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One of the most vertiginous of Markopoulos’s interior landscape studies, Himself as Herself is based loosely on Balzac’s Séraphita. The film consists of a shimmering, nearly plotless evocation of gender identity in flux, and it contains some of Markopoulos’s most haunting, densely interlaced images. Markopoulos portrays a hermaphrodite body, its movements, postures and gestures or expressions, a study of a highly stylized inner landscape that takes Bresson’s ideals to their ultimate conclusions. This film is dedicated to the American artist Emlen Pope Etting and features a musical excerpt from Poulenc’s “Gloria.”Read More »
1960s
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Gregory J. Markopoulos – Himself as Herself (1967)
1961-1970ExperimentalGregory J. MarkopoulosUSA -
Otar Iosseliani – Aprili (1961)
1961-1970ArthouseOtar IosselianiShort FilmUSSRRecalling the charm and humor of a Jacques Tati film, this fantasy, by noted Georgian director Otar Iosseliani, is about young love undone by consumerism. Using almost no dialogue, and set amid the dilapidated architecture of Tbilisi, the film focuses on a tall young man (Tanya Chantouria) as he woos a pretty lass (Gia Chirakadze). Though their apartment is rundown and nearly empty, their love makes the water flow, the electricity run, and the flames flicker on their stove. Yet when they start outfitting their abode with newly purchased furniture and precious odds and ends, they start to squabble. Shot in 1962, and almost immediately banned by the Soviet authorities for excessive formalism, this film made its first screening with its full 50-minute running time at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival.Read More »
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Pierre Perrault – Les Voitures d’eau AKA The River Schooners (1968)
1961-1970CanadaDocumentaryPierre PerraultLes voitures d’eau (The River Schooners)
Through their anecdotes and their actions, the artisans of Île-aux-Coudres tell us about the science of wooden boats at a time when iron ships are invading the St. Lawrence river. After a disastrous boating season, the filmmaker questions the economic and political future of an entire culture. This last film of the trilogy witnesses the end of the era of wooden schooners and of the men who knew how to build and pilot them.Read More » -
Elio Petri – I giorni contati AKA His Days Are Numbered (1962)
1961-1970ClassicsDramaElio PetriItalyNever released in America, Petri’s second feature displays the same evocative mix of realism and symbolism found in THE LADY KILLER OF ROME. Cowritten by the prominent scenarist Tonino Guerra (a favorite collaborator of Petri, Antonioni, Rosi, and other Italian luminaries), the film stars Salvo Randone as Cesare, a lonely Roman plumber in his early fifties. Traveling by tram one day, he witnesses the sudden death, by heart attack, of a man his own age. The event shocks him into the realization that his own days might be numbered, and he becomes determined to make the most of the time he has left. Quitting his job, he sets out with enthusiasm to enjoy the finer things in life, but the effort only leaves him dispirited and disillusioned.Read More »
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Claude Berri & Charles L. Bitsch & Jean-François Hauduroy & Bertrand Tavernier & Bernard Toublanc-Michel – Les baisers (1964)
1961-1970Bernard Toublanc-MichelBertrand TavernierCharles L. BitschClaude BerriComedyFranceJean-François HauduroyRomanceA portmanteau film in which the producer, instead of as usual using already well known directors with a commercial draw, allowed five new young directors to each have a crack at an episode about romance.Read More »
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Sam Peckinpah – Noon Wine [Colourised ] (1966)
1961-1970DramaSam PeckinpahTVUSAJason Robards and Olivia DeHavilland star in this 1966 TV adaptation of a short novel by American author Katherine Anne Porter, written and directed by Sam Peckinpah.Read More »
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Yôji Yamada – Natsukashii furaibo AKA The Lovable Tramp (1966)
1961-1970AsianComedyJapanYôji YamadaSaotome is a white-collar worker and he was neglected by his wife and children at home. He met Gen, a blue-collar worker and they became good friends.Read More »
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Boris von Borresholm – Marionetten aka Puppets (1964)
1961-1970AnimationBoris von BorresholmGermanyShort FilmA minor character from a collection of marionettes takes viewers through a small world theatre where they come across various types, including the seducer, the demagogue and the obedient masses.
Ambitious puppet animation with a didactic and political purpose against propaganda methods.Read More » -
Hiroshi Inagaki – Chûshingura AKA The 47 Ronin (1962)
1961-1970AsianClassicsHiroshi InagakiJapanThe story tells of a group of samurai who were left leaderless (becoming ronin) after their daimyo (feudal lord) was forced to commit seppuku (ritual suicide) for assaulting a court official named Kira Yoshinaka, whose title was Kōzuke no suke. The ronin avenged their master’s honor after patiently waiting and planning for over a year to kill Kira. In turn, the ronin were themselves forced to commit seppuku for committing the crime of murder.Read More »