Cinema60

In search of thought provoking astral projections from across the galaxy, the USS KINO60 has launched triumphantly for what will be remembered as a utopian journey through the stars. Cosmonauts Bart and Jenna have reported some bumpy viewing conditions and unstable nuke-happy alien civilizations, but for the most part their mission has remained stylish and largely made up of primary colors. We wish them the best – glory to the conquerors of the universe!

In this episode, Bart and Jenna take a peak at some choice sci-fi genre flicks from behind the Iron Curtain. What started off as a look at the inspirations for 2001: A Space Odyssey morphed into an excuse to watch Ikarie XB-1 and settled in nicely with a dude standing on Venus shooting various Godzillas with a handgun. Please enjoy this peek into the optimistic future we could be living in right now if it weren’t for the selfish capitalist pigs who hate peace and cooperation.

The following films are discussed:

• Silent Star (a.k.a. First Spaceship on Venus) (1960)
Der schweigende Stern
Directed by Kurt Maetzig
Starring Yôko Tani, Oldrich Lukes, Ignacy Machowski

• Planet of Storms (1962)
Планета бурь
Directed by Pavel Klushantsev
Starring Vladimir Yemelyanov, Georgi Zhzhyonov, Gennadi Vernov

• Encounter in Space (1963)
Мечте навстречу
Directed by Mikhail Karyukov & Otar Koberidze
Starring Larisa Gordeichik, Boris Borisyonok, Otar Koberidze

• Icarus XB-1 (1963)
Directed by Jindrich Polák
Starring Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, Eleanor Parker

• The Andromeda Nebula (1967)
Туманность Андромеды
Directed by Evgeniy Sherstobitov
Starring Vija Artmane, Sergey Stolyarov, Nikolai Kryukov

• Mission Mars (1968)
Directed by Nicholas Webster
Starring Darren McGavin, Nick Adams, George De Vries

Kicking off our fifth season are the films of Robert Wise, arguably the most important director of the sixties – that is if you’re going by box office profits. Despite the musical genre not being one he ever associated with before this decade, Wise almost single-handedly shaped the evolution of the Hollywood Musical. Previously known for his noirs and a few notable sci-fi and horror films, by the 1960s he became the director for two of the biggest movie musicals of all time.

In this episode, Bart and Jenna cover these two Best Picture-winning films along with several other notable films that he made this decade – a couple of which are a highly prized by film lovers as his two mega-blockbusters. Though widely regarded as a gifted director with many beloved classics to his name, it’s hard to put a finger on any distinct personality or trademarks he brings to his uniformly solid but varied films. Bart and Jenna attempt to pinpoint what, if anything, makes a film identifiably “Wisean” – a tought feat when you’re trying to link up The Sound of Music with a depressingly realistic, toxic love and divorce drama.

The following films are discussed:

• West Side Story (1961)
Directed by Robert Wise & Jerome Robbins
Starring Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Rita Moreno

• Two for the Seesaw (1962)
Directed by Robert Wise
Starring Robert Mitchum, Shirley MacLaine, Edmon Ryan

• The Haunting (1963)
Directed by Robert Wise
Starring Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Russ Tamblyn

• The Sound of Music (1965)
Directed by Robert Wise
Starring Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, Eleanor Parker

• The Sand Pebbles (1966)
Directed by Robert Wise
Starring Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough, Mako

• Star! (1968)
Directed by Robert Wise
Starring Julie Andrews, Richard Crenna, Michael Craig

Starting in the mid 1940s and continuing through the 1960s, Egypt experienced a Golden Age of cinema. With the third largest private film production system in the world, Egypt acted as Hollywood to most all Arabic speaking countries; producing commercially minded hit after hit, with crowd pleasing stories, star players and big wig directors. Yet, as with most industries during the time, by the 1960s the bottom had started to fall out – The Nasser regime nationalized the industry in 1966, bringing a close to what had been a rather free wheeling time of cinematic exploration and focusing more on political mindedness and general entertainment.

In this episode, Bart and Jenna dive into a positive who’s who of Egyptian cinema. This dazzling array of famous Egyptian directors, films, and actors includes young Omar Sharif, Shukry Sarhan and Soad Hosny, bombshells Shadia and Hind Rostum, multiple Naguib Mahfouz adaptations, and even two films that broke through to the Western world: the Muslim Crusade epic Saladin and the internationally celebrated The Night Counting The Years. Not only do these foreign films not feel so foreign, but it turns out this might have been the most rewarding watch of the entire podcast season – all thumbs up!

