Movie Chronicles: 1960: Movie Chronicles, #60

By Brett Dillon

  The "Movie Chronicles" series of books are based upon the scripts for the "Movie Chronicles" podcast. The format can be traced back to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles of the Dark Ages (if you are so inclined to go back that far). 

   In these books I am trying to portray the links between history and pop culture (and the history of pop culture) around the world. As a reader in English, I am happy to predict that, if you are watching the latest US blockbusters, then this is NOT the series for you. If you want to explore World Cinema, then hop on board for the ride. None of the books in this series are definitive (in the meaning of covering every film from every country released in that particular year). It is more in the nature of a survey (in which there is a large amount of reviewer bias in the selection). I hope, at best, to peg out the general territory, and allow you to note some themes within a year through multiple countries.

Welcome to the year 1960.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brett Dillon
• Release date: Dec 30, 2023
• ISBN: 9798224420698

Book preview

2nd Edition

Brett G. Dillon

Copyright 2023

Cover Photograph

Brett G. Dillon

Copyright 2023

CHAPTERS

Introduction

History

Movies

Asia

Safari To Asia

Australia

The Sundowners

Austria

Arnulf Rainer

2/60: 48 Köpfe Aus Dem Szondi-Test

3/60: Bäume Im Herbst

Brazil

Iguassu

Canada

Universe

China

Ge Ming Jia Ting

Hong Qi Pu

Liu San Jie 

Xiao Ke Dou Zhao Ma Ma 

––––––––

Croatia

Deveti Krug

Cuba

Historias de la Revolución

Czechoslovakia

Holubice

Zlé Pondelí  

England

Bottoms Up

The Boy Who Stole A Million

Brides Of Dracula

Carry On Constable

Circle Of Deception

Circus Of Horrors

The City Of The Dead

Conspiracy Of Hearts

The Criminal

Dentist In The Chair

Doctor In Love

The Entertainer

Faces In The Dark

The Flesh And The Fiends

Fox Hole In Cairo

The Full Treatment

The Hand

The Hands Of Orlac

I Am A Mobile Librarian

I’ m Alright, Jack

Inn For Trouble

Jersey

Jungle Street

The League Of Gentlemen

London’s Landmarks

Make Mine Mink

Man In The Moon

The Millionairess

Moment Of Danger

Never Let It Go

Never Take Sweets From A Stranger

Night Train For Inverness

The Nudist Story

Peeping Tom

Piccadilly Third Stop

The Rebel

Sands Of The Desert

Saturday Night And Sunday Morning

School For Scoundrels

The Siege Of Sidney Street

Sink The Bismark

Sons And Lovers

The Spider’s Web

The Tell Tale Heart

There Was A Crooked Man

Too Hot To Trouble

The Trials Of Oscar Wilde

Tunes Of Glory

The Two Faces Of Dr Jekyll

Two Way Stretch

Village Of The Damned

Wild For Kicks

France

À Bout de Souffle

Les Bonnes Femme

Le Capitan

Certain l’Aimant Froide

Classe Tous Risques

Le Dialogue des Carmelites

Et Mourir de Plaisir

Fortunat

France With A French Accent

Le Moutan

Plein Soliel

Recours En Grâce

Le Testament d’Orphée

Tire-au-flanc 62

Tirez Sur Le Pianiste

Le Trou

La Vérité

Les Yeux Sans Visage

Zazie Dans Le Métro   

Germany

Division Brandenburg

Frau Warrens Gewerbe

Fünf Patronenhülsen

Im Weissen Rossl

Der Schweigende Stern

Das Spukshloß Im Spessart

Die 1 000 Augen des Dr Mabuse

Ein Toter Hing Im Netz

Greece

Pote Tin Kyriaki

Hong Kong

Nan Xiong Nan Di

India

Baishey Shravan

Basant

Devi

Kala Bazaar

Kohinoor

Love In Simla

Massom

Meghe Dhaka Tara

Shri Venkateshwara Matatyam

Zimbo Shaher Mein

Ireland

Return To Kerry

Israel

Description d’Un Combat

Italy

l’Amante del Vampiro

Un Amore A Roma

Il Bell’Antonio

Chi Di Firma È Perduto

La Ciociara

Il Conquistatore d’ Oriente

La Contessa Azzurra

David E Golia

La Dolce Vita

Esther And The King

Femmine di Lusso

Five Branded Women

La Giornata Balorda

I Giganti Della Tessaglia

Gli Amori Di Ercole

L’Impiegato

Kapó

La Lunga Notte del ‘43

Maciste Nella Valle Dei Re

La Maschera del Demonio

Messalina Venere Imperatrice

Il Mulino Delle Donnede Pietra

Robin Hood E I Pirati

Rocco E I Suoi Fratelli

Seddok, l’Erede Di Satana

Southern Italy

Space Men

Tutti A Casa

l’Ultima Preda Del Vampiro

Japan

Aki Tachinu

Akibiyori

Dai-sanji Sekai Taisen: Yonju-ichi Jikan No Kyofu

Gasu Ningen Dai I Gô

Hadaka No Shima

Hawai Middowei Daikaikusen: Taiheiyo No Arashi

Jigoku

Jokyô

Kaibyô Otama-ga-ike

Karakkaze Yarô

Nihon No Yoru To Kiri

Ningen No Joken

Onna Ga Kaidan Wo Agaru Toki

Ooe-yama Shuten-doji

Seishun Zankoku Monogatari

Warui Yatsu Hodo Yoku Nemuru

Mexico

Aventuras de Joselito Y Pulgarcito

Cada Quién Su Vida

La Joven

La Llorana

Macario

La Nave de los Monstruos

New Zealand

