Best Screenplay 1963

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What were the best original and adapted screenplays of 1963?

8 1/2 (Federico Fellini, Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli and Brunello Rondi)
13
39%
America, America (Elia Kazan)
1
3%
The Four Days of Naples (Carlo Bernari, Vasco Pratolini, Nanni Loy, Pasquale Festa Campanile and Massimo Franciosa)
0
No votes
How the West Was Won (James R. Webb)
0
No votes
Love with the Proper Stranger (Arnold Schulman)
3
9%
Captain Newman M. D. (Richard L. Breen, Phoebe Ephron and Henry Ephron)
0
No votes
Hud (Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank Kr.)
10
30%
Lilies of the Field (James Poe)
0
No votes
Sundays and Cybele (Antoine Tudal and Serge Bourguignon)
2
6%
Tom Jones (John Osborne)
4
12%
 
Total votes: 33

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Re: Best Screenplay 1963

Post by Kellens101 »

I envy you, BJ. I would've loved to have seen The Leopard on a big screen like that. It's such a magnificent film and seeing the gorgeous cinematography, costumes and sets at The Egyptian must've been breathtaking. Also, I should watch The Leopard back-to-back with The Best of Youth, both are such incredible and epic portraits of Italian history. What amazing movies.
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Re: Best Screenplay 1963

Post by The Original BJ »

I agree that the big omission in Adapted is The Leopard -- I saw it on the big screen at the Egyptian in Hollywood, which was just the perfect venue to be swept away by this great picture. I also think The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (which I have down as eligible for this year) would have been very deserving.

I found Captain Newman, M.D. to be a pretty torturous sit. I kept waiting for the story to start, but instead of any forward momentum, it just kept stopping for these anecdotes, none of which were really explored with any depth, and none of which had much relation to each other. At one point about 3/4 of the way through, Gregory Peck's herd of sheep escapes onto the airplane runway, and I just thought -- this has nothing to do with anything else happening. But it's not as if the rest of the movie was cohering into anything memorable either. A lousy nominee.

Lilies of the Field is a perfectly solid little movie. It has a lot of very sensitive moments, and it celebrates kindness in a manner that never feels cloying or overly-sentimental. And I like the way it touches on issues of race and difference without being explicitly about those things -- in its own way, it's pretty quietly progressive. Still, it never amounts to anything major, and it's much more a nice, pleasant movie than a great one.

It's easy to see why the Cahierists rebelled against Sundays and Cybele. It's not a movie that pushes boundaries, and in more specific terms, its selection by France for the Foreign Film Oscar over Jules and Jim understandably ruffled some feathers. But...applying the rule that not every film has to be revolutionary to be worthy, I would say that Sundays and Cybele is quite a good movie in its own right. It tells a fairly well-detailed story about an unusual relationship and the ways in which society's judgments can often doom such things, and its last scene is a moment of genuine power. I would probably say there's more invention in the movie's visuals than its narrative, but I think this is a perfectly acceptable writing nominee.

Certain aspects of Tom Jones have indeed dated over the years -- seen today, it's hard to believe that the Finney/Redman dinner scene was ever considered racy. But it's still held up in other ways -- that scene, for instance, is still quite funny, as is the movie overall. The narrative remains a rollicking entertainment, the colorful characters get a lot of witty dialogue (with Evans and Griffith probably rewarded with the bulk of that), and there's quite a bit of stylistic invention along the way too. Given that much of the period fare during this decade was stuff like Cleopatra and The Cardinal -- which play today like stuffy bores -- I have to honor Tom Jones for its buoyant sensibility and entertaining spirit. I can't at all object to its screenplay prize, particularly given that the writing is such a key element of its success.

But I think Hud is one of the great American movies of the 60's, a haunting, sad portrait of the American West which takes the iconography of the western myth and deconstructs it for the modern era. The movie is filled with simple but brutally cynical dialogue like "Nobody gets out of life alive" and "You don't look out for yourself, the only helping hand you'll ever get is when they lower the box" that brings out the despair of all of the characters. And those characters -- Newman's irascible Hud, Neal's lonely Alma, Douglas's fed-up Homer, de Wilde's innocent Lonnie -- are richly textured, and given ample opportunity for their personalities to clash throughout the film's numerous beautifully and powerfully written exchanges. It's my clear choice for Best Adapted Screenplay this year.
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Re: Best Screenplay 1963

Post by ITALIANO »

OscarGuy wrote:I think he's referring to the "Americanization" of "Italian Cuisine" vis-à-vis Pizza Hut.
Exactly.
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Re: Best Screenplay 1963

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I think he's referring to the "Americanization" of "Italian Cuisine" vis-à-vis Pizza Hut.
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Re: Best Screenplay 1963

Post by Greg »

ITALIANO wrote:. . . the fact the the Academy back then went with How the West Was Won must be considered the worst example of American-ism since the creation of Pizza Hut. . .
Care to explain your reference to Pizza Hut?
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Re: Best Screenplay 1963

Post by ITALIANO »