The following films are discussed:

• The Beginning and the End (1960)
بداية و نهاي
Directed by Salah Abu Seif
Starring Omar Sharif, Sanaa Gamil, Farid Shawki

• A Rumor of Love (1961)
إشاعة حب
Directed by Fatin Abdel Wahab
Starring Omar Sharif, Soad Hosny, Youssef Wahbi

• Chased by the Dogs (1962)
اللص والكلاب
Directed by Kamal El Sheikh
Starring Shadia, Shukry Sarhan, Kamal Al-Shennawi

• Saladin (1963)
الناصر صلاح الدين
Directed by Youssef Chahine
Starring Ahmed Mazhar, Salah Zulfikar, Nadia Lutfi

• The Sin (1965)
الحرام
Directed by Henry Barakat
Starring Faten Hamama, Zaki Rostom, Abdullah Gaith

• The Postman (1968)
البوسطجي
Directed by Hussein Kamal
Starring Shukri Sarhan, Seif Abdelrahman, Zizi Mostapha

• The Night of Counting the Years (1969)
المومياء
Directed by Shady Abdel Salam
Starring Nadia Lutfi, Ahmed Marei, Ahmad Hegazi

The Korean War is aptly known in America as the “Forgotten War.” During the 1960s, the subject took in its last cinematic hurrah before getting overshadowed by the rising unpopularity of America’s involvement in the Vietnam War. Meanwhile, South Korea was experiencing a fabled “Golden Age” of cinema that followed the civil war and continued into the ‘60s – one that had some of its most famous hits rather cruelly lost to time. At Cinema60, we’ve largely ignored the Combat Film genre on whole… until now!

In this episode, Bart and Jenna take the opportunity to dig a little deeper into the war and “Golden Age” that time forgot. Watching three American films about the Korean War side-by-side with three films from South Korea on the same subject, they parse propaganda from profundity, patriotism from personal morality, and savagery from psychosis from two different nationalistic perspectives. While our two hosts don’t necessarily see eye-to-eye on the entertainment value of the genre or what makes a film pro- or anti- war, there’s an unexpected amount of agreement on which of these films is worth a look and which you can skip.

The following films are discussed:

• All the Young Men (1960)
Directed by Hall Bartlett
Starring Alan Ladd, Sidney Poitier, James Darren

• Five Marines (1961)
오인의 해병
Directed by Kim Ki-duk
Starring Choi Mun-lyong, Shin Yeong-gyun, Hwang Hae

• War Hunt (1962)
Directed by Denis Sanders
Starring John Saxon, Robert Redford, Sydney Pollack

• The Marines Who Never Returned (1963)
돌아오지 않는 해병
Directed by Lee Man-hee
Starring Jang Dong-hwi, Lee Dae-yeob, Ku Bong-seo

• The Hook (1963)
Directed by George Seaton
Starring Kirk Douglas, Robert Walker Jr., Nick Adams

• Red Scarf (1964)
빨간 마후라
Directed by Shin Sang-ok
Starring Choi Eun-hie, Shin Yeong-gyun, Choi Mu-ryong

With a starting list of over 15,000 features and documentaries to choose from, it’s unlikely that the Cinema60 team will ever run out of movies to watch and discuss from their chosen decade. But Bart and Jenna have crossed a significant finish line with today’s episode. Starting with Episode 5 back in March of 2019, Cinema60 has regularly put out “grab bag” episodes where your hosts pick three movies each from a given year - one they’ve never seen but are itching to watch, one they absolutely adore and have been itching to talk about on the show, and one terrible movie that they’re itching to disparage for your listening pleasure. They call these episodes “Kiss, Marry, Kill,” and you are about to listen to their tenth and final round of the game, having now gone through every year of the Sixties.

Jenna has chosen to keep things light and funny and has chosen three notable comedies from 1969 for discussion. Bart, on the other hand, has taken the opportunity to choose several firsts for Cinema60: their first Iranian film, their first kaijû movie, and, most importantly, their first Éric Rohmer film! So while Bart gushes for perhaps too long about what is arguably the best film by his favorite filmmaker, Jenna makes a tripartite bid to pull comedies out of the genre ghetto and defends their right to stand alongside any serious artsy movie you care to name.

