Tuesday, 21 March 2017

1962, again ....

We love 1962 here at The Projector. It may be the last great classic Hollywood year, with so many absorbing films (I've listed over 40)  : dramas, musicals, and great British and European films too. I was 16 then and just getting into them all ... seeing them on big screen. That great era of black and white films, with that early Sixties vibe. A different world: no internet or cell phones, no dvds or home entertainment apart from vinyl records, only two television channels in black and white. No wonder cinema was so important to us ... and magazines like "Films and Filming" and "Photoplay" and those American fan mags, after those "Picture Show" and "Fans Star Library" years, we had not graduated to "Sight and Sound" yet!

1963, 1964 and 1965 had their share of great movies too, but not as many as 1962, after that new decade began in 1960 with PSYCHO and L'AVVENTURA, and 1961 had classics like BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S, THE MISFITS and Brando's brooding ONE EYED JACKS, while the New Hollywood was coming into shape in 1966 (Lumet's THE GROUP, MGM bankrolling Antonioni's BLOW-UP), and arrived with BONNIE & CLYDE and IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT in 1967,while 1968 brought forth 2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY and solid entertainments like OLIVER! and THE LION IN WINTER, while 1969's best film was MIDNIGHT COWBOY.

But some of those 1962 titles are so long:
  • WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?
  • LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT
  • DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES
  • EXPERIMENT IN TERROR
  • SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH
  • THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALLANCE
  • TWO WEEKS IN ANOTHER TOWN
  • LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA
  • HEMINGWAY'S ADVENTURES OF A YOUNG MAN
  • THE LONELINESS OF THE LONG DISTANCE RUNNER
  • TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
  • THE MIRACLE WORKER
  • ADVISE AND CONSENT
  • THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE
  • ALL FALL DOWN
  • BIRDMAN OF ALCATRAZ
  • WALK ON THE WILD SIDE
  • THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE
  • LOLITA
  • BILLY BUDD
  • L'ECLISSE
  • JULES ET JIM
  • SUNDAYS AND CYBELE
  • A KIND OF LOVING
  • THE CHAPMAN REPORT
  • LAWRENCE OF ARABIA
  • SODOM AND GOMORRAH
  • BOCCACCIO 70
    A KIND OF LOVING
  • THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL
  • FIVE MILES TO MIDNIGHT
  • THE CONDEMNED OF ALTONA
  • THE LONGEST DAY
  • HOW THE WEST WAS WON
  • CAPE FEAR
  • DR NO
  • THE MUSIC MAN
  • GYPSY
  • JUMBO
  • HATARI!
  • THE TRIAL
  • PHAEDRA
  • KNIFE IN THE WATER
  • CLEO FROM 5 TO 7
  • REACH FOR GLORY
  • MR HOBBS TAKES A VACATION.
Lots on these at 1962 label ..... maybe only 1959 has as many noteworthy movies?
I now feel like digging out my 1962 "Films and Filming" magazines and re-live them all.

4 comments:

  1. Michael! Great minds think alike! As 1962 is my all-time favorite movie year, I thought I'd share with you the link to an essay I wrote on that film year back in 2012. It includes an especially lengthy list of all the year's great titles. Here goes:

    http://thepassionatemoviegoer.blogspot.com/2012/09/greatness-fifty-years-later.html

    Enjoy!

    -Joe

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  2. Great post, Joe. It was certainly a key year. I love 1959 equally.
    Thanks
    Mike

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  3. My God, one look at those titles and I truly do despair for cinema today! In 1962 audiences were expected to take their brains into the cinema with them and were rewarded with great, intelligent movies. Today if a decent intelligent movie does get made the studio either doesn't release it or slots it into some small art-house cinema. Okay, I know that is something of an exaggeration but it's not that far off the mark. I could weep!!

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