Body Parts

Une femme mariée (1964) - Godard Macha Méril's Charlotte is a coquettish married woman vacillating between two men: a brutish plane obsessed husband (Philippe Leroy) and a narcissistic actor lover (Bernard Noël). It starts out with the static shot of each body part of Charlotte. Her days are spent on shopping, going to the cafes and the movies. She finds out that she is pregnant but doesn't know who the father is.

Godard's take on women being objectified in the consumerist 60s is on full display here. Also the talk of holocaust hangs like a cloud. Charlotte doesn't know what Auschwitz is as the men talk about it on the way back from the nazi trials in Hamburg. Biting and provocative.

Pretty Jamie Gumm

The Collector (1965) - Wyler

A young, introverted butterfly collector (Terrence Stamp) in a secluded big house with a separate cellar, moves up his territory when he kidnaps a pretty art school student (Samantha Eggar). After begging and pleading and escape attempts, they sort of agree on their terms - he will let her go after 4 weeks, hoping she will fall in love with him.

With only two principal actors (plus one small character in the middle), this John Fowles adaptation feels more like a play. Young Stamp is intense, playing the role of creepy, shy man with chips on his shoulders. Is it sex that you want from me? Miranda the art student asks him. No. He wants to respect her as a proper woman.

There is a big confrontation over Catcher in the Rye. Their class differences are highlighted and the gap between them is obviously too wide. The film suffers from Fowles passive aggressiveness of the characters and their shallow psychological makeup. Stamp is effectively creepy but the film doesn't quite escape from its Stockholm Syndrome/captive drama mold.

Fire Within

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960) - Reisz

Whatever people say I am, that's what I am not.

With his rugged good looks and swagger, Arthur (young Albert Finney) is a hard working, hard drinking factory worker. Constant trouble maker in arrested development, he has to face the consequences and think about settling down when he gets his girlfriend at the moment- a wife of a co-worker, Brenda (Rachel Roberts) pregnant and meets pretty, young Doreen (Shirley Ann Field). Would he change his ways and become like his characterless parents who only know work and TV?


Saturday Night is a matter of fact depiction of working class. "All I'm out for is a good time - all the rest is propaganda." Arthur declares in his narration early on. Finney's at his best being a brut without real menace. Straight laced Roberts plays an object of desire for a good looking working class bloke here and again in This Sporting Life for young Richard Harris three years later.


Quoted and loved by many British rockers- from Steve Ignorant of Crass to Morrissey to Arctic Monkeys, I can see how Arthur's take-it-or-leave-it attitude appealed to many young men before Travis Bickle age.

Feline Curse

Kuroneko/Black Cat (1968) - Shindo


The film starts with the farmers- mother and her daughter-in-law, gang raped and their house burned down by a band of lawless samurai. The women's black house cat ringers around their charred corpses. The setting is warring medieval Japan.


When they appear again, they are beautifully dressed courtesans luring the samruai in to the bamboo forest in the middle of the night and sucking their blood dry. Distressed leader sends the rising young samurai to destroy these monsters. The fate would have it, the young samurai happens to be the son and the husband of the two farmers who were raped and killed.


As shown in his Onibaba, Kaneto Shindo again, shows his hatred for the ruling warrior class and greed. Black Cat follows the best Japanese ghost story traditon, a la Ugetsu. Also it is the rape revenge story that is far more artful and elegant. The theatrical set and dramatic lighting are beautifully composed. It also features some great wire work and beautiful day for night shots. Very worth checking out.
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The Defiant One

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1961) - Richardson

Colin (Tom Courtenay) is a bitter young man from a poor household. His dad is dead and his mom is blowing dad's insurance money while his body's still warm. He is sent to a reform school for stealing 75 quid from a bakery. The governor of the institution (Michael Redgrave) takes a shine on him because of his running ability. He unwittingly becomes enemy of many people in there but he doesn't want to play anyone's game. As the film builds up to its climax where he and the lads go up against privileged public school running team, we get to know more about Colin. It's his stare that pierces one's heart.


Richardson's British class observation is very acute. At one point, Colin retorts when asked about getting a job, "It's not that I don't like work. It's just that I don't like the idea of slaving me guts out so the bosses can get all the profits. Seems all wrong to me."


The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner is the ultimate F U to the system movie and I really loved it. Glad finally got to see the greatness of Courtenay. Compare to Malcolm McDowell's all-knowing cynicism, his anger and loneliness seem genuine and all the more innocent. Gotta seek out more of his performances.


The film also features twitty (even back then) James Fox as the nemesis runner at the end.

Curiouser

Alice in Wonderland (1966) - Miller








This trippy BBC production of the Lewis Carroll's classic tale of a girl's journey to womanhood is quite remarkable in its subtle ingenuity and weirdness that could only possibly be produced in Britain in the 60s. Its B&W photography is no hindrance at all to tell this colorful story. And it's pretty straight forward in presentation(no costumes or masks). There are many familiar faces making appearances here- Michael Redgrave as Caterpillar, Michael Gough as March Hare, Peter Sellers as King of Hearts and John Gielgud as Mock Turtle. And it's a beauty to behold. Oh and Ravi Shankar provides the groovy soundtrack.