1960s

  • Jørgen Leth – Ofelias blomster AKA Ophelia’s Flowers (1968)

    1961-1970DenmarkExperimentalJørgen LethShort Film
    Ofelias blomster (1968)
    Ofelias blomster (1968)

    Quote:
    Ophelia’s Suicide soliloquy is staged by a forest pond against the backdrop of a stretched piece of blue fabric gently quivering in the accidental breeze. A few years earlier, Jørgen Leth and Per Kirkeby had put on a highly stylized production of “Hamlet” at the Svalegangen theatre in Aarhus and from there comes the idea of Ophelia’s soliloquy literally “going to pieces” according to this principle: when Leth in the wings, strikes two wooden blocks together, the actress halts her reading and starts over. As the actress is halted again and again, the soliloquy breaks up according to the accidental principle, which is unpredictable and enervating. Read More »

  • K. Asif – Mughal-E-Azam AKA The Great Mughal (1960)

    1951-1960DramaIndiaK. AsifRomance
    Mughal E Azam (1960)
    Mughal E Azam (1960)

    Set in the 16th century AD, the movie brings to life the tale of the doomed love affair between the Mughal Crown Prince Saleem and the beautiful, ill-fated court dancer, whose fervor and intensity perpetrates a war between the prince and his father the great Mughal Emperor Akbar, and threatens to bring an empire to its knees.Read More »

  • Russ Meyer – Common Law Cabin (1967)

    Russ Meyer1961-1970ComedyExploitationUSA
    Common Law Cabin (1967)
    Common Law Cabin (1967)

    A man runs a broken down tourist trap along the Colorado River along with his French wife and his daughter. Business is so bad that he must pay a local alcoholic to entice tourists, called “suckers,” to spend some time and money there.Read More »

  • Russ Meyer – Lorna (1964)

    Russ Meyer1961-1970DramaExploitationUSA
    Lorna (1964)
    Lorna (1964)

    Quote:
    Lorna has been married to Jim for a year, but still hasn’t been satisfied sexually. While Jim is working at the salt mine, she is raped by an escaped convict, but falls in lust with him. Meanwhile Jim’s buddies are giving him a hard time about Lorna’s supposed infidelity, not realizing how close to the mark they really are. Trouble starts when Jim gets home early from work because it’s their anniversary.Read More »

  • John Hayes – The Hang Up (1969)

    John Hayes1961-1970ExploitationUSA
    The Hang Up (1969)
    The Hang Up (1969)

    Quote:
    In The Hang Up, middle-aged vice squad cop Robert Walsh (Tony Vorno, aka Sebastian Gregory) has been reduced to dressing up in drag (complete with a terrifying red wig) to frequent local bars and break up all that nasty corruption. The debauchery here is appalling, complete with a peroxide blonde in a man’s suit doing a floor show with another woman in a negligé who strips to her skivvies and rubs her silicone implants. Appalling! As it turns out, his latest drag assignment involves catching phony cops blackmailing gay clients, which climaxes with Walsh punching out and head butting one of the perps until his wig goes flying across the room. However, Walsh is disgusted by his surroundings as he vents his distaste for hookers, homosexuals, and child molesters, the targets of his trade.Read More »

  • John Hayes – The Cut-Throats (1969)

    John Hayes1961-1970ExploitationUSA
    The Cut Throats (1969)
    The Cut Throats (1969)

    A captain hand-picks half a dozen American soldiers for a desperate mission in Germany, to get possession of vital WW2 plans – but he keeps another secret up his sleeve.Read More »

  • Luchino Visconti – Lo straniero AKA The Stranger (1967)

    1961-1970DramaItalyLuchino Visconti
    Lo straniero (1967)
    Lo straniero (1967)

    A man faces a trial for murder. The court is biased because of his personal qualities.Read More »

  • Michelangelo Antonioni – L’Avventura aka The Adventure (1960)

    1951-1960ArthouseDramaItalyMichelangelo Antonioni
    L'avventura (1960)
    L’avventura (1960)

    Quote:
    This ground-breaking film won a Special Jury Prize at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival and established its director, Michelangelo Antonioni, as a major international talent. The plot concerns a yachting trip by a small group of jaded socialites, including Sandro (Gabriele Ferzetti), an aging architect who sold out for easy money long ago, his mistress Anna (Lea Massari), and her friend Claudia (Monica Vitti), who doesn’t fit in with the wealthy jet-setters’ dissolute ethics. When Anna disappears during a tour of a volcanic island, Claudia initially blames Sandro’s emotionally barren behavior toward her. As they search the island, however, Claudia and Sandro grow closer and — when it is apparent that Anna is gone forever — become lovers. Unfortunately, Sandro cannot find anything decent inside himself and betrays Claudia with a local prostitute. Caught in the act, Sandro has a heartrending breakdown on a desolate beach, but Claudia silently forgives him. L’avventura caught many audiences who were expecting a mystery by surprise; as in La notte (1961), The Eclipse (1962), and Red Desert (1964), Antonioni is interested less in developing a logical story than in exploring states of feeling and breakdowns in human connection.Read More »

  • Luciano Salce – Le ore dell’amor AKA The Hours of Love (1963)

    Luciano Salce1961-1970ComedyItalyRomance
    Le ore dell'amor (1963)
    Le ore dell’amor (1963)

    Gianni and Maretta live for three years a relationship that sees them happily in love. The decision to get married radically changes their lives, impacting negatively on their relationship. Cohabitation and daily routine stifle their passion and restrict the cultivation of their respective interests, fatally distant and irreconcilable.

    After clumsy attempts at betrayal, they both realize that mutual love is not gone, but it’s just suffocated by forced cohabitation, and so they save their relationship by resuming the menage as an engaged couple, made of amorous encounters that enrich their lives, but lived far apart, each one at his house.Read More »

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