The Four Days of Naples is a great movie - one could call it one of the greatest war movies ever, except that it's not about battlefields and trenches, but about how a city, a community, reacts to an invading army, in this case the German army. It succeeds in being at the same time realistic and idealistic, and it shows a genuine feeling for people, for real people, and for how daily life goes on even when external events in theory could shatter it. Acts of heroism are very human in this movie, very believable - it's heroism out of necessity rather than something saintly. It's a bit unfair that it has no vote here - but then when you are up against, say, one of the four or five absolute masterpieces in cinema history, there's not much you can do. I know that this metaphor has been used too often, at least in Italy, but really - Eight and a Half is to movies what the Sistine Chapel is to Renaissance art. (I love that someone here thinks that Love with the Proper Stranger is better written! But then at least this one and America America aren't that bad - the fact the the Academy back then went with How the West Was Won must be considered the worst example of American-ism since the creation of Pizza Hut - and definitely one of the worst Oscar choices ever).

Selecting one from Adapted is more problematic. I have recently seen Hud again - certainly good (the Patricia Neal part especially), but, at least today, not completely unpredictable - it's not The Hustler. And I haven't seen Tom Jones in a long time - which may be the reason why I've voted for it. I remember it as a rather inventive script, true to the spirit of the classic it is based on, and at the same time true to a certain kind of "new" British cinema of that period - and never boring. But I really can't say if, seen today, I'd still like it as much as I did years ago. The three others are less good - even Sundays and Cybele, while clearly deeply-felt, at times seems more an exercise in French sensitiveness than anything truly substantial.
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Re: Best Screenplay 1963

Post by Precious Doll »

Original: 8 1/2

As others have already stated, an easy choice here with Four Days in Naples the distant second pick for me.

Adapted: Tom Jones

This was a hard choice between TJ, Hud & Sundays and Cybele. I have only ever seen Tom Jones the once but the other two a couple of time and as Tom Jones made the biggest impression on my on the first viewing that is my choice.

Omissions: Not too many this year. The List of Adrian Messenger, Charade, The Haunting, The Servant, This Sporting Life and my favourite Jerry Lewis film Who's Minding the Store.
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Re: Best Screenplay 1963

Post by Big Magilla »

Mister Tee wrote:Magilla, are you sure The Four Days of Naples was never out in video? I saw it sometime in the last 10-20 years, and I’d have sworn it was a video store rental – unless it maybe turned up on PBS or TCM and I’m forgetting.
Oh, yeah, I've been looking for this since I started collecting movies on home video in the 1980s. I've never seen it anywhere. Had I known it was on TCM in 2009, when I still had my DVD recording equipment, I would have recorded it. Amazon lists an Italian DVD import as "currently unavailable".
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Re: Best Screenplay 1963

Post by Mister Tee »

1963 was a pretty lackluster year stateside, but world cinema made it less than worthless.

The Leopard is a standout omission in adapted, not just because of its quality, but because it was a fairly prominent film: I remember it playing our local theatre in Woodside, so it wasn’t just an art house thing. (And it did get that costume nomination.) Other solid candidates were This Sporting Life and The L-Shaped Room -- plus, I’d add a Louis Malle film with which I’ve only recently become acquainted, The Fire Within.

I saw Captain Newman M.D. in the winter of 1964, and wasn’t impressed. Because of this writers’ endorsement, I sought it out again a decade or so ago…but it still left me mostly cold. The psychiatric stuff was humdrum, and the Tony Curtis character seemed just a variation on his Operation Petticoat role (which was itself an Ensign Pulver ripoff). I truly don’t comprehend this nomination.

Lilies of the Field was another movie I saw in real time – like most Catholic families at the time, we flocked to the film. I’ve seen it again, over the years, and it’s better than one would expect – not too sentimental, decently written. But it’s a modest thing, nothing to get my vote.

Sundays and Cybele may be the epitome of the sort of foreign films Americans swooned for in the 50s and 60s: centered on forlorn characters (a mentally challenged man AND an abandoned child) who form a heart-touching relationship, but encounter circumstances that prevent happiness. The film is enjoyable on its level, but also kind of ruthlessly tear-jerking. It seems to me this is just the sort of film – subtle, even austere, but still sentimental -- against which the New Wavers rose up in rebellion.

I’m one of the bigger fans here of Tom Jones; I find the movie very cleverly conceived, written and played. I know many younger folk find its techniques stale, but I can only report my honest reactions, both in the 70s and the past decade: I see it as very solid entertainment. And the writing was a distinct contribution – taking an 18th comic novel and making it funny for a 1963 audience was no small feat. This is a perfectly good Oscar choice.

But, by a small margin, I’m going to opt for the drama and vote Hud. I do think Hud is a bit less than the sum of its parts, but those parts – the many cracklingly well-written scenes between Newman and Douglas and, especially, Newman and Neal – are pretty exquisite.

Alternatives under original aren’t so myriad -- Knife in the Water, if this is the year it was eligible; and Charade -- though a fluffy thing, it’s well more deserving than the Peter Stone script from the following year.

