My Top 20 by Year - 1956
Under construction and always in progress.
The Best films from this year (according to IMDb) I've seen (so far).
Out of (only) 169 films 'seen' (ie rated at IMDb).
(Nov 2024)
Notes:
Cinema = cinema (big screen) viewing
TV = TV viewing
PC = download
OL = online viewing
VHS = VHS viewing
Yet to see (among many):
Shokei no heya (Punishment Room, Ichikawa, 1956)
The Man Who Never Was (Neame, 1956)
Shûu (Sudden Rain, Naruse, 1956)
A Town Like Alice (J. Lee, 1956)
To koritsi me ta mavra (A Girl in Black, Cacoyannis, 1956)
Tsuma no kokoro (A Wife's Heart, Naruse, 1956)
Tea and Sympathy (Minnelli, 1956)
Suzaki Paradaisu: Akashingô (Suzaki Paradise Red Light, Kawashima, 1956)
Miyamoto Musashi kanketsuhen: kettô Ganryûjima (Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island, Inagaki, 1956)
Taiyo no kisetsu (Season of the Sun, Furukawa, 1956)
Voici le temps des assassins... (Deadlier Than the Male, Duvivier, 1956)
Yûyake-gumo (Farewell to Dream, Kinoshita, 1956)
Des gens sans importance (People of No Importance, Verneuil, 1956)
23 Paces to Baker Street (Hathaway, 1956)
Fûsen (The Balloon, Kawashima, 1956)
The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (N. Johnson, 1956)
Más allá del olvido (Beyond Oblivion, del Carril, 1956)
The Solid Gold Cadillac (Quine, 1956)
Elokuu (The Harvest Month, Kassila, 1956)
Vidas Sem Rumo (Lives Adrift, Guimarães, 1956)
Kabe atsuki heya (The Thick-Walled Room, Kobayashi, 1956)
Yield to the Night (J. Lee Thompson, 1956)
Secrets of Life (Algar, 1956)
Reach for the Sky (L. Gilbert, 1956)
Ransom! (A. Segal, 1956)
The Fastest Gun Alive (Rouse, 1956)
Come Next Spring (R.G. Springsteen, 1956)
Good-bye, My Lady (Wellman, 1956)
Miracle in the Rain (Maté, 1956)
The Long Arm (Frend, 1956)
The Best films from this year (according to IMDb) I've seen (so far).
Out of (only) 169 films 'seen' (ie rated at IMDb).
(Nov 2024)
Notes:
- Features, shorts, docs and TV movies eligible ("A film is a film is a film.").
- TV mini-series are NOT (unless stated otherwise).
- My humble rates added (for films with the same rate just once or twice though).
- Films with the same rate are ordered arbitrarily. Feel free to re-order them at your will.
- When I saw more than 20 excellent films (9/10 or above in my book) from a certain year I'll try and list them ALL. That would make some lists much longer but all the excellentia deserves to be mentioned.
Cinema = cinema (big screen) viewing
TV = TV viewing
PC = download
OL = online viewing
VHS = VHS viewing
Yet to see (among many):
Shokei no heya (Punishment Room, Ichikawa, 1956)
The Man Who Never Was (Neame, 1956)
Shûu (Sudden Rain, Naruse, 1956)
A Town Like Alice (J. Lee, 1956)
To koritsi me ta mavra (A Girl in Black, Cacoyannis, 1956)
Tsuma no kokoro (A Wife's Heart, Naruse, 1956)
Tea and Sympathy (Minnelli, 1956)
Suzaki Paradaisu: Akashingô (Suzaki Paradise Red Light, Kawashima, 1956)
Miyamoto Musashi kanketsuhen: kettô Ganryûjima (Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island, Inagaki, 1956)
Taiyo no kisetsu (Season of the Sun, Furukawa, 1956)
Voici le temps des assassins... (Deadlier Than the Male, Duvivier, 1956)
Yûyake-gumo (Farewell to Dream, Kinoshita, 1956)
Des gens sans importance (People of No Importance, Verneuil, 1956)
23 Paces to Baker Street (Hathaway, 1956)
Fûsen (The Balloon, Kawashima, 1956)
The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (N. Johnson, 1956)
Más allá del olvido (Beyond Oblivion, del Carril, 1956)
The Solid Gold Cadillac (Quine, 1956)
Elokuu (The Harvest Month, Kassila, 1956)
Vidas Sem Rumo (Lives Adrift, Guimarães, 1956)
Kabe atsuki heya (The Thick-Walled Room, Kobayashi, 1956)
Yield to the Night (J. Lee Thompson, 1956)
Secrets of Life (Algar, 1956)
Reach for the Sky (L. Gilbert, 1956)
Ransom! (A. Segal, 1956)
The Fastest Gun Alive (Rouse, 1956)
Come Next Spring (R.G. Springsteen, 1956)
Good-bye, My Lady (Wellman, 1956)
Miracle in the Rain (Maté, 1956)
The Long Arm (Frend, 1956)
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- 28 titles
- DirectorKon IchikawaStarsRentarô MikuniShôji YasuiTatsuya MihashiA conscience-driven Japanese soldier traumatized by the events of WWII adopts the lifestyle of a Buddhist monk.PC. 10/10.
- DirectorAlain ResnaisStarsMichel BouquetReinhard HeydrichHeinrich HimmlerThe history of Nazi Germany's death camps of the Final Solution and the hellish world of dehumanization and death contained inside.PC. 10/10.
- DirectorSatyajit RayStarsPinaki SenguptaSmaran GhosalKamala AdhikariFollowing his father's death, a boy leaves home to study in Calcutta, while his mother must face a life alone.PC. 9.5/10.