The following films are discussed:

• The Cow (1969)
Gaav
Directed by Dariush Mehrjui
Starring Ezzatolah Entezami, Mahin Shahabi, Ali Nassirian

• Cactus Flower (1969)
Directed by Gene Saks
Starring Walter Matthau, Ingrid Bergman, Goldie Hawn

• My Night at Maud’s (1969)
Ma nuit chez Maud
Directed by Éric Rohmer
Starring Jean-Louis Trintignant, Françoise Fabian, Marie-Christine Barrault

• Take the Money and Run (1969)
Directed by Woody Allen
Starring Woody Allen, Janet Margolin, Jackson Beck

• All Monsters Attack (1969)
Gojira-Minira-Gabara: Oru kaijû daishingeki
Directed by Ishirô Honda
Starring Kenji Sahara, Machiko Naka, Tomonori Yazaki

• The Magic Christian (1969)
Directed by Joseph McGrath
Starring Peter Sellers, Ringo Starr, John Cleese

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 thing that the hosts of this podcast are always looking for: lost treasures that every cinephile should know about but not enough do. Pretty much all of these film are worth seeking out, but tune in and find out about at least a couple that rank as all-timers for the Cinema60 crew.

The following films are discussed:

• Tall Story (1960)
Directed by Joshua Logan
Starring Anthony Perkins, Jane Fonda, Ray Walston

• Psycho (1960)
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Starring Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles

• Goodbye Again (1961)
Aimez-vous Brahms?
Directed by Anatole Litvak
Starring Ingrid Bergman, Yves Montand, Anthony Perkins

• Phaedra (1962)
Directed by Jules Dassin
Starring Melina Mercouri, Anthony Perkins, Raf Vallone

• Five Miles To Midnight (1962)
Le Couteau dans la plaie
Directed by Anatole Litvak
Starring Sophia Loren, Anthony Perkins, Gig Young

• Two Are Guilty (1963)
Le glaive et la balance
Directed by André Cayatte
Starring Anthony Perkins, Jean-Claude Brialy, Renato Salvatori

• Agent 38-24-36 (1964)
Une ravissante idiote
Directed by Édouard Molinaro
Starring Brigitte Bardot, Anthony Perkins, Grégoire Aslan

• The Fool Killer (1965)
Violent Journey
Directed by Servando González
Starring Anthony Perkins, Edward Albert, Henry Hull

• The Champagne Murders (1967)
Le scandale
Directed by Claude Chabrol
Starring Anthony Perkins, Maurice Ronet, Yvonne Furneaux

• Pretty Poison (1968)
Directed by Noel Black
Starring Anthony Perkins, Tuesday Weld, Beverly Garland

Also mentioned:

• The Trial (1962)
Le procès
Directed by Orson Welles
Starring Anthony Perkins, Jeanne Moreau, Romy Schneider

• Is Paris Burning? (1966)
Paris brûle-t-il?
Directed by René Clément
Starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, Charles Boyer, Leslie Caron

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 unengaging throughout.

These six utterly disposable entertainments aren’t really the point here, though. The real meat of episode is Bart & Jenna’s philosophical inquiry into the true nature of knockoff cinema and what these films mean to their largely accidental audience. Moreover, they scrutinize the Italian film industry of the ‘60s that thrived on producing hundreds upon hundreds of cheap genre pictures and lousy imitations of hit films for international distribution, and ask the same men responsible for giving us the cinematic masterpieces of Fellini and Antonioni the crucial question: Cosa diavolo…?

The following films are discussed:

• Mission Bloody Mary (1965)
Agente 077 missione Bloody Mary
Directed by Sergio Grieco
Starring Ken Clark, Helga Liné, Mitsouko

• From the Orient with Fury (1965)
Agente 077 dall'oriente con furore
Directed by Sergio Grieco
Starring Ken Clark, Margaret Lee, Fabienne Dali

• 077 - Special Mission Lady Chaplin (1966)
Missione speciale Lady Chaplin
Directed by Alberto De Martino & Sergio Grieco
Starring Ken Clark, Daniela Bianchi, Helga Liné

• Secret Agent Fireball (1965)
Le spie uccidono a Beirut
Directed by Luciano Martino
Starring Richard Harrison, Dominique Boschero, Wandisa Guida

• Killers Are Challenged (1966)
A 077, sfida ai killers
Directed by Antonio Margheriti
Starring Richard Harrison, Mitsouko, Wandisa Guida

• Fury in Marrakesh (1966)
077 - Furia a Marrakech
Directed by Mino Loy & Luciano Martino
Starring Stephen Forsyth, Dominique Boschero, Mitsouko

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 graduated to working on blockbusters – only to find himself drawn to a style of independent film later known as New Hollywood.

