Film Persona

  Satyajit Ray's "The Hero" With the post-modern films of the 1960s came another layer to the cinematic experience - the metatext of narrative. Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray, who perfected his visual aesthetic by this time, used his 1966 film " The Hero " to abed this specific kind of narrative. The film's lead actor, Uttam Kumar, known for his screen presence in Indian cinema as " The Great Hero ," essentially played himself in Ray's production. Arindam Mukherjee, a Bengali film star known for his 'heroic' roles, is taking a 24-hour long train ride to Delhi where he will receive an award. While on the train, he comes across a variety of people, including an editor for a woman's magazine, Aditi. Her attempts to interview Arindam opens him up to past memories - which psychological haunt the superstar actor. Of course, the title of " The Hero " gets interrogated in Ray's film. The idolic actor's pristine and mysterio...

  Koreyoshi Kurahara's "Thirst For Love" There are certain stories that center on a rich, lustful woman desirous of a lower-class fellow in which the themes illustrate economic divides. Koreyshoi Kurahara's adaptation of Yukio Mishima's 1950 novel " Thirst For Love " takes this concept to its extreme. 1966's " Thirst For Love " is a delirious and erotic film that captures the voluptuous turmoil of Mishima's novel while also standing out as a centerpiece of Kurahara's filmography.  The film centers on Yakichi, a young widow who becomes the mistress of her wealthy father-in-law. She begins to have sexual desires for their family gardener, Saburo. After Saburo gets into a relationship with the maid, Yakichi drives them towards a tragic breakup. Eventually, Yakichi's feelings erupts - causing tragic consequences.  Yakichi feels trapped by her father-in-law's grasps due to his economic means. Her lusting after the servant boy is ...

  Jiri Menzel's "Closely Watched Trains" Of all of the films to come out of the Czech New Wave movement, Jiri Menzel's 1966 film " Closely Watched Trains " is perhaps one of the most widely-known. It received widespread acclaim outside of Czechoslovak and even won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Based on Bohumil Hrabal's 1965 novella of the same name, " Closely Watched Trains " was director Menzel's debut feature and earned him respect for the rest of his long career. The film centers on a young boy named Milos, who becomes an apprentice train dispatcher during the German occupation of Czechoslovakia. Beyond the continued external circumstances of their occupation, young Milos's priorities lie with securing a sexual relationship with a woman. However, his inability to perform the act causes him great concern and drives the entire emotional structure of the story. The film is as quiet and unassuming as its young protago...

  Jacques Rivette's "The Nun" After watching Jacques Rivette's 1966 film " The Nun ," I am thoroughly convinced it is the greatest 'nun' film I've seen. The film stars Anna Karina as a young woman who is forced into becoming a nun against her wishes. While the specific subject matters centers on this religious specificity, the overall context could be broadened to view it as a criticism of society itself and its oppressive restrictiveness. Karina's Suzanne, is forced to enter a convent to prevent her sisters from missing out on their inheritance. After her vows, her kind mother superior is replaced with a crueler woman who reduces Suzanne's possessions, restricts her diet, and locks her away in a barren room. After getting the courts involved, Suzanne is transferred to another church, under the supervision of the more light-hearted Mme de Chelles. After rebuffing sexual advances from her, Suzanne escapes the convent back into society. Wha...

  Claude Lelouch's "A Man and a Woman" While the plot may be deceptively simple, Claude Lelouch's " A Man and a Woman " is decidedly unsimple in its execution of visual imagery. From gorgeous sequences of color, to black-and-white, a sepia-toned shots, every visual demands its own attention as a unique layout of its story. This, along with the artistically-minded edits, makes it a great addition to the French New Wave and a uniquely sublime romance story. The film centers on a man and a woman (obviously). Both are widowed, single parents who meet at their children's school. After spending the day together, they develop romantic feelings for one another and continue their tryst. However, memories of their late partners continue to ring in their minds. There is a certain 'slice of life' romantic quality the film possesses - one that reminds me of Richard Linklater's " The Before Trilogy ." However, with the added 1960s-style New Wave,...

  Norman Jewison's "In the Heat of the Night" Due to the Civil Rights issues taking place all over the U.S. in the 1960s, there were plenty of films coming out that touched upon them. One of those films, 1967's " In the Heat of the Night " has gone on to be recognized as one of the standouts of this type of film. It stars the incomparable Sidney Poitier as a Philadelphia homicide detective who begrudgingly helps a small Mississippi police force solve a murder. There are certain elements of the film that seemed like oversimplifications of complex issues. Other times, it felt like the film added some dimensionality to otherwise black-and-white abstracts. On the whole, the film does a fabulous job of raising concerns regarding racial tensions in the south. More specifically, it turns several notions on their head, including the competent black man helping more inexperienced Southern white men in their line of duty.  First and foremost, the film should be recogn...

