Luc Moullet 10 best films 1957-1968

Film critic and director Luc Moullet was first published by Cahiers du Cinema in April 1956 when he was still only 18 years old. The on-line archives at the magazines
site (which still does not include some special issues from the early years) lists 194 contributions by through 2006. These are his 10 best films lists from 1957 through 1968.

1957
1.....Bigger Than Life (Nicholas Ray)
2.....Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (Fritz Lang)
3.....The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz (Luis Bunuel)
4.....The Wrong Man (Alfred Hitchcock)
5.....Bitter Victory (Nicholas Ray)
6.....An Affair to Remember (Leo McCarey)
7.....A King in New York (Charles Chaplin)
8.....Hot Blood (Nicholas Ray)
9.....Written on the Wind (Douglas Sirk)
10...The Crucified Lovers (Kenji Mizoguchi)

1958
1.....Touch of Evil (Orson Welles)
2.....Dreams (Ingmar Bergman)
3.....Jet Pilot (Josef von Sternberg)
4.....Bonjour Tristesse (Otto Preminger)
5.....Une Vie (Alexander Astruc)
6.....The Quiet American (Joseph L Mankiewicz)
7.....Man of the West (Anthony Mann)
8.....Les Girls (George Cukor)
9.....Paris Holiday (Gerd Oswald)
10...The Seventh Seal (Ingmar Bergman)

1959
1.....Tales of Ugetsu (Kenji Mizoguchi)
2.....Run of the Arrow (Samuel Fuller)
3.....Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks)
4.....The 400 Blows (François Truffaut)
5.....Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock)
6.....Anatomy of a Murder (Otto Preminger)
7.....Hiroshima, Mon Amour (Alain Resnais)
8.....Dejeuner sur la Herbe (Jean Renoir)
9.....Wild Strawberries (Ingmar Berman)
10...Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys (Leo McCarey)

1960
1.....Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard)
2.....Les Bonnes Femmes (Claude Chabrol)
......Moonfleet (Fritz Lang)
4.....Verboten! (Samuel Fuller)
......Nazarin (Luis Bunuel)
6.....Shoot the Piano Player (François Truffaut)
......Les Régates de San Francisco (Claude Autant-Lara)
8.....Plein Soleil (René Clément)
......Les Frangines (Jean Gourguet)
10...Crésus (Jean Giono)

1961
1.....Lola (Jacques Demy)
2.....Elmer Gantry (Richard Brooks)
3.....The Young One (Luis Bunuel)
4.....Pickup on South Street (Samuel Fuller)
5.....A Woman Is a Woman (Jean-Luc Godard)
......Un Taxi pour Tobruk (Denys de La Patellière)
7.....Taira Clan Saga (Kenji Mizoguchi)
......La Tricheuse (E G de Meyst)
9.....Where is Freedom? (Roberto Rossellini)
......Dans la gueule du loup (Jean-Charles Dudrumet)

1962
1.....Adorable menteuse (Michel Deville)
2.....Girl With a Suitcase (Valerio Zurlini)
3.....Les Honneurs de la guerre (Jean Dewever)
4.....Hercules and the Conquest of Atlantis (Vittorio Cottafavi)
5.....Vivre Sa Vie (Jean-Luc Godard)
6.....Wild River (Elia Kazan)
7.....The Flaming Years (Alexander Dovzhenko/Yuliya Solntseva)
8.....Le Signe du Lion (Eric Rohmer)
9.....Cleo from 5 to 7 (Agnes Varda)
10...L'Éducation sentimentale (Alexander Astruc)

1963
1.....The Exterminating Angel (Luis Bunuel)
2.....Contempt (Jean-Luc Godard)
3.....Les Carabiniers (Jean-Luc Godard)
4.....Adieu Philippine (Jacques Rozier)
5.....Bandits of Orgosolo (Vittorio De Seta)
6.....Le Petit soldat (Jean-Luc Godard)
7.....Family Diary (Valerio Zurlini)
8.....The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock)
9.....Irma la Douce (Billy Wilder)
10...Muriel (Alain Resnais)

1964
Canada..........Pour la suite du monde (Michel Brault/Marcel Carrièr)
Denmark........Gertrud (Carl Theodor Dreyer)
France..........La Punition (Jean Rouch)
Great Britain...A Hard Day's Night (Richard Lester)
Italy.............I Fidanzati (Ermanno Olmi)
Japan...........The Hidden Fortress (Akira Kurosawa)
Poland..........The Passneger (Andrejz Munk)
Sweden........All These Women (Ingmar Bergman)
Switzerland...Band à part (Jean-Luc Godard)
USA.............Man's Favorite Sport? (Howard Hawks)

1965
1.....Shock Corridor (Samuel Fuller)
2.....Pierrot le Fou ( Jean-Luc Godard)
3.....The Brig (Jonas Mekas)
4.....L'Amour a la Chaine (Claude de Givray)
5.....The Ipcress File (Sidney J Furie)
6.....Mondo Cane 2 (Gualtieri Jacopetti/Franco Prosperi)
7.....Alphaville (Jean-Luc Godard)
8.....Black Peter (Milos Forman)
9.....L'Enfer dans la peau (José Bénazéraf)
10....Lord Jim (Richard Brooks)

