Top 10 Films of 1963

1. "8 1/2" (Federico Fellini, Italy)

2. ''The Silence'' (Ingmar Bergman, Sweden)

3. ''Pasazerka'' (Andrzej Munk, Poland)

4. "High And Low" (Akira Kurosawa, Japan)

5. "Winter Light" (Ingmar Bergman, Sweden)

6. "Tom Jones" (Tony Richardson, UK)

7. "The Sun In A Net" (Stefan Uher, Czechoslovakia)

8. "Jak byc kochana" (Wojciech Has, Poland)

9. "The Great Escape" (John Sturges, USA)

10. ''Young Aphrodites'' (Nikos Koundouros, Greece)

Other great films:

50,000 B.C. Before Clothing
A tout prendre (Canada)

Barren Lives (Brazil)
Beach Party
The Birds
Bye Bye Birdie
Les Carabiniers (France)
La Carrière de Suzanne (France)
Charade

Cleopatra

Czarne skrzydla (Poland)

Europe In The Raw

The Executioner (Spain)

Flower On The Stone (Soviet Union)

From Russia With Love

Fun In Acapulco

Goldilocks And The Three Bares
L'Homme de Rio (France)
Irma la Douce
It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
Jason And The Argonauts
King Kong Vs Godzilla (Japan)

The Leopard (Italy)

Lord Of The Flies (UK)
Man's Favorite Sport ?

Le Mépris (France)

Mondo Cane (Italy)
Muriel (France)
Naked Among Wolves (East Germany)
The Nutty Professor

Le Petit soldat (France)

Pour la suite du monde (Canada)

Promises, Promises

Przygoda noworoczna (Poland)

The Sadist

Santo en el museo de cera (Mexico)

Scum Of The Earth
Shock Corridor
The Sword In The Stone

Violent Midnight
What (Italy)

Short Top 3:

1. "To Parsifal" (Bruce Baillie, USA)

2. "Koncert" (Istvan Szabo, Hungary)

3. "La Riviere du hibou" (Robert Enrico, France)

Other great shorts:

Christmas On Earth

The Home-Made Car (UK)
Joseph Kilian (Czechoslovakia)
Mothlight

Top Commercial:

"The Snow Plow" (Volkswagen)

TV Top 3:

1. "The Twilight Zone: Nightmare At 20 000 Feet" (Richard Donner, CBS)

2. "Doctor Who: The Mutants" (Richard Martin, Christopher Barry, BBC)

3. "The Bullwinkle Show: Moonsylvania Saved" (Jay Ward, NBC)

Other great TV shows:

Doctor Who: The Unearthly Child (UK)

Cartoon Top 10:

1. "Labirynt" (Jan Lenica, Poland)

2. "I Was a Teenage Thumb" (Chuck Jones, Maurice Noble, Warner)

3. "The Critic" (Ernest Pintoff, USA)

4. "Woolen Under Where" (Phil Monroe, Richard Thompson, Warner)

5. "To Beep Or Not To Beep" (Chuck Jones, Maurice Noble, Warner)

6. "The Play" (Dusan Vukotic, Yugoslavia)

7. "My Financial Career" (Gerald Potterton, NFB)

8. "Hare-Breadth Hurry" (Chuck Jones, Maurice Noble, Warner)

9. "Two Castles" (Bruno Bozzetto, Italy)

10. "The Unmentionables" (Friz Freleng, Warner)

Other great cartoons:

Banty Raids
The Million Hare
Transylvania 6-5000

Weak films of 1963:

America America
The Cardinal
A Gathering Of Eagles
The Great Chase
Hud
The Molesters (Switzerland)

RoGoPaG (Italy)
The Small Witch (Egypt)

Something Different (Czechoslovakia)

This Sporting Life (UK)
The VIPs
Zbrodniarz i panna (Poland)

Weak shorts:

The Five Cities Of June
La Maleta (Chile)

Weak cartoons:

Aqua Duck
Automania 2000
Chili Weather
Claws In The Lease
Coy Decoy
Devil's Feud Cake
Fast Buck Duck
Mad As A Mars Hare
Mexican Cat Dance
Penthouse Mouse
Pianissimo
Stowaway Woody

Top 3 Musicals of 1963

1. "Bye Bye Birdie" (George Sidney, Columbia)

2. "Fun In Acapulco" (Richard Thorpe, Paramount)

3. "Beach Party" (William Asher, AIP)

The Silence (1963) *****

Ingmar Bergman's greatest film, and that's saying a lot. Set in a strange, vaguely totalitarian country (which might or might not be Stalinist Soviet Union), it's a story of two foreign women travelling with a little boy. Unbelievably complex, totally mesmerizing and wonderfully ambiguous.

Pasazerka (1963) *****

A battle of wills between two women: a Nazi guard and a Polish prisoner. Powerful, unforgettable drama, directed by Andrzej Munk, set in the Auschwitz concentration camp. The director died before completing his movie. As result, the framing story, in which both women meet after the war aboard an ocean liner, consists only of still photographs.

8 1/2 (1963) *****

Federico Fellini's most flamboyant and visually impressive film.

High And Low (1963) *****

One of Akira Kurosawa's best films, starring Toshiro Mifune as a rich businessman who pays a ransom to free his servant's son.

The Sun In A Net (1963) ****

Le Mépris (1963) ****

From Russia With Love (1963) ****

Young Aphrodites (1963) ****

A classic of Greek cinema.

Winter Light (1963) ****

One of Ingmar Bergman's most austere films (and that's saying a lot).

Flower On The Stone (1963) ***

Directed by Sergei Parajanov.

Tom Jones (1963) ****

Excellent historical drama, set in 18th century England.

Jak byc kochana (1963) ****

Profound Polish drama, set during the German occupation, about a young woman sheltering a man hiding from the Nazis.

Naked Among Wolves (1963) ***

East German drama set in Buchenwald at the end of the war.

Fun In Acapulco (1963) ***

Elvis Presley sings (and swims) in Acapulco.

The Executioner (1963) ***