When the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences looked back at 1963, it gave its Best Picture award to Tom Jones—the movie, not the singer. It isn't very memorable, and it isn't on my list.
1. The Birds
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Written by Evan Hunter, from a novel by Daphne du Maurier
If it isn't Hitch's best movie, it's certainly his scariest.
2. Ikarie XB-1
Directed by Jindřich Polák
Written by Polák and Pavel Juráček, from a novel by Stanislaw Lem
My pick for the most stylish space-fiction film of the '60s—and yes, I've seen 2001.
3. The Silence
Written and directed by Ingmar Bergman
The final and finest segment of the Silence of God trilogy.
4. The Haunting
Directed by Robert Wise
Written by Nelson Gidding, from a novel by Shirley Jackson
How I resented this picture the first time I saw it! The campy beginning relaxed my defenses and let me feel superior to the material; by the time its superbly crafted chills were jolting me in my seat, I was too proud to admit I'd been taken in. Forgive me, Haunting: You're a great horror movie, and I regret ever claiming to dislike you.
5. This Sporting Life
Directed by Lindsay Anderson
Written by David Storey, from his novel
The other notable William Hartnell role of 1963. And with its flashback structure, it features several jumps through time. Hmm.
6. The Leopard
Directed by Luchino Visconti
Written by Visconti, Pasquale Festa Campanile, Enrico Medioli, Massimo Franciosa, and Suso Cecchi d'Amico, from a novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
I'm not sure what it says that Burt Lancaster's best performance features someone else's voice.
7. The Great Escape
Directed by John Sturges
Written by James Clavell and W.R. Burnett, from a book by Paul Brickhill
"Perhaps we're being too clever. If we stop all the breakouts, it will only convince the goons we must be tunneling."
8. Scorpio Rising
Directed by Kenneth Anger
Written by Anger and Ernest D. Glucksman
The funniest fetish film ever made.
9. Judex
Directed by Georges Franju
Written by Jacques Champreux and Francis Lacassin, from a story by Louis Feuillade and Arthur Bernède
A semi-surrealist semi-superhero story.
10. Muriel, or The Time of Return
Directed by Alain Resnais
Written by Jean Cayrol
The art of the abrupt edit.
Honorable mentions:
11. Winter Light (Ingmar Bergman)
12. The Servant (Joseph Losey)
13. Méditerranée (Jean-Daniel Pollet, Volker Schlöndorff)
14. Hud (Martin Ritt)
15. Renaissance (Walerian Borowczyk)
16. An Actor's Revenge (Kon Ichikawa)
17. High and Low (Akira Kurosawa)
18. Moth Light (Stan Brakhage)
19. To Parsifal (Bruce Baillie)
20. Charade (Stanley Donen)
Of the films of 1963 that I haven't seen, I'm most interested in The Cool World.