Top 10 Films of 1959

1. "Some Like It Hot" (Billy Wilder, USA) 

2. "Rio Bravo" (Howard Hawks, USA)

3. "North By Northwest" (Alfred Hitchcock, USA)

4. "Anatomy Of A Murder" (Otto Preminger, USA)

5. "Ballad Of A Soldier" (Grigori Chukhrai, Soviet Union)

6. "Les Quatre-cent coups" (François Truffaut, France)

7. "Nazarin" (Luis Bunuel, Mexico)

8. "Destiny Of A Man" (Sergei Bondarchuk, Soviet Union)

9. "Pociag" (Jerzy Kawalerowicz, Poland)

10. "Black Orpheus" (Marcel Camus, Brazil)


Other great films:

Baza ludzi umarlych (Poland)
Ben Hur
The Bridge (Germany)
Les Cousins (France)

Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe (France)

The Five Pennies
Floating Weeds (Japan)
General della Rovere (Italy)

The Head (Germany)
Hiroshima, Mon Amour (France)
Imitation Of Life 

The Immoral Mr Teas

Journey To The Center Of The Earth
Li'l Abner
Lotna (Poland)
The Nun's Story
Odd Obsession (Japan)
Ohayo (Japan)
Pickpocket (France)
Pillow Talk
Porgy And Bess
Room At The Top (UK)
Sleeping Beauty

Soft Skin On Black Silk (France)

Suddenly, Last Summer

Virgin Sacrifice

Voulez-vous danser avec moi ? (France)

The Wayward Girl (Norway)

The World Of Apu (India)

Short Top 3:

1. "Charlotte et Véronique, ou Tous les garçons s'appellent Patrick" (Jean-Luc Godard, France)

2. "Portret mezczyzny z medalem" (Witold Leszczynski, Poland)

3. "Window Water Baby Moving" (Stan Brakhage, USA)

Other great shorts:

Mysteries Of The Deep
Polska kronika filmowa 52 (Poland)

The Running Jumping And Standing Still Film (UK)

Skyscraper

Uncle (Czechoslovakia)

Veronique et son cancre (France)

Wedlock House: An Intercourse

Top Commercial:

"Man And His Best Friend" (Ken-L Ration)

Top TV:

"The Twilight Zone: Time Enough At Last" (John Brahm, CBS)

Cartoon Top 10

1. "Noah's Ark" (Bill Justice, Disney)

2. "Mexicali Shmoes" (Friz Freleng, Warner)

3. "Really Scent" (Abe Levitow, Warner)

4. "Donald In Mathmagic Land" (Hamilton Luske, Disney)

5. "Short And Suite" (Norman McLaren, NFB, Canada)

6. "The Violonist" (Ernest Pintoff, USA)

7. "The Mouse That Jack Built" (Robert McKimson, Warner)

8. "Wild And Woolly Hare" (Friz Freleng, Warner)

9. "Trick Or Tweet" (Friz Freleng, Warner)

10. "Woodpecker In The Moon" (Alex Lovy, Universal)

Other great cartoons:

Apes Of Wrath
Baton Bunny
China Jones
Hot Rod And Reel

Kiddie League

Magoo's Homecoming
Mouse-Placed Kitten
People Are Bunny
Picnics Are Fun And Dino's Serenade
Tweet And Lovely
Wild About Hurry

Weak films of 1959:

The Diary Of Anne Frank
Inspekcja pana Anatola (Poland)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (Czechoslovakia)
The Shaggy Dog
Teenage Zombies

Weak shorts:

The Very Eye Of Night

Weak cartoons:

Backwoods Bunny
Bonanza Bunny
A Broken Leghorn
Bwana Magoo
Cat's Paw
The Fabulous Firework Family
Foofle's Train Ride
Hare-abian Nights
Here Today Gone Tamale
Hide And Go Sidney
How To Have An Accident At Work
Log Jammed
Moonbird
A Mutt in The Rut
Terror Faces Magoo
Truant Student
Tweet Dreams
Unnatural History
Witch's Tangled Hare

Top 3 Musicals of 1959

1. "Li'l Abner" (Melvin Frank, Paramount)

2. "The Five Pennies" (Melville Shavelson, Paramount)

3. "Porgy And Bess" (Otto Preminger, Columbia)

Destiny Of A Man (1959) ****

Ballad Of A Soldier (1959) ****

A heroic soldier on leave travels across war-torn Russia, falls in love, visits his mother and returns to the front. Deeply touching, superbly well-made film.

