my favorite movies of 1957:

(1) Paths of Glory

(2) The Cranes Are Flying

(3) Witness for the Prosecution

(4) Wild Strawberries

(5) White Nights

favorite of 1957:

Paths of Glory

(Kirk Douglas, Ralph Meeker, Wayne Morris, Adolphe Menjou, George Macready, Timothy Carey, Joe Turkel. Directed by Stanley Kubrick.)

Ebert describes the leading man of this anti-war movie:

Kirk Douglas, a star whose intelligence and ambition sometimes pulled him away from the comfortable path mapped by the system, contains most of the emotion of his character. When he is angry, we know it, but he stays just within the edge of going too far. He remains an officer. He does his duty. He finds a way to define his duty more deeply than his superiors would have wished, but in a way they cannot condemn.

One of my favorite scenes in the movie might seem unexciting on its face, but ends up being both witty and chilling (see the video below). Kirk Douglas’s superior is arguing for going through with planned executions:

There’s the question of the troops’ morale — don’t forget that!

The troops’ morale?

Certainly! These executions will be a perfect tonic for the entire division! There are few things more fundamentally encouraging and stimulating than seeing someone else die!

I never thought of that, Sir.

That line by Kirk Douglas, “I never thought of that,” has a wonderfully dry double meaning. On the surface he seems to be praising his superior’s intelligence, but what he really means is: I can’t believe you’d be so inhuman.

The only woman whose voice is heard in this movie is a German prisoner of war who doesn’t speak the French troops’ language, but deeply moves them by singing. Ebert observes: “If the singing of ‘La Marseillaise’ in a bar in ‘Casablanca’ was a call to patriotism, this scene is an argument against it. It creates a moment of quiet and tenderness in the daily horror these soldiers occupy.” The actress is credited as Susanne Christiane, but she soon changed her name to Christian Kubrick when she married the director, Stanley Kubrick. They met while making this movie, and stayed married until his death in 1999.

Stream Paths of Glory on YouTube (free with ads), Tubi (free with ads) or these sites.

 

2nd favorite of 1957:

The Cranes Are Flying

[Russian: Letyat zhuravli]    Летят журавли

(Tatiana Samoilova, Alexei Batalov, Alexander Shvorin, Vasily Merkuryev. Directed by Mikhail Kalatozov.)

Another director (Jeremiah Zagar) says this about The Cranes Are Flying:

incredible black-and-white cinematography. There’s one scene in the film that I literally show to everyone I ever make a movie with. It’s shot through a fence, when Tatiana Samoilova is running, and the camera … speeds up with the pace of her running. It has this effect where it makes your heart race in a way that’s insane. The other thing about that movie is that it’s an epic told from a woman’s point of view, which you rarely see.

For more analysis, see this essay (which tells the whole plot).

Stream The Cranes Are Flying on the Criterion Channel (with extra features) or Max. If you don’t subscribe to the Criterion Channel, try a free trial.

 

3rd favorite of 1957:

Witness for the Prosecution

(Charles Laughton, Marlene Dietrich, Tyrone Power, Elsa Lanchester. Directed by Billy Wilder.)

Hitchcock said: “Many times, people have told me how much they enjoyed Witness for the Prosecution. They thought it was my film instead of Billy Wilder’s.”

Wilder mischievously mixes light comedy and dark drama in this murder mystery based on an Agatha Christie play, which has one stunning twist after another.

Touching isn’t it, the way he counts on his wife?

Yes, like a drowning man clutching at a razor blade.

Stream Witness for the Prosecution on YouTube (free with ads), Tubi (free with ads), Kanopy, or these sites.

4th favorite of 1957:

Wild Strawberries

[Swedish: Smultronstället]

(Victor Sjöström, Bibi Andersson, Gunnar Björnstrand, Ingrid Thulin, Naima Wifstrand, Max von Sydow. Directed by Ingmar Bergman.)

A 78-year-old microbiologist looks back on his life while he goes on a road trip, has disconcerting dreams, and steps into his past in fantasy sequences that would influence Woody Allen (see Annie Hall, my favorite movie of 1977).

Writer/director Ingmar Bergman chose Victor Sjöström, who directed silent movies decades earlier and became a mentor to Bergman, to play the old man. Bergman admitted it’s no coincidence that he and the character, Professor Isak Borg, shared the same initials. Bergman was only in his 30s when he made Wild Strawberries, but he had gone through serious health problems that caused him to be hospitalized for months, and he was thinking about what it’s like to face death.

Stream Wild Strawberries on the Criterion Channel (with extras including commentary), Max, or Kanopy.

5th favorite of 1957:

White Nights

[Italian: Le Notti Bianche]

(Marcello Mastroianni, Maria Schell, Jean Marais, Clara Calamai. Directed by Luchino Visconti.)

Two lonely, sensitive people meet while wandering around a dark city filmed in beautiful black and white. Based on a short story by Dostoevsky, with a haunting minimalist score by Nino Rota.

Stream White Nights on the Criterion Channel, with bonus features.

Click here for the full list of my favorite movie(s) of each year from 1920 to 2020.