Cinema60

Charles Mingus once said: “Anyone can make the simple complicated. Creativity is making the complicated simple.” Jenna wasn’t thinking about this quote when she coined the term “Jazz Anxiety Movie” but it certainly fits. What she was thinking about was how many brilliant 1960s films about anxiety-inducing situations seem to have memorable jazz scores. But it was more than that–beyond just utilizing jazz to get across a mood, all of these movies seemed to actively reflect their scores in their filmmaking, resulting in punches of abstract visuals or non-linear plots. What indeed was this intrinsic connection between the sound of jazz and the visual representation of anxiousness?

In this episode, Bart and Jenna set out to define what exactly this genre is that they made up. While they have a solid handle on digging deep into the anxiety aspect, they call upon guest Kyle Eagle, host of The Major Scale jazz program and previous Cinema60 guest episode, to help fill in some much-needed music knowledge.

The following films are discussed:

• The Connection (1961)
Directed by Shirley Clarke
Starring Warren Finnerty, William Redfield, Roscoe Lee Browne
Soundtrack by Freddie Redd, feat. Jackie McLean, Michael Mattos, & Larry Ritchie.

• All Night Long (1962)
Directed by Basil Dearden
Starring Patrick McGoohan, Richard Attenborough, Marti Stevens
Soundtrack by Philip Green, feat. Charles Mingus and Dave Brubeck

• Pressure Point (1962)
Directed by Hubert Cornfield
Starring Sidney Poitier, Bobby Darin, Peter Falk
Soundtrack by Ernest Gold

• Repulsion (1965)
Directed by Roman Polanski
Starring Catherine Deneuve, Ian Hendry, John Fraser
Soundtrack by Chico Hamilton

• Mickey One (1965)
Directed by Arthur Penn
Starring Warren Beatty, Alexandra Stewart, Franchot Tone
Soundtrack by Eddie Sauter feat. Stan Getz

• Mister Buddwing (1966)
Directed by Delbert Mann
Starring James Garner, Jean Simmons, Suzanne Pleshette
Soundtrack by Kenyon Hopkins

Bart and Jenna play Kiss Marry Kill with movies in the year 1965, a year where you can feel the rebellion starting to bubble over.

The following films are discussed:• Man Is Not a Bird (1965) Covek nije tica Directed by Dusan Makavejev Starring Milena Dravic, Janez Vrhovec, Eva Ras

• Waqt (1965) Directed by Yash Chopra Starring Sunil Dutt, Sadhana, Raaj Kumar

• Rapture (1965) Directed by John Guillermin Starring Melvyn Douglas, Patricia Gozzi, Dean Stockwell

• Fists in the Pocket (1965) I pugni in tasca Directed by Marco Bellocchio Starring Lou Castel, Paola Pitagora, Marino Masé

• What's New Pussycat? (1965) Directed by Clive Donner Starring Peter Sellers, Peter O'Toole, Romy Schneider

• Run Home, Slow (1965) Directed by Ted Brenner Starring Mercedes McCambridge, Linda Gaye Scott, Allen Richards

Guest author Marshall Terrill speaks to Cinema60 about the life of Steve McQueen and the wild making of Bullitt

Guest Richard A Lertzman talks frankly to Cinema60 about his new book Deconstructing the Rat Pack: Joey, The Mob and The Summit along with breaking down the impetus behind the original Ocean's 11 (1960)

After years of fighting against political turmoil, personal strife and artistic complacency, Luis Buñuel finally found a decade that embraced him for everything he was and could be. The famous Surrealist who was ejected from the European filmmaking community in the early ‘30s for blasphemy and a sensibility too outrageous for mass consumption, made his circuitous way back to the Continent in the ‘60s after self-imposed exile making low budget Mexican melodramas. Primed by youthful rebellion and the French New Wave, he finally found an audience for his particular brand of button-pushing non-conformity, and settled into his late career streak of unparalleled masterpieces.

In this episode, Bart and Jenna investigate the bizarre and Catholic guilt-ridden world of atheist filmmaker Luis Buñuel. To their own surprise, it turns out they don’t really see eye-to-eye on any of his films. Where this renowned auteur had a huge impact on turning young Bart into the cinephile he is today, Surrealist worshipping Jenna admirably justifies her respectful lack of enthusiasm for some of the Spanish director’s most beloved works.

The following films are discussed:

• The Young One (1960)
La joven
Directed by Luis Buñuel
Starring Zachary Scott, Bernie Hamilton, Key Meersman

• Viridiana (1961)
Directed by Luis Buñuel
Starring Silvia Pinal, Francisco Rabal, Fernando Rey

• The Exterminating Angel (1962)
El ángel exterminador
Directed by Luis Buñuel
Starring Silvia Pinal, Jacqueline Andere, Claudio Brook

• Diary of a Chambermaid (1964)
Le journal d'une femme de chambre
Directed by Luis Buñuel
Starring Jeanne Moreau, Georges Géret, Michel Piccoli

• Simon of the Desert (1965)
Simón del desierto
Directed by Luis Buñuel
Starring Claudio Brook, Silvia Pinal, Enrique Álvarez Félix

• Belle de Jour (1967)
Directed by Luis Buñuel
Starring Catherine Deneuve, Jean Sorel, Michel Piccoli

• The Milky Way (1969)
La voie lactée
Directed by Luis Buñuel
Starring Paul Frankeur, Laurent Terzieff, Michel Piccoli

Ryan Moore of Lost in the Longboxes! joins Bart & Jenna for a discussion on the Barbarella comic and film

Out here in the desert you only have two friends, your rifle and your flat angled eyeliner brush. One of Jenna’s favorite activities is spotting inappropriate fashion, hair, and makeup in meant-to-be period films. Some decades are certainly worse than others and the midcentury falls firmly in the ‘too self aware’ camp–I mean, how can you expect people to flock to the theaters if we can’t even see the general outline of some cleavage, am I right guys? While not as prudish as the 1800s, in the 1960s it was still pretty ‘shocking’ to show women in jeans, so perhaps this hybrid mod-Western style does lend some authenticity in its own way.

