BEST FILMS OF 1963
by Mike Lorefice

8 1/2
Federico Fellini

****

An Actor's Revenge
Kon Ichikawa

****

The Birds
Alfred Hitchcock

***

Black Sabbath
Mario Bava

***

Les Carabiniers
Jean-Luc Godard

****

Contempt
Jean-Luc Godard

***1/2

The Great Escape
John Sturges

***

The Haunted Palace
Roger Corman

***

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The Haunting
Robert Wise

***

The Hook
George Seaton

***

Hud
Martin Ritt

****

Irma la Douce
Billy Wilder

***1/2

Jason and the Argonauts
Don Chafey

A high water mark in the history of special effects movies. One of the few examples of auteur cinema where the auteur is not the director, whose name no one even remembers. The story of Pelias (Douglas Wilmer) killing his own brother to gain the throne and conning heir Jason (Todd Armstrong) off on a certain death voyage to the end of the earth to capture the golden fleece is adequate, with passable acting. Both aspects are good enough to hold your interest in between the incredible encounters with the monsters of Greek mythology. For the most part the film is the heroes overcoming unique monstrous obstacles, such as an immense bronze Titan, Harpies, and a Hydra. Ray Harryhausen's charming stop motion animation is not as smooth as today's computer crap, but it's so full of life; his creations have character in spades. The actors were filmed on real locations in Italy, so the meld between the effects and the humans is more credible. The unforgettable climactic sword fight between the Argonauts and a skeletal army tops Harryhausen's own highly popular battle between Sinbad and a skeleton in The 7th Voyage of Sinbad. This scene alone, roughly 3 minutes of screen time, took four months just to animate. If Jason is Harryhausen's masterpiece, it's probably because he has another great artist to work with, composer Bernard Herrmann. Herrmann's score does a tremendous job of fleshing out the characters and setting the mood and pace. It's one of the greatest in the fantasy genre, and one of his most underrated. I'm partial to Clash of the Titans because I saw it countless times during the childhood years where I could appreciate its mythological magic most, but Jason does a better job of developing the battle between the wills of men and the gods. [12/11/06] ***1/2

The Leopard
Luchino Visconti

***

Le Petit Soldat
Jean-Luc Godard

***

Muriel
Alain Resnais

****

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The Silence
Ingmar Bergman

***

This Sporting Life
Lindsay Anderson

***1/2

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What's a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This?
Martin Scorsese

***

The Whip and the Body
Mario Bava

***1/2

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