Jean Douchet 10 Best Films Cahiers du Cinema 1958-1968

Jean Douchet was in the last couple of years of the 1950s and the first years of the 1960s one of the most prolific contributors to Cahiers du Cinema. Also, towards the end of Eric Rohmer's term as editor and at the beginning of Jacques Rivette's term as editor, he, along with both Rohmer and Rivette comprised a triumvirate which were Cahiers regular nominees to its monthly conseil des dix. In 1999, he was the author of the coffee table book Nouvelle Vague (French New Wave) in collaboration with Cédric Anger. That being said it should be noted that in the first two years of the "young cinema", Douchet cited no film from the New Wave in his best film lists. It was not until 1961 when he placed Jacquse Demy's Lola at number 10, that he cited any film from that movement. a fact which is made even more unusual when one considers that Douchet is one of only three people to appear in the cast of both The Four Hundred Blows and Breathless. He was Antoine's mother's lover in the former and "a journalist" in the latter. The future director Philippe de Broca and Claude Mansard are the other two who appeared in both films.

1958
1.....Bonjour Tristesse (Otto Preminger)
2.....White Nights (Luchino Visconti)
.......Touch of Evil (Orson Welles)
4.....Dreams (Ingmar Bergman)
.......Une Vie (Alexander Astruc)
6.....Les Girls (George Cukor)
7.....Summer Interlude (Ingmar Bergman)
8.....Wild is the Wind (George Cukor)
9.....Il Grido (Michelangelo Antonioni)
10...The Adventures of Hajji Baba (Don Weis)

1959
1.....The Tiger of Eschnapur (Fritz Lang)
2.....Empress Yank Kwei Fei (Kenji Mizoguchi)
3.....Wind Across the Everglades (Nicholas Ray)
4.....Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks)
5.....Anatomy of a Murder (Otto Preminger)
.......General Della Rovere (Roberto Rossellini)
.......Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock)
8.....The Reluctant Debutant (Vincente Minnelli)
9.....Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys (Leo McCarey)
10...Tales of Ugetsu (Kenji Mizoguchi)

1960
1.....Sansho the Bailiff (Kenji Mizoguchi)
2.....Moonfleet (Fritz Lang)
3.....The Savage Innocents (Nicholas Ray)
.......Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock)
.......Time without Pity (Joseph Losey)
6.....Heller in Pink Tights (George Cukor)
.......Bells are Ringing (Vincente Minnelli)
.......Suddenly, Last Summer (Joseph L Mankiewicz)
9.....Verboten! (Samuel Fuller)
10...Le Trou (Jacques Becker)

1961
1.....Taira Clan Saga (Kenji Mizoguchi)
2.....Diabolical Dr. Mabuse (Fritz Lang)
3.....Exodus (Otto Preminger)
4.....The Testament of Doctor Cordelier (Jean Renoir)
5.....The Horse That Cried (Mark Donskoy)
6.....Home from the Hill (Vincente Minelli)
.......Esther and the King (Raoul Walsh/Mario Bava)
.......Escape by Night (Roberto Rossellini)
9.....Blind Date (Joseph Losey)
10...Lola (Jacques Demy)

1962
1.....The Elusive Corporal (Jean Renoir)
.......Advise and Consent (Otto Preminger)
3.....The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Vincente Minnelli)
.......Vanina Vanini (Roberto Rossellini)
5.....Hatari (Howard Hawks)
6.....Merrill's Marauders (Samuel Fuller)
7.....L'Education sentimentale (Alexander Astruc)
.......Vivre sa vie (Jean-Luc Godard)
9.....Boccaccio '70 (Luchino Visconti sketch)
10...Le Signe du lion (Eric Rohmer)

1963
1.....The Cardinal (Otto Preminger)
.......Contempt (Jean-Luc Godard)
.......The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock)
4.....Cleopatra (Joseph L Mankiewicz)
.......The Nutty Professor (Jerry Lewis)
.......Two Weeks in Another Town (Vincente Minnelli)
7.....The Chapman Report (George Cukor)
.......Donovan's Reef (John Ford)
9.....The Trial of Joan of Arc (Robert Bresson)
10...Cronaca familiare (Valerio Zurlini)

