1961-1970

  • Joseph L. Mankiewicz – Cleopatra (1963)

    1961-1970ClassicsEpicJoseph L. MankiewiczUnited Kingdom

    Synopsis:
    In 48 B.C., Caesar pursues Pompey from Pharsalia to Egypt. Ptolemy, now supreme ruler after deposing his older sister, Cleopatra, attempts to gain favor with Caesar by presenting the conquerer with the head of Pompey, borne by his governors, Pothinos and Achillas. To win Caesar’s support from her brother, Cleopatra hides herself in a rug, which Apollodorus, her servant, presents to Caesar. The Roman is immediately infatuated; banishing Ptolemy, he declares Cleopatra Egypt’s sole ruler and takes her as his mistress. A son, Caesarion, is born of their union. Caesar, however, must return to Italy. Although he is briefly reunited with Cleopatra during a magnificent reception for the queen in Rome, Caesar is assassinated shortly thereafter, and Cleopatra returns to Egypt.Read More »

  • George Seaton – The Counterfeit Traitor (1962)

    USA1961-1970George SeatonThrillerWar

    An American oil company executive of Swedish descent, now living in Sweden, is blackmailed into spying for the Allies during World War II. At first resentful, his relationship with a beautiful German Allied agent causes him to realize how vital his work is. When he learns that his anti-Nazi German associates are under suspicion from the Gestapo, he risks his own life to go back inside Nazi Germany to finish his work and try to save his friends. It’s an exciting story with great characters, filmed partly in the locations where the story took place.Read More »

  • Chris Marker – Le mystère Koumiko AKA The Koumiko Mystery (1967)

    1961-1970Chris MarkerDocumentaryFrance

    Quote:
    A personal study of Japan at the time of the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo, as seen through the eyes of a Japanese girl.Read More »

  • Mervyn LeRoy – Moment to Moment (1965)

    1961-1970ClassicsDramaMervyn LeRoyUSA

    This is a good movie in the Hitchcock vein, in which small details form the key to intense pathos. Will the husband notice the thing she mentioned in passing? Will her child inadvertently play with the wrong toy? Will the best friend keep the story straight? It takes a tangled web of lies and omissions to keep silent an impulsive affair–and a possible murder–when everything is so interconnected. No real villains here, but faulted humans trying to be happy, and not upset the house of cards that comprise their private lives. Good performances by Honor Blackman and Jean Seberg. You will be on the edge of your seat, and clutching a hankie at the same time.Read More »

  • Akio Jissoji – Yoiyami semareba aka When Twilight Draws Near (1969)

    1961-1970Akio JissojiAsianDramaJapan

    Here’s Jissoji Akio’s impressive theatrical debut. Distributed by ATG and with a script by Oshima Nagisa, it’s a fascinating dissection of 1960s Japanese youth angst. Oshima wrote the screenplay for television in 1964, but due to the subversiveness of the story it never got made there. Which doesn’t come as a surprise, considering that the film consists of four students in a room, who decide to leave the gas on and bet money on who will stay there the longest…Read More »

  • Carol Reed – The Running Man (1963)

    1961-1970Carol ReedThrillerUnited Kingdom

    An Englishman with a grudge against an insurance company for a disallowed claim fakes his own death in order but an insurance investigator starts snooping around.Read More »

  • Samuel Beckett & Alan Schneider – Film (1965)

    USA1961-1970Alan SchneiderPhilosophyPhilosophy on ScreenSamuel BeckettShort Film

    F I L M I N F O
    1. Samuel Beckett made a single work for projected cinema. It’s in essence a chase film; the craziest ever committed to celluloid. It’s a chase between camera and pursued image that finds existential dread embedded in the very apparatus of the movies itself. The link to cinema’s essence is evident in the casting, as the chased object is none other than an aged Buster Keaton, who was understandably befuddled at Beckett and director Alan Schneider’s imperative that he keep his face hidden from the camera’s gaze. The archetypal levels resonate further in the exquisite cinematography of Academy Award-winner Boris Kaufman, whose brothers Dziga Vertov and Mikhail Kaufman created the legendary self-reflexive masterpiece Man With a Movie Camera. Commissioned and produced by Grove Press’s Barney Rosset, FILM is at once the product of a stunningly all-star assembly of talent, and a cinematic conundrum that asks more questions than it answers.Read More »

  • Forugh Farrokhzad – Khaneh siah ast AKA The House Is Black (1963) (DVD)

    1961-1970CultDocumentaryForugh FarrokhzadIran

    From Village Voice: In 1962, beloved and controversial poetess Forugh Farrokhzad went to Azerbaijan and made this short film on the grounds of a leper colony, presaging in 22 minutes the entirety of the Iranian new wave and the international quasi-genre of “poetic nonfiction.” It’s a blackjack of a movie, soberly documenting the village of lost ones with an astringently ethical eye, freely orchestrating scenes and simply capturing others, while on the soundtrack Farrokhzad reads her own poetry in a plaintive murmur—this in the same year as Vivre sa Vie and La Jetée. (Chris Marker has long been a passionate fan, as has Abbas Kiarostami, whose The Wind Will Carry Us owes its title and climactic verse to Farrokhzad.) It was the only substantial piece of cinema Farrokhzad ever made. Five years later, having already attained near legendary status in Iran for her writing, she was killed in a car crash at the age of 32, guaranteeing her posthumous fame as a feminist touchstone for generations of angry Persian women.Read More »

  • Mario Monicelli – I compagni AKA The Organizer (1963)

    1961-1970Commedia all'ItalianaDramaItalyMario MonicelliPolitics

    In turn-of-the-twentieth-century Turin, an accident in a textile factory incites workers to stage a walkout. But it’s not until they receive unexpected aid from a traveling professor (Marcello Mastroianni) that they find their voice, unite, and stand up for themselves. This historical drama by Mario Monicelli, brimming with humor and honesty, is a beautiful and moving ode to the power of the people, and features engaging, naturalistic performances; cinematography by the great Giuseppe Rotunno; and a multilayered, Oscar-nominated screenplay by Monicelli, Agenore Incrocci, and Furio Scarpelli.Read More »

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