The next Rock ‘N Roll Years post is that of 1961. You can find it below but first as I’ve done a couple of times before I’ve selected some of the films released that year and stuck them in a table with a link which is generally to the film’s trailer but where possible to see the film itself (although these things can come and go like the tide).
Some comments on some of the films :-
La Notte was the first Antonioni film I ever saw, this was on TV in about 1970 or so, I’ve never watched since but would like to, ideally on a big screen somewhere.
Around the same time I saw Last Year In Marienbad on TV. I’d already seen and loved Hiroshima Mon Amour as mentioned earlier in this blog, but the Marienbad film was a total revelation for me and within another few years I managed to see it 3 or 4 more times. This of course was before the era of VHS or DVD so that had to be at a cinema or film club. There’s a simple game in the film where objects (doesn’t matter what – I think in the film it’s cards) are laid out in rows and you take turns to remove them – one or more but only from a single row at a time. The person who picks up the last object loses. I spent a lot of time for a year or so showing people how to play that and invariably beating them as the mysterious character in the film does. Actually if both players know what they’re doing it’s simple in that the person who goes first will always win.
I went to see The Guns of Navarone with my brother and sister and I think a couple of other kids at the cinema in Huddersfield when it was out. My father dropped us off and was going to pick us up later. In those days most films, especially one as long as this were screened with 2 reels so that there was a longish break between each half of the film. Our timing was out so badly that we watched the 2nd half of the film first and then the 1st half – very post-modern but not to be recommended in general.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen Mysterious Island but I’d really like to – animation by the great Ray Harryhausen, a score by the great Bernard Hermann, but above all for the presence of one of my favourite actresses – the magnificent Joan Greenwood.
And finally while on the subject of favourite actresses, Ozu’s The End of Summer was the last time that Setsuko Hara worked with the master.
| Title | Director | Link |
|---|---|---|
| La Notte | Michaelangelo Antonioni | Trailer |
| One-Eyed Jacks | Marlon Brando | Full film |
| Whistle Down The Wind | Bryan Forbes | Trailer |
| The End Of Summer | Yasujiro Ozu | Trailer |
| Through A Glass Darkly | Ingmar Bergman | Trailer |
| Breakfast At Tiffany’s | Blake Edwards | Trailer |
| The Colossus Of Rhodes | Sergio Leone | Full film |
| Viridiana | Luis Buñuel | Trailer |
| The Comancheros | Michael Curtiz | Trailer |
| El Cid | Anthony Mann | Full film |
| The Innocents | Jack Clayton | Full film |
| Last Year At Marienbad | Alain Resnais | Full film |
| Mysterious Island | Cy Endfield | Trailer |
| The Guns Of Navarone | J Lee Thompson | Full film |
| Yojimbo | Akira Kurosawa | Trailer |