1964
1.....Gertrud (Carl Theodore Dreyer)
2.....Marnie (Alfred Hitchcock)
.......Man's Favorite Sport? (Howard Hawks)
.......A Distant Trumpet (Raoul Walsh)
.......Wagonmaster (John Ford)
6.....Bande a part (Jean-Luc Godard)
.......Gordeyev Family (Mark Donskoy)
.......The Patsy (Jerry Lewis)
9.....America, America (Elia Kazan)
.......The Servant (Joseph Losey)

1965
1.....The Sandpiper (Vincente Minnelli)
2.....In Harm's Way (Otto Preminger)
.......The Family Jewels (Jerry Lewis)
4.....Goodbye Charlie (Vincente Minnelli)
5.....Young Cassidy (Jack Cardiff/John Ford)
.......Vaghe stelle dell'Orsa... (Luchino Visconti)
7.....Kiss Me, Stupid (Billy Wilder)
8.....Juliet of the Spirits (Federico Fellini)
.......Marie Chantal contre le docteur Kha (Claude Chabrol)
.......Pierrot le fou (Jean-Luc Godard)

1966
1.....7 Women (John Ford)
2.....Red Line 7000 (Howard Hawks)
3.....The Courtship of Eddie's Father (Vincente Minnelli)
.......Torn Curtain (Alfred Hitchcock)
.......Three on a Couch (Jerry Lewis)
6......Bunny Lake Is Missing (Otto Preminger)
.......La Longue marche (Alexander Astruc)
.......The Rise of Louis XIV (Roberto Rossellini)
9......La Guerre est finie (Alain Resnais)
........Walkover (Jerzy Skolomowski)

1967
1.....Belle du jour (Luis Bunuel)
.......The Big Mouth (Jerry Lewis)
.......The Countess from Hong Kong (Charlie Chaplin)
.......El Dorado (Howard Hawks)
5.....La Collectioneuse (Eric Rohmer)
.......The Fortune Cookie (Billy Wilder)
.......Le Samouri (Jean-Pierre Melville)
.......The Strawberry Blonde (Raoul Walsh)
.......I Walked with a Zombie (Jacques Tourneur)
.......Week End (Jean-Luc Godard)

1968 (alphabetical in French)
Stolen Kisses (François Truffaut)
Les Biches (Claude Chabrol)
The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach (Jean-Marie Straub)
The Edge (Robert Kramer)
2001 A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick)
Il ne faut pas mourir pour ça (Jean-Pierre Lefebvre)
Reflections in a Golden Eye (John Huston)
Rosemary's Baby (Roman Polanski)


Best American Films of the Sound Era (from the Dec63/Jan64 special issue on American cinema)
1.....While the City Sleeps (Fritz Lang)
2.....Exodus (Otto Preminger)
.......The Naked and the Dead (Raoul Walsh)
.......North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock)
.......Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks)
6.....Bells Are Ringing (Vincente Minnelli)
.......Cluny Brown (Ernst Lubitsch)
.......Suddenly, Last Summer (Joseph L Mankiewicz)
9.....Wind Across the Everglades (Nicholas Ray)
10...Samson and Delilah (Cecil B DeMille)

Best French Films since the Liberation (Jan65 special issue on French cinema)
1.....Le Caporal épinglé (Jean Renoir)
.......Le Testament du Docteur Cordelier (Jean Renoir)
.......French Cancan (Jean Renoir)
4.....La Poison (Sacha Guitry)
5.....L'Education sentimentale (Alexander Astruc)
.......Contempt (Jean-Luc Godard)
.......The Trial of Joan of Arc (Robert Bresson)
8.....Les Bonnes femmes (Claude Chabrol)
.......Le Signe du lion (Eric Rohmer)
.......Le Trou (Jacques Becker)