Porgy And Bess (1959) ***

Songs include:

"Summertime"  *
"A Woman Is A Sometime Thing"   *
"Honey Man's Call"  *
"Gone Gone Gone"  *
"I Got Plenty Of Nuttin'"  **
"Bess You Is My Woman"  *
"Oh I Can't Sit Down"  **
"I Ain't Got No Shame"
"It Ain't Necessarily So"  ***
"What You Wan' Wid Bess"  *
"I'M On My Way"  *
"Time And Time Again"
"Crab Man's Call"
"A Reed-Headed Woman"  *
"Dere's A Boat Dat's Leaving Soon For New York"  *
"Bess Oh Where's My Bess"  *
"I'M On My Way" (reprise)  *

Soft Skin On Black Silk (1959) ***

Baza ludzi umarlych (1959) ***

Excellent allegory about Communism, presented as hell on earth, from which everybody wants to escape.

Voulez-vous danser avec moi ? (1959) ***

Virgin Sacrifice (1959) ***

The Head (1959) ***

The Immoral Mr Teas (1959) ***

The Five Pennies (1959) ***

Songs include:

"Bill Bailey Won't You Please Come Home"  **
"Battle Rhythm Of The Republic"  **
"Indiana"  *
"Follow The Leader"  **
"Lullaby In Ragtime"  **
"The Music Goes 'Round And Around"  **
"The Five Pennies"  *
"Good Night Sleep Tight"  *
"When The Saints Go Marching On"  **
"The Five Pennies"  (reprise)  *

Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe (1959) ***

The Wayward Girl (1959) ***

Teenage Zombies (1959) **

Four young people find themselves prisoners on a remote island inhabited by zombies.

Inspekcja pana Anatola (1959) *

Charlotte et Véronique, ou Tous les garçons s'appellent Patrick (1959) *****

Written by Eric Rohmer and directed by Jean-Luc Godard, it's a short film about flirting, loving and double-timing in Paris. A perfect little gem - clever, unpretentious and superbly well acted. Veronique and Charlotte are roommates and best friends. One day, they are both picked up by the same young playboy and later they talk about him at length, not realizing they've fallen in love with the same guy.

Portret mezczyzny z medalem (1959) *****

Window Water Baby Moving (1959) *****

Skyscraper (1959) ****

A brilliant and innovative documentary short about the construction of the Tishman building in New York.

Wedlock House: An Intercourse (1959) ****

Veronique et son cancre (1959) ****

Amusing short film directed by Eric Rohmer.

The Running Jumping And Standing Still Film (1959) ****

Polska kronika filmowa 52 (1959) ***

A parody of a newsreel, directed by Andrzej Munk.

Uncle (1959) ***

Mysteries Of The Deep (1959) ***

Wonderful nature documentary about sea creatures.

The Very Eye Of Night (1959) *

Dancers superimposed upon a starry sky. Directed by Maya Deren.

Some Like It Hot (1959) *****

One of the greatest of all Hollywood comedies, a screamingly funny farce about two male musicians trying to hide from the mob by disguising themselves as women. A timeless classic.

Rio Bravo (1959) ****

Sexy Angie Dickinson spices up this otherwise testosterone-heavy western starring John Wayne as a beleagured sheriff in a lawless town. This film was Howard Hawks's response to Fred Zinnemann's "High Noon", with an identical premise, but diammetrically opposite ideological point-of-view. While "High Noon" was a leftist cry in the wilderness bemoaning the lack of solidarity among human beings, ''Rio Bravo" is a right-wing alegory about experienced professionals doing their jobs without caring about anything else. In fact, both film could be seen as allegories about George W. Bush's presidency: "High Noon" about his unsuccessful diplomatic efforts to built an anti-Saddam coalition, and "Rio Bravo" about the efforts of his tiny "coalition of the willing" in Iraq.

Anatomy Of A Murder (1959) ****

Excellent courtroom drama, starring James Stewart and Lee Remick.

North By Northwest (1959) ****

Classic Hitchcock. Terrific chases, non-stop suspense, great dialogue, tense drama.