1966
1.....Walkover(Jerzy Skolimowski)
2.....Don Quintin the Bitter (Luis Marquina) see note below
3.....Au hasard, Balthazar (Robert Bresson)
4.....The Man Who Had His Hair Cut Short (Andre Delvaux)
5.....Les Sans espoir (Miklós Jancsó)
6.....Seven Women (John Ford)
7.....The Rise of Louis XIV (Roberto Rossellini)
8.....Age of Illusions (István Szabó)
......Brigitte et Brigette (Luc Moullet)
......Fist in His Pocket (Mario Bellocchio)

1967
1.....Le Départ (Jerzy Skolimowski)
2.....Week End (Jean-Luc Godard)
3.....Stranded (Julien Compton)
4.....Two or Three Things I Know About Her (Jean-Luc Godard)
5.....Persona (Ingmar Bergman)
6.....Blow Up (Michelangelo Antonioni)
7.....Two for the Road (Stanley Donen)
8.....Man Is Not a Bird (Dusan Makavejev)
9.....Playtime (Jacques Tati)
10...What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? (Blake Edwards)

1968
1.....Les Idoles (Marc'o)
2.....Commanche Station(Budd Boetticher)
3.....The Times That Are (Pierre Perrault)
4.....Pop' Game (Francis Leroi)
5.....Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn)
6.....Les Encerclés(Christian Gion)
7.....The Bride Wore Black (François Truffaut))
8.....Love for an Idiot (Yasuzo Masamura)
9.....Diabolik (Mario Bava)

American Films of the Sound Era (Dec63/Jan64 issue)
1.....The River (Jean Renoir)
2.....Rebel without a Cause (Nicholas Ray)
3.....Scarface (Howard Hawks)
4.....Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock)
5.....You Only Live Once (Fritz Lang)
6.....Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks)
7.....Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock)
8.....The Fountainhead (King Vidor)
9.....While the City Sleeps (Fritz Lang)
10...The Diary of a Chambermaid (Jean Renoir)

French Films since the Liberation (Jan 65)
1.....Contempt (Jean-Luc Godard)
2.....Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne (Robert Bresson)
3.....Pickpocket (Robert Bresson)
4.....Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard)
5.....Les Honneurs de la guerre (Jean Dewever)
6.....Adorable Menteuse (Michel Deville)
7.....Lola (Jacques Demy)
8.....La Ligne de mire(Jean-Daniel Pollet)
9.....Les Carabiniers (Jean-Luc Godard)
10...Les Bonnes Femmes (Claude Chabrol)



A reader posted this comment on one of my other blogs
Sorry to intrude here on this already old post, but I don't see on "My Gleamings" any way to comment nor your e-mail. It is only that I don't think Luc Moullet voted in 1968 Luis Marquina's "Don Quintín el amargao" (supervised and produced by Buñuel in 1935), but rather (in fact, I'm quite sure, since several of Buñuel's Mexican films were re-released or belatedly released) Buñuel's Mexican remake of that same old Spanish play, "La Hija del Engaño" (aka "Don Quintín el amargado", which was used for the French translation of the title), made in 1951 and much better than the 1935 version.
Best,
Miguel María

This short excerpt is translated from Jean Aurenche's memoirs La Suite à l'écran. (pages 157-158, my translation)
When they accuse us of having adapted too often, it should be understood that we were acquiescing to the desires of the directors. It should also be placed in context of the epoque. Few producers would consent to financing an original screenplay. It takes a great deal of time to write an original screenplay. It's rather like a novel. And it's risky. We wrote a certain number which waited years before being produced. Tu ne tueras point, for example. Others were rejected. Thus, Tavernier found among [Pierre] Bost's papers (me, I kept nothing) a treatment which we had written in 1950 for Paul Graetz, who wanted to offer if to [David] Selznick. At this time. I still read my manuscripts out loud for I had no confidence in the producers. After a dinner washed down with Burgundy, I began to read, but, at the end of two minutes, I became aware that Selznick was snoring. He slept, totally knocked out in his easy chair. Graetz said to me "If you stop, he will become annoyed", so I read a few pages. He was still snoring. It was an incredible scene. I had had enough, he was making so much noise that I stopped. After twenty minutes, he woke up. I then asked him to walk around while I was reading the text. He looked at me as though I were mad and as a result it was never read to him. No more than Graetz. Tavernier discovered the text and had me rework it. It became The Judge and the Assassin.

from Arts April 29 - May 5 1959 as reprinted in The 400 Blows; a film by François Truffaut from a filmscript by François Truffaut and Michel Moussy. Edited by David Denby; Publisher Grove Hall (1969) page 225 (Helen R Lane is credited with the translation.)

Truffaut: I see only one common point among young filmmakers; all of them quite systematically play the pinball machine, unlike the old directors who prefer cards and whisky. This is not a paradox, because aside from this game, what I notice mostly is that there are essential differences between us. We know each other, of course, we like the same movies, we exchange ideas in a friendly way, but when the results of our work are judged on the screen, it is noticeable that Chabrol's films have nothing to do with Louis Malle's, which have nothing to do with mine.