Cinema60

Partially due to his desire to not get typecast after his most famous role, as well an urge to escape the pressure put on him by the studios to not be so ‘out’ about his homosexuality, Perkins ran away from Hollywood and ended up having one of the strangest careers of any major star in the 60s. Fortunately, his self-imposed exile in France resulted in a bunch of movies that are exactly the kind of...

We’re back in the world of Bootleg Bond, navigating the vast number of rip-offs and spoofs that tried to cash in on the 007 craze. In this episode, Cinema60 goes to Italy to scout out Agent 077 – the ever forgettable Eurospy with the ever changing name and face. Marvel as he shoots men, slaps women, skis mountains, flies helicopters, saves the world from nuclear meltdown and remains wholly unengag...

In many ways, the story of Francis Ford Coppola in the 1960s is a true parallel to the story of the dissolution and subsequent restructuring of Hollywood throughout the decade. Coppola got into the film industry quickly after graduating college, he started in nudie flicks and worked his way up through various low budget Roger Corman pictures. After earning his MFA in film from UCLA in 1967, he gra...

Four generations collide when Bart and Jenna sit down for a conversation with budding film scholar and popular Letterboxd personality, Zoë Rogan , about Boomer movies. Using the final Arthur Freed-produced MGM musical, Bells Are Ringing , as a taking off point, the three classic Hollywood fanatics get to the bottom of what it is about older movies that makes them so much more appealing than curren...

With all of the talk of Ukraine happening right now, Cinema60 figured it was a good a time as any to see what films they could find. The films selected for this episode were mainly produced by Dovzhenko Film Studios in Kyiv during the post-Stalinist thaw that resulted in a push to create a uniquely Ukrainian Cinema that could be presented to the rest of the Soviet Union to demonstrate the diversit...

Continuing our series of posthumous interviews , Cinema60 summons up Andrew Sarris from beyond the grave to talk about one of his favorite films: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance . Best known for having popularized the auteur theory to the English speaking world, Sarris was a powerhouse film critic in the 1960s who wrote primarily for The Village Voice. In this episode, Bart and Jenna discuss Sarr...

Cinema60 continues its series of Kiss, Marry, Kill , this time with a focus on the year 1968. As previously explained , it’s a variation on the ol’ FMK game, played year by year as we go through the decade. Bart and Jenna challenge each other to choose one film they love (“Marry”), one film they want to see (“Kiss”), and one film they hate (“Kill”) that was released in the year 1968. In this episo...

What was it about Arthurian legends that so captivated 1960s audiences? Depending on who’s doing the retelling, and the century they’re living in, the tales of King Arthur and his knights vary wildly from stodgy conservative fables, to shockingly taboo love triangles, to intriguing surrealistic sorcery. When Lerner and Loewe’s play Camelot arrived on the scene in 1960 it quickly became a smash hit...

The legacy of Stan Brakhage looms large in the crowded world of 1960s experimental film. His style of filming and editing has become instantly recognizable, as are the themes of nature, bodies, and children that he always circles back to. Having rejected a more conventional lifestyle, inspired in part by experimental artists he met in San Francisco and New York, Brakhage developed his own unique s...

Joining Cinema60 for this episode is Gabriele Caroti, former director of BAMcinematek and founder of film distribution company Seventy Seven . This month Seventy Seven is releasing into theaters the 2K restoration of Barney Platts-Mills’ Bronco Bullfrog , a gritty but delightful piece of British kitchen sink realism, originally released in 1970, set against the backdrop of the working class teens...

Or perhaps we should say British Anti-Bond Spy Films in the ‘60s. Everybody knows midcentury cinema was spy crazy, but it also goes without saying that these spy films were largely modeled after the action-packed espionage found in James Bond and very little on the kind of work actual spies do. What links the films in our latest Bootleg Bond episode is the common goal on the part of a number of Br...

By the beginning of the ‘60s, Mexican Horror had developed its own distinct tropes, evolved from old Universal monster movies to create formulaic crowd pleasers with plenty of gothic atmosphere and vengeful supernatural creatures. But by the end of the ‘60s, they were already expanding into more original films that thoughtfully approached terror and dread in a way that’s reminiscent of modern horr...