Pier Paolo Pasolini's "The Hawks and the Sparrows"  Up until now, the films of Pier Paolo Pasolini have been biting allegories of modern social and political concerns. They're rich and subversive. This is precisely why I feel as though his 1966 film " The Hawks and the Sparrows " is a huge let down from his typical standard of film. The film can be seen as a comedy, although my laughing was kept at a minimum. It centers on the elder Toto and his son, Ninetto, who travers the countryside with a talking crow - who also happens to be a left-wing intellectual. The crow recounts a Marxist allegory involving two friars preaching the Gospel to hawks (representing the powerful) and sparrows (representing the weak). After the story, their journey carries on and faces continued allegories to social injustice. Despite the good-natured satire and irreverence of the piece, it failed to either entertain or intellectually titillate. The thematic nature of the film lacked m...

  Hiroshi Teshigahara's "The Face of Another" Although it was a critical and commercial failure outside of its release, the 1966 film " The Face of Another " still manages to be a critical link the chain of Hiroshi Teshigahara's filmography. Its gothic-noir ambiance is a unique tone for a Japanese production, making it a singularly one-of-a-kind film.  The film centers on Mr. Okuyama - an engineer whose face was disfigured by an explosion in an industrial accident. He only wears bandages on his face to cover his burns. That is until he becomes the test subject for a prosthetic mask resembling a real human face. He uses this opportunity in a new identity to seduce his wife. For me, the entire enjoyment of the film rests on its gothic tone and abstract visuals. Teshigahara and his unique directing style creates some engaging images that titillates the imagination. One can turn the sound off and manage to be enraptured by its qualities. However, for me, the fil...

  Sidney Lumet's "The Hill" There aren't a whole lot of films that make me viscerally angry. Sidney Lumet's 1965 film " The Hill " is one of the rare exceptions. My anger doesn't stem from the quality of the film. Rather, the film is incredibly effective at eliciting this response out of me. It story revolving around a military prison and the obvious injustice and abuse that goes on there is enough to boil anyone's blood. The great Sean Connery plays Joe Roberts, a former squadron sergeant major from the Royal Tank Regiment who is sent to a British Army glasshouse in the Libyan desert after assaulting his commanding officer. The cruel and oppressive treatment of the prisoners eventually leads to a death by negligence, leading Joe to become defiant of his abusive staff sergeants. The dissent grows, leading to more crackdowns and hysteria. Beyond the obvious plot points that are bound to entice the sympathies of its audience, the film somehow manag...

  Seijun Suzuki's "Tokyo Drifter" 1966's " Tokyo Drifter " is somehow both a prime example of the Japanese yakuza film while also being slightly a parody of it. It centers on a fiercely loyal yakuza operative who must travers through the countryside after a rival kingpin's hires a gun-for-hire to assassinate him. The film is highly stylized and often includes elements of absurdism, which aid in its quest to be entertaining.  To me, the film has the feeling of a 'pop art' film. Definitely fitting into the categories of gangster flick and neo-noir, " Tokyo Drifter " somehow manages to really stylize its action. The action is often absurd - making it feel far more soapy and B-rated.  Beyond its elements of style and camp, the film has underlying themes of corporate corruption through violence. Our characters are yakuza, but are working through the lens of corporate enterprise. One of the things the film seems to be saying is that this adhe...

  David Lean's "Doctor Zhivago" By 1965, David Lean had come to be known for his expansive epics, like 1957's " The Bridge on the River Kwai " or 1962's " Lawrence of Arabia ." So, his 1965 film " Doctor Zhivago " was nothing out of the ordinary. Based on the 1957 novel of the same name by Russian poet Boris Pasternak, the film details the fictional accounts of a Doctor Zhivago (also a poet) through the very real historical events involving the Russian Revolution. Despite the film depicting the tsarist rule and the eventual Bolshevik state as both being hostile and terrorizing, the Soviet Union felt the film was anti-Soviet all together. In the film, Doctor Zhivago is constantly caught in the middle between the factions, ultimately trying to keep himself and his family safe (along with his mistress). Once the Bolsheviks take power, they are portrayed as cold and villainous which clearly upset the Soviet state. The titular character of...

  Robert Wise's "The Sound of Music" Undoubtedly one of the most popular films in history, 1965's " The Sound of Music " continues to be in the forefront of conversations regarding great cinema. Its songs are iconic (and still sung), its Technicolor is remarkable, and its themes continue to be relevant. Winner of 5 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, the film also was a commercial smash it, By 1966, it had surpassed " Gone with the Wind " at the U.S. box office to become the highest grossing film in history. The film is an adaptation of an adaption of an adaption of a real-life even. Specifically, the real Von Trapp family fled Austria in 1938 and Maria wrote about their experiences in the 1949 memoir " The Story of the Trapp Family Singers " after the death of the patriarch in 1947. That memoir was turned into a Broadway production in 1959, which was then turned in to the 1965 musical film. It centers on Maria, a young woman studying...