Of course I liked How the West Was Won as an 11-year old – it was my mentality to which the film was pitched. I finally got myself to watch the whole thing again a few years back, and found it just another of that era’s “tackle a big subject, pack in as many star names as you can, and make the script as generic as possible.” It’s baffling to me the film was as successful as it was -- commercially, I understand (it was Cinerama); but, how did they get the Academy as a whole – including the usually discerning writers -- to fall for this? The worst of the nominees took home the trophy.

I saw Love with the Proper Stranger in the early 80s, so my memory of it isn’t vivid. My general recollection is of a minor “look, I’m pregnant/what do we do?” working class romance. Given how dreadful that summary sounds, the film manages not to be condescending or dreary, nor rom-com upbeat – it strikes a nice balance of realism. It doesn’t come close to getting my vote, but I don’t begrudge the nomination.

The remaining three candidates are more than solid, quite worthy nominees. Magilla, are you sure The Four Days of Naples was never out in video? I saw it sometime in the last 10-20 years, and I’d have sworn it was a video store rental – unless it maybe turned up on PBS or TCM and I’m forgetting. In any case, it’s a very inventive, exciting narrative centered on what the citizens of Naples did in response to the incoming German invasion. It has none of the limitations of the docudrama: rather, it has much the spirit of other Italian films of the era, with vividly drawn characters whose actions ring as genuine and modest even when they approach the heroic. A very solid film.

America, America must be as unsentimental a version of the immigrant story as we’ve seen this side of Godfather II. Kazan is happy to be an American citizen, but he doesn’t get teary-eyed about what it took to get him here. His central character tries for a while to play by the rules, but clearly concludes that if he continues that way, he’ll sit waiting for passage his entire life. The film’s acknowledgement that it can take a streak of ruthlessness to get on in this world is an unusually candid one for a film of this sort, and it lends it distinction.

But, honestly: one of the ten or so greatest films ever made is on this list, so how can I not vote for it? By circumstance, before I saw 8 ½ , I’d seen several of the films thought to be inspired by it -- Stardust Memories, All That Jazz – plus of course a musical dear to my heart. You’d think that might have made the source film over-familiar/less impressive. But Fellini’s masterpiece is so phantasmagoric, so original, so multi-faceted that my only response was pure dazzlement. There are good films, even really good films -- but then there are those for which the medium seems to have been invented, and 8 ½ falls into that last category. One of the easiest choices ever.
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Re: Best Screenplay 1963

Post by Kellens101 »

This one was easy: 8 1/2 and Hud. Two great films and two of the greatest films of the 1960s. One a haunting, sad and dark Western and the other an incredibly original, dazzling and brilliant Italian film about moviemaking. The omissions for me are Billy Liar, The Birds, Charade, From Russia with Love, The Great Escape, High and Low, The Leopard, The Servant, The Silence and This Sporting Life, all of which are some of the best of 1963 and all of which were pretty much ignored by the Academy.
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Re: Best Screenplay 1963

Post by Big Magilla »

1963 is the only year in which I agreed with all of the top six winners - Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress. Extending to the writing categories, I agreed with one, but not the other.

Original

The winner, How the West Was Won actually had a good screenplay, but was the weakest of the nominees.

Love With the Proper Stranger is an odd mix of comedy and drama, but it works. A decent nominee but the non-nominated Charade would fit in this slot equally well. A highly popular film in its day, it's oddly never had a commercial DVD release although it was released on VHS.

Elia Kazan's America America is his most personal film and the best of the English language entries, but the two Italian entries are superior.

The Four Days of Naples is a moving film about the resistance in Naples after the death of Mussolini. It's been on TCM in the past, but has never had a video release in the U.S. I suspect it's the least seen among the nominees.

Federico Fellini received 12 Oscar nominations in his long career, but never won a competitive Oscar. He and three others are credited with writing the screenplay for 8 1/2 even if Claudia Cardinale and others have claimed there was no script, that the whole thing was improvised. Well, so what, what was improvised was brilliant and if that they wrote it down afterwards to qualify for the nomination, so be it. It's the deserved winner.

Adapted

I watch Captain Newman, M.D. every few years to see if there's something I missed, but I still don't get it. It's a lousy movie and had no business being nominated over the likes of The Great Escape and The Ugly American.

Lilies of the Field is a simple movie, but not a simplistic one. It's a real charmer and a decent nominee.

The other three are all brilliant films with brilliant screenplays.

Sundays and Cybele is a genuine heartbreaker, an emotionally wrenching drama about a misunderstood war veteran suffering from what we would now call post traumatic stress syndrome and the young girl he befriends, pretending to be her father with devastating results.

Hud is, of course, a brilliant film about a heel and his effect on his household - his father, his nephew and his housekeeper, brilliantly done from start to finish.

Despite my affection for the writing of both Hud and Sundays and Cybele I have to go with the winner, Tom Jones, a perfectly crafted concoction from the Fielding classic. It may be tame by today's standards, but it was revolutionary in its day and should be judged on its contemporaneous merit not its contemporary importance. A winner then, a should-be winner now.
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Best Screenplay 1963

Post by Kellens101 »

What were the best screenplays of 1963?
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