In this episode, Bart & Jenna curate a list of 1960s westerns starring women and their incredible ability to deflect desert heat from melting their full face makeup. It’s a positive who’s who of important ‘60s babes! They also consider what might have been if not for a lot of male insecurity behind the camera.

The following films are discussed:

•The Second Time Around (1961)
Directed by Vincent Sherman
Starring Debbie Reynolds, Steve Forrest, Andy Griffith

•4 for Texas (1963)
Directed by Robert Aldrich
Starring Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Ursula Andress

•Cat Ballou (1965)
Directed by Elliot Silverstein
Starring Jane Fonda, Lee Marvin, Nat 'King' Cole

•The Ballad of Josie (1967)
Directed by Andrew V. McLaglen
Starring Doris Day, Peter Graves, George Kennedy

•The Belle Star Story (1968)
Il mio corpo per un poker
Directed by Lina Wertmüller
Starring Elsa Martinelli, George Eastman, Robert Woods
(Please note: Martinelli vs actual Belle Starr)

•Shalako (1968)
Directed by Edward Dmytryk
Starring Sean Connery, Brigitte Bardot, Stephen Boyd

•100 Rifles (1969)
Directed by Tom Gries
Starring Jim Brown, Raquel Welch, Burt Reynolds

Sick and tired of Jenna torturing him with hours of terrible James Bond rip-offs, Bart takes the reins and chooses a mix of international bootleg Bonds that all have one very important thing in common: they make Bart laugh. How that is, or why that is, is the real question here; they border on enigmatic enough that even Bart isn’t too sure how to describe his sense of humor. Whatever it is, Modesty Blaise is certainly a big part of it.

In this episode, Bart and Jenna take a dive into Bart’s Choice of international, deadpan, satirical, meta, James Bond spoofs. They wrestle with the question of why it is James Bond has been so spoofed, remade and perpetuated throughout the entire world. They also do their best at trying to truly pin-point Bart’s sense of humor. You might ‘get it,’ you might not, but if nothing else you will definitely be introduced to some of the most memorable theme songs this side of “Goldfinger.”

The following films are discussed:

• Strike First Freddy (1965)
Slå først Frede!
Directed by Erik Balling
Starring Morten Grunwald, Ove Sprogøe, Essy Persson

• Modesty Blaise (1966)
Directed by Joseph Losey
Starring Monica Vitti, Terence Stamp, Dirk Bogarde

• Branded to Kill (1967)
殺しの烙印 (Koroshi no rakuin)
Directed by Seijun Suzuki
Starring Jô Shishido, Mariko Ogawa, Annu Mari

• The End of Agent W4C (1967)
Konec agenta W4C prostrednictvím psa pana Foustky
Directed by Václav Vorlícek
Starring Jan Kacer, Kveta Fialová, Jirí Sovák

• Who's Got the Black Box? (1967)
La route de Corinthe
Directed by Claude Chabrol
Starring Jean Seberg, Maurice Ronet, Michel Bouquet

• Danger: Diabolik (1968)
Diabolik
Directed by Mario Bava
Starring John Phillip Law, Marisa Mell, Michel Piccoli

Guest Danny Reid of pre-code.com joins us to talk about James Garner in 36 Hours

Don’t feel too bad if you don’t really know what was happening culturally in 1960s West Germany. The truth is not much was happening, at least for the first half of the decade. But once the mid-’60s hit, an interesting chorus of voices and visions started to emerge from Germany’s youth. Where there had been a heap of churned out fluff, suddenly filmmakers like Werner Herzog, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Alexander Kluge and other similar minded folks began to pop up. While New German Cinema truly came of age in the 1970s, a look back at its earlier beginnings make it clear that this movement, while varied in styles and focuses, tapped directly into a universal truth that helped to define the post-Nazi generation.

In this episode, Bart and Jenna take a closer look at several of these early New German films that walk the line between the personal and the political in order to navigate feelings of guilt and anger. They come away thinking that not only did Germany have more of a legitimate reason to revolt than most restless youth movements of the era, but, dang, did they sure know how to make great films about it.

The following films are discussed:

• Not Reconciled (1965)
Nicht versöhnt oder Es hilft nur Gewalt, wo Gewalt herrscht
Directed by Jean-Marie Straub, Danièle Huillet
Starring Heinrich Hargesheimer, Carlheinz Hargesheimer, Martha Staendner

• Young Törless (1966)
Der junge Törless
Directed by Volker Schlöndorff
Starring Mathieu Carrière, Marian Seidowsky, Bernd Tischer

• Yesterday Girl (1966)
Abschied von gestern - (Anita G.)
Directed by Alexander Kluge
Starring Alexandra Kluge, Günter Mack, Eva Maria Meineke

• Signs of Life (1968)
Lebenszeichen
Directed by Werner Herzog
Starring Peter Brogle, Wolfgang Reichmann, Athina Zacharopoulou

• Katzelmacher (1969)
Directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Starring Hanna Schygulla, Lilith Ungerer, Rudolf Waldemar Brem

• Hunting Scenes from Bavaria (1969)
Jagdszenen aus Niederbayern
Directed by Peter Fleischmann
Starring Martin Sperr, Angela Winkler, Hanna Schygulla

• I'm an Elephant, Madame (1969)
Ich bin ein Elefant, Madame
Directed by Peter Zadek
Starring Heinz Baumann, Wolfgang Schneider, Guido Baumann