My top ten films for each year of the 1960s. These are always up for revision as I watch more films, revisit ones I’ve seen before, and think about them over time. The films as listed in the “Best of Year” section are held fast at the end of the year (and include a listing of all films I saw that year as well as films released that year).

Oh, and I don’t really believe in top “ten” lists, despite using the common nomenclature for the title of this page. This is going to be the top several films of each year, down to whatever point I think the films stop being worthy of inclusion. Might be eight one year, might be twenty-three another.

1969

1. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
2. Easy Rider
3. My Night at Maud’s
4. The Wild Bunch
5. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
6. Z
7. Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice
8. Take the Money and Run

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
Army of Shadows
Kes
The Italian Job
Fellini Satyricon
The Sorrow and the Pity

1968

1. 2001: A Space Odyssey
2. Once Upon a Time in the West
3. Targets
4. The Producers
5. Planet of the Apes
6. The Graduate
7. Night of the Living Dead
8. The Lion in Winter
9. Funny Girl
10. Romeo and Juliet
11. Yellow Submarine
12. Bullitt
13. Rosemary’s Baby

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
Hour of the Wolf
If…
Hang ‘Em High
The Bride Wore Black
Faces

1967

1. Bonnie and Clyde
2. Playtime
3. Le Samouraï
4. The Young Girls of Rochefort
5. Two for the Road
6. Belle de Jour
7. Bedazzled
8. Wait Until Dark
9. Made in USA

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
Cool Hand Luke
The Fireman’s Ball
In Cold Blood
La Chinoise
David Holtzman’s Diary

1966

1. Persona
2. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
3. Blow-Up
4. How the Grinch Stole Christmas
5. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
6. The Battle of Algiers
7. Fahrenheit 451
8. Closely Watched Trains

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
Andrei Rublev
Come Drink With Me
Au hasard Balthazar
Django
A Man for All Seasons

1965

1. Pierrot le fou
2. For a Few Dollars More
3. The Loves of a Blonde
4. A Charlie Brown Christmas
5. Repulsion
6. Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!
7. Alphaville
8. The Spy Who Came In from the Cold
9. The Sound of Music
10. Doctor Zhivago

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
The Shop on Main Street
Chimes at Midnight
The Saragossa Manuscript
Red Beard
Tokyo Olympiad

1964

1. Band of Outsiders
2. Mary Poppins
3. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
4. Goldfinger
5. The Naked Kiss
6. A Hard Day’s Night
7. A Shot in the Dark
8. Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
9. A Fistful of Dollars
10. My Fair Lady

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
Red Desert
Fail-Safe
Blood and Black Lace
Onibaba
Pale Flower

1963

1. The Birds
2. Contempt
3. Charade
4. The Great Escape
5. 8 1/2
6. The Girl Who Knew Too Much
7. From Russia With Love
8. Tom Jones
9. The Haunting
10. Winter Light

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
High and Low
The Silence
The Leopard
The Servant
The Fire Within

1962

1. Vivre sa vie
2. Lawrence of Arabia
3. Cleo from 5 to 7
4. What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
5. Le doulos
6. Jules and Jim
7. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
8. La jetée
9. The Exterminating Angel
10. The Mancurian Candidate
11. To Kill a Mockingbird
12. Carnival of Souls
13. Ride the High Country

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
Sanjuro
Harakiri
L’eclisse
Lonely Are the Brave
An Autumn Afternoon

1961

1. West Side Story
2. Breakfast at Tiffany’s
3. A Woman is a Woman
4. Yojimbo
5. The Innocents
6. One, Two, Three
7. Last Year at Marienad
8. The Hustler
9. Through a Glass Darkly
10. The Misfits

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
Lola
La Notte
Viridiana
Judgement at Nuremberg
One-Eyed Jacks

1960

1. Psycho
2. Breathless
3. L’Avventura
4. The Apartment
5. The Virgin Spring
6. Shoot the Piano Player
7. The Naked Island
8. La Dolce Vita
9. Village of the Damned
10. The Magnificent Seven
11. The Time Machine
12. Black Sunday
13. Peeping Tom
14. Eyes Without a Face

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
Elmer Gantry
Le trou
The Little Shop of Horrors
Rocco and His Brothers
Jigoku