Cinema60 continues its series of Kiss, Marry, Kill , this time with a focus on the year 1967. As previously explained , it’s a variation on the ol’ FMK game, played year by year as we go through the decade. Bart and Jenna challenge each other to choose one film they love (“Marry”), one film they want to see (“Kiss”), and one film they hate (“Kill”) that was released in the year 1967. In this episo...

Ah, Paul Newman - arguably the biggest actor of the ‘60s. Who doesn’t get lost in those dreamy blue eyes? But this episode isn’t about him, really. It’s about his better half, Joanne Woodward, who had twice his acting chops but, unfortunately, a quarter of his drawing power on the marquee. But you don’t need to do the math to discover how great Joanne is after you watch all her ‘60s movies. Don’t...

While the end of the decade ushered in an explosion of gay rights movements, it’s no secret that the 1960s were not exactly the friendliest decade for LGBTQ people. When it comes to showing lesbians on film, there seemed to be a bit more wiggle room – in the same way laws were more punishing towards male homosexuality, the female variety seemed to be allowed to get away with being more openly abou...

Like the rest of Europe, Czechoslovakia was busy making its own cinematic waves in the 1960s. Arguably, the Czechoslovak New Wave was one of the broadest and most formidable, stretching from extremely abstract art films to slice-of-life kitchen sink dramas. These filmmakers went in search of truth – indulging in a mix of dark humor, social satire and pure absurdism – and they would have gotten awa...

Once upon a time, in a magical red world behind an iron curtain, there existed a very special man named Aleksandr Rou. Born to two foreign-born parents, Rou worked his way up from the stage to become one of Russia’s most celebrated film directors. But Rou wasn’t any ol’ director; he focused primarily on fantasy and fairy tale films for children – building up worlds of magical witches, talking anim...

If you were a teenager in the 1960s chances are you loved three things: The Beatles, Yo-Yos and The Man From UNCLE. Okay, likely you enjoyed a variety of other things, but the adventures of Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin sure captured the hearts and minds of the many during their four year television run. But this is cinema 60 so we’re exploring the eight Man From UNCLE movies that were released...

Bart & Jenna play Kiss Marry Kill with the year 1966. The following films are discussed: • Once Before I Die (1966) Directed by John Derek Starring Ursula Andress, John Derek, Richard Jaeckel • The Round-Up (1966) Szegénylegények Directed by Miklós Jancsó Starring János Görbe, Zoltán Latinovits, Tibor Molnár • How to Steal a Million (1966) Directed by William Wyler Starring Audrey Hepburn, Pet...

Bart and Jenna dust off a 1962 article by critic Stanley Kauffmann on Truffaut’s Jules and Jim to use as a sounding board for how and why ‘60s filmgoers showed up for and reacted so favorably to challenging “art” films. They also discuss love in its various states, from the idealized to the understated love of a perfect friendship.

In 1960, Nancy Kwan burst onto the screen in glorious color as the titular Suzie Wong. The film was a major hit that both launched her career and gained her lasting name recognition in the industry. After a memorable stint in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s celebrated Flower Drum Song , she went on to a bizarre mix of smaller films and bit roles but never seemed to find her place. How could this happen...

There’s an argument to be made for the idea that Haskell Wexler was one of the founding fathers of modern cinema. With his emphasis on handheld cameras, naturalistic on-location shooting and dramatic lighting, Wexler stands out as one of the few true auteur cinematographers. Between his iconic visuals and his clear interest in and emphasis on political themes and social justice, his body of work a...

Guest Ann Kibbie, English Literature professor at Bowdoin College, joins Cinema60 to discuss Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick's Days of Wine and Roses – a film she classifies as firmly in the horror genre.

As part of our mission statement, Cinema60 boldly claims that modern cinema was born in the 1960s. However you want to look at that assertion, there’s no denying that cinema before the ‘60s was (well, at least since the mid-1930s) safe family-friendly entertainment with bits of adult content creeping in around the edges little by little–to a greater or lesser degree depending on where in the world...

Guest Paul Bishop of the Six Gun Justice podcast joins us to discuss The Professionals (1966). From talk of truth and morality, sexism and racism, as well as some memorably badass women warriors, they’ve got quite a bit on their plate.