History of Film, Part 6: 1960-1969

A variation on the yearly threads we did a few years ago, with these monthly threads we will talk about individual eras of film, from the obvious classics to the forgotten masterpieces to those giants that might need to be re-evaluated.

In November we continue with a decade that saw the beginning of New Hollywood, when studios began to experiment with young filmmakers promising bold visions. Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde kicked off the movement, and before the end of the decade you started to see the development of future legends like Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, and Peter Bogdanovich. The French New Wave was in full swing, with Jean-Luc Godard, Francois Truffaut, and Agnes Varda rejecting the old style of European film and openly embracing new techniques in editing, narrative continuity, and subject matter. Breathless and Jules and Jim inspired future filmmakers on both sides of the Atlantic.

Other major films include multiple masterpieces from the great Stanley Kubrick, including Dr. Strangelove and 2001: A Space Odyssey, the iconic Dollars Trilogy from Sergio Leone, Hitchcock's horror classic Psycho, and the always quotable Mike Nichols film The Graduate. The Sixties was a time of a creative renaissance, and we are still being influenced by their work today.

What are your thoughts? Favorites? Recommendations? Challenges to the canon?

Other decades:

History of Film, Part 1: 1888-1919 • forum.chorus.fm

History of Film, Part 2: 1920-1929 • forum.chorus.fm

History of Film, Part 3: 1930-1939 • forum.chorus.fm

History of Film, Part 4: 1940-1949 • forum.chorus.fm

 

Excellent

 

Best decade for music and movies?

 

No, but it is up there. Outside of the obvious classics (Breathless, Balthazar, Easy Rider etc.), some overlooked stuff that I love:
Blast of Silence
World's Greatest Sinner
The Swimmer (had its twitter run a few years back)
The Sadist

Also a fan of the following shorts:
Thanatopsis by Ed Emshwiller
Opus #5 by Lloyd Michael Williams
Satan Bouche un Coin by Jean-Pierre Bouyxou

I also watch the film Lights by Marie Menken every year during the holiday season. It is wonderful.

 

The 70's are better for American film, but the European arthouse was firing on all cylinders. I have already mentioned the French New Wave and Leone but you also had Fellini at his best and Bergman and Bresson and Dreyer and Tarkovsky and Antonioni. An embarrassment of riches.

 

Yeah but have you ever seen the 1986 Richard Wenk movie Vamp starring the guy who plays Long Duk Dong and Grace Jones?

 

I can't say I have.