- DirectorZoltán FábriStarsMari TörőcsikImre SoósÁdám SzirtesIn a rural scenery in the throes of difficult changes lives a humble but promising young farmer girl called Mari Pataki. Her father forbids her from seeing the man she loves. The father, above all preoccupied by work on the fields and prospective wealth, decides to give his daughter in marriage to an old but rich man with whom he does business. Land marries land, he says. This seems to be the unyielding rule of the Hungarian peasantry. But the young lover is ready to stand up to any challenge to keep Maris love.PC. 9.5/10.
- DirectorHenri-Georges ClouzotStarsPablo PicassoHenri-Georges ClouzotClaude RenoirA filmed record of Pablo Picasso painting numerous canvases for the camera, allowing us to see his creative process at work.Cinema. 9/10.
- DirectorEvelyn LambartNorman McLarenOn a blue background, a series of numbers (1 to 5) begin to appear, forming simple arithmetic equations that create a pattern. Numbers and symbols move as the pattern grows, to a soundtrack of simple beats.OL.
- DirectorJohn HustonStarsGregory PeckRichard BasehartLeo GennThe sole survivor of a lost whaling ship relates the tale of his captain's self-destructive obsession to hunt the white whale, Moby Dick.TV.
- DirectorVittorio De SicaStarsGabriella PallottaGiorgio ListuzziGastone RenzelliA married couple learns that it is possible to build an illegal house in the outskirts of Rome, as long as it is erected in one single night and has a roof.Cinema.
- DirectorAlbert LamorisseStarsPascal LamorisseSabine LamorisseGeorges SellierA red balloon with a mind of its own follows a little boy around the streets of Paris.TV.
- DirectorChuck JonesStarsPaul JulianWile E. Coyote unsuccessfully chases the Road Runner using such contrivances as a rifle, a steel plate, a dynamite stick on an extending metal pulley, a painting of a collapsed bridge (which the Coyote falls into while Road Runner passes right through), and a jet motor.OL.
- DirectorChuck JonesStarsMel BlancJune ForayDaffy Duck is a detective who is hunting for the Shropshire Slasher.OL.
- DirectorPontus HultenHans NordenströmStarsP.O. UltvedtA humorous short by Pontus Hulten and Hans Nordenström in which anarchy reigns and results in the destruction of a city.OL.
- DirectorJacques-Yves CousteauLouis MalleStarsFrédéric DumasAlbert FalcoJacques-Yves CousteauA documentary about the undersea explorers and how they penetrate into the underwater world.PC.
- DirectorAlain ResnaisStarsJacques DumesnilThis documentary explores the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, its priceless treasures, and how humanity remembers itself.OL. 9/10.
- DirectorZoltán FábriStarsErnö SzabóNoémi AporEmmi ButtykayWhen a Latin teacher publishes an essay on the Carthaginian General Hannibal, he is quickly hailed as a celebrity genius, but in reality has become an unwitting pawn of far-right politicians.OL. 8.5/10.
- DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsChikage AwashimaRyô IkebeTeiji TakahashiA young man and his wife struggle within the confines of their passionless relationship while he has an extramarital romance.OL. 8/10.
- DirectorFred M. WilcoxStarsWalter PidgeonAnne FrancisLeslie NielsenA starship crew in the 23rd century goes to investigate the silence of a distant planet's colony, only to find just two survivors, a powerful robot, and the deadly secret of a lost civilization.TV.
- DirectorRobert BressonStarsFrançois LeterrierCharles Le ClaincheMaurice BeerblockA captured French Resistance fighter during World War II engineers a daunting escape from a German prison in France.Cinema.
- DirectorMikio NaruseStarsKinuyo TanakaIsuzu YamadaHideko TakamineOtsuta is running the geisha house Tsuta in Tokyo. Her business is heavily in debt. Her daughter Katsuyo doesn't see any future in her mothers trade in the late days of Geisha. But Otsuta will not give up. This film portraits the day time life of geisha when not entertaining customers.OL.
- DirectorGrigoriy ChukhrayStarsIzolda IzvitskayaOleg StrizhenovNikolay KryuchkovAn unexpected romance occurs for a female Red Army sniper and a White Army officer.PC.
- DirectorPietro GermiStarsPietro GermiLuisa Della NoceSylva KoscinaThe railroad engineer Andrea Marcocci has been working with his partner and friend Gigi Liverani for thirty years and feels happy and proud of his work, drinking wine after hours with his friends in a bar owned by the former railroad man Ugo. Andrea is married to Sara, and his young son Sandro is very close to him; however, Andrea has issues with his unemployed son Marcello and with his pregnant daughter Giulia, whose boyfriend Renato Borghi was forced to marry her. After a suicide crosses the tracks of his train in a curve, Andrea feels deeply affected by the accident and almost collides with another train. The railroad company investigates the accident and steps Andrea down from his position. The domestic life of Andrea is also affected by his aggressive behavior and Marcello and Giulia leave home. Later Andrea also leaves home and starts to drink until the day Sandro visits him in a bar.TV.
- DirectorJohn FordStarsJohn WayneJeffrey HunterVera MilesAn American Civil War veteran embarks on a years-long journey to rescue his niece from the Comanches after the rest of his brother's family is massacred in a raid on their Texas farm.TV.
- DirectorKenji MizoguchiStarsMachiko KyôAiko MimasuAyako WakaoThe personal tales of various prostitutes who occupy a brothel.OL.
- DirectorBranko GapoStarsDimce HristovskiPanta NikolicOL.