In this episode, Bart and Jenna pinpoint what it is about Francis Ford Coppola that’s continually inspirational, and debate which of his many masterful films are their favorites - but then remember they’re supposed to be talking about all his ‘60s juvenilia instead. Listen as they brave a handful of lighthearted nudie flicks, mediocre genre cash-ins, a couple of fascinating failures and one genuinely great film.

The following films are discussed:

• Tonight for Sure (1962)
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola & Jerry Schafer
Starring Karl Schanzer, Don Kenney, Marli Renfro

• The Bellboy and the Playgirls (1962)
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola & Fritz Umgelter
Starring June Wilkinson, Don Kenney, Karin Dor

• Battle Beyond the Sun (1962)
Directed by Mikhail Karyukov and Aleksandr Kozyr & Francis Ford Coppola
Starring Ivan Pereverzev, Aleksandr Shvorin, Konstantin Bartashevich

• The Terror (1963)
Directed by Roger Corman & Monte Hellman & Francis Ford Coppola & Jack Hale & Dennis Jakob & Jack Nicholson & Jack Hill
Starring Boris Karloff, Jack Nicholson, Sandra Knight

• Dementia 13 (1963)
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
Starring Luana Anders, Bart Patton, Patrick Magee

• You're a Big Boy Now (1966)
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
Starring Peter Kastner, Elizabeth Hartman, Geraldine Page

• Finian's Rainbow (1968)
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
Starring Fred Astaire, Petula Clark, Tommy Steele

• The Rain People (1969)
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
Starring James Caan, Shirley Knight, Robert Duvall

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 current cinema.

In this episode, Bart and Jenna grill Zoë on her method for getting contemporary film fans interested in 20th-century movies. Then, while Zoë and Jenna bond over their shared Dean Martin obsession, Bart does his best to politely nod and smile.

The following film is discussed:

• Bells Are Ringing (1960)
Directed by Vincente Minnelli
Starring Judy Holliday, Dean Martin, Fred Clark, Eddie Foy Jr., Jean Stapleton, Ruth Storey, Dort Clark, Frank Gorshin, Ralph Roberts, Valerie Allen, Bernard West, Steve Peck, Gerry Mulligan

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 diversity of cultures that have come together under one glorious united socialist banner.

And so, Cinema60 tackles its most obscure batch of movies yet! It’s a whole episode on Ukrainian cinema of the 60s that doesn’t even include Sergei Parajanov’s Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, the one Ukrainian film of the era that’s received significant international recognition. But before you turn that dial… wait! We’ve got at least four stone cold must-see classics here (which four those are depends on if you ask Jenna or Bart) plus a couple others that provide major insight into the values and traditions of a people that have been on all our minds lately. All six of these films are well-known and beloved by Ukrainians as major cultural touchstones and deserve wider recognition.

While Bart and Jenna discuss what it is that makes these films “uniquely Ukrainian,” they mostly focus on the films on their own terms and decide whether they can be appreciated and enjoyed by 21st Century Westerners. The answer is a resounding, “так!”

The following films are discussed:

• Chasing Two Hares (1961)
Za dvoma zaytsiamy
Directed by Viktor Ivanov
Starring Oleg Borisov, Margarita Krinitsyna, Nikolay Yakovchenko

• Song of the Forest (1961)
Lisova pisnya
Directed by Viktor Ivchenko
Starring Raisa Nedashkovskaya, Volodymyr Sydorchuk, Pyotr Vesklyarov

• The Enchanted Desna (1964)
Zacharovannaya Desna
Directed by Yuliya Solntseva
Starring Evgeniy Samoylov, Vladimir Goncharov, Evgeniy Bondarenko

• The Stone Cross (1968)
Kaminnyy khrest
Directed by Leonid Osyka
Starring Borislav Brondukov, Daniil Ilchenko, Yekaterina Mateyk

• Conscience (1968)
Sovist
Directed by Vladimir Denisenko
Starring Anatoliy Sokolovskiy, Viktor Malyarevich, Nikolay Oleynik

• Annychka (1969)
Directed by Boris Ivchenko
Starring Lyubov Rumyantseva, Ivan Mikolaychuk, Grigore Grigoriu