The Muriels Unchained
By Craig Kennedy - February 13th, 2008; 8:03 am
The time for hype is over. The time for The Muriels is now. One new award will be announced every day beginning today and continuing through February 29th. First up is the 50th Anniversary Best Film Award given to the voters’ choice for the best film of 1957. My pick: Federico Fellini’s Nights of Cabiria. The Winner: Click here.
Filed under: Analysis
Yay! It started!
And what a worthy winner. :-)
Whoa, 1957 is even more impressive a year than I sort of “knew” it was.
Still have to see Kanal, darn it. I’ve seen a solid chunk of Wajda but there’s still a great deal of his filmography I have to discover.
What a year 1957 was.
And as Alison says, a worthy winner. That would have been my choice as well. I’m a little surprised because it seems like The Seventh Seal’s reputation has taken some hits in recent years. Perhaps Bergman’s death this past summer is bringing it, along with others by him, back “up,” so to speak.
Seeing The Seventh Seal just about exactly a year ago at the Castro, it’s a very different experience. I’m continually haunted by that film. It’s screened at my home just about every four or six months or so.
Nights of Cabiria is a fine film, Fellini’s last stab at neo-realism before he moved on for good.
Bergman kind of rules the roost for that year, though. Not one but *TWO* timeless masterpieces in one year. You’ve got to give Ingmar the edge with that.
My pick would have been Bergman’s “Wild Strawberries.”
Wild Strawberries is fantastic, and I would be fine with that as well.
Was this 50-year ex post facto award around last year? I was perusing the website, looking at last year’s winners, and there didn’t appear to be a category for this last year.
‘56… The Searchers. The Killing. Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Giant. Seven Men from Now. A Man Escaped. Fear. Bus Stop. Slightly Scarlet. Bhowani Junction. The Saga of Anatahan. Paris Does Strange Things (not really among my favorite Renoirs). The Man Who Knew Too Much (not among my favorite Hitchcocks).
Good to see Brick received considerable love last year. Just saw that again a week ago. Love that film.
Last year would have had a very nice lineup for the 50-year ex post facto award. “The Man Who Knew Too Much” is actually a remake of his own film and it’s not my favorite either. In fact, I don’t even particularly like it. “Vertigo”, “Rear Window” and “Rope” were much better Jimmy Stewart/Hitchcock collaborations in my opinion.
I’ve got to agree, Alison. I like the original much better. It’s only 76 minutes and flies by.
The ‘56 version is, frankly, the corniest movie Hitch ever made. Doris Day doesn’t help. And it has some of the worst rear-screen projection work I’ve ever seen… And it’s really underpaced.
Vertigo and Rear Window, for ’50s Hitchcock films and particularly Hitchcock-Stewart collaborations of that decade, kind of wipe the floor with it. But they’re masterpieces and classics so it’s no surprise.
Rope gets better and better every time I see it. I almost can’t believe I dismissed it years ago as minor Hitchcock after seeing it the first time.
Super busy today so I won’t be around to chat a ton until later.
The 50th Anniversary Award is a new wrinkle for this year.
Great choice of winner for the 1957 Muriel. Like the others, I’m mighty impressed by the list of runner-ups. Craig, Nights of Cabiria is probably my favorite Fellini.
it’s hard to argue with Seventh Seal, but yeah Nights of Cabiria is probably my favorite Fellini so it got the honor from me.
Wild Strawberries is also good. I also voted for Paths of Glory and Throne of Blood.
Tomorrow I believe will be another anniversary pick.
Nights of Cabiria? Really? I saw it recently and thought it was sturdy enough, but it didn’t wow me the way his other films do. Why is it your favorite?
I’m an 8 1/2 gal myself; the blocked writer/director is me to a tee: “You are free, but you must choose. You don’t have much time and you have to hurry.” I tell myself that all the time.
This is great. It would actually be cool to see an every-decade anniversary (‘67, ‘77, etc.), though I guess in future Muriels you would just end up picking the best film from every year ever. THAT’s a project.
Good gravy, in fifty years can 2007’s memorable movies even compare with 1957 or 1958? Amazing. Throne of Blood, Paths of Glory…man, those aren’t even in the top three!
Talk about a vintage year.
I don’t know what it is about Cabiria, Jennybee. Partly I fell in love with Giulietta Masina for the first time in it, and also it was the first Fellini I saw that I hadn’t heard tons about. It felt like my own little discovery whereas I’d had 8 1/2 and La Strada and La Dolce Vida sort of spoon fed to me.
Craig, it’s the same with me re: Nights of Cabiria. It was a very pleasant, unexpected surprise.
I also like it better than Seventh Seal, which I think is fairly overrated – it’s not even Bergman’s best movie from that year, I prefer Wild Strawberries. But my overall favorite 1957 movie is Bridge on the River Kwai, followed by Paths of Glory.
Three other great movies that nobody’s mentioned yet: Sam Fuller’s ridiculous, grand Forty Guns; Jacques Tourneur’s Curse of the Demon, one of the absolute best horror movies ever made; and Billy Wilder’s Witness for the Prosecution.
Thanks for the reminder on those three films, Jeff. Curse of the Demon and Witness for the Prosecution in particular are two of my absolute favorite films.
Forty Guns is almost up there, too. Stanwyck is glorious. Fuller’s got too many to choose from, though.
Alexander, I’ll watch pretty much anything with Barbara Stanwyck. :-)
And “Witness for the Prosecution” is excellent.
I *will* watch anything with Stanwyck, Alison. :-)
Witness for the Prosecution needs no introduction. If only the last three Shyamalan films had, all put together, had had 1/8th as successful final act twists as that film has. Yuck, yuck. ;-)
Marlena was stunning as always in “Witness for the Prosecution”. Great movie.