Three Days of the Condor - 15 Points 

 

 

 

Three Days of the Condor is a well-made thriller, tense and involving, and the scary thing, in these months after Watergate, is that it's all too believable. - Edgar Wright, Chicago Sun-Times

 

Storyline: A bookish CIA researcher finds all his co-workers dead, and must outwit those responsible until he figures out who he can really trust.-IMDB

 

 

Rotten Tomatoes Critic approval rating: 87% average of 7.0/10

 

IMDB Rating: 7.5

 

 

Making it's way into the top 10 is the political thriller. "Three Days of the Conder" directed by Sydney Pollack, and starring Robert Redford. and based on the 1974 novel Six Days of the Condor by James Grady. Three Days of the Conder was released September 24th 1975 in the US the film received generally favorable reactions from critics and general audiences. the government conspiracy of theme of the film, which was a popular genre of the 1970s, was said to be one of the inspirations of the 2014 Superhero film "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" subsequently also starring Robert Redford.     

 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSo76Z26_1I

 

In 1976 the film was nominated for an academy award *Best Film Editing Fredric Steinkamp

Don Guidice

[Jake Gittes]

Nashville an honorable mention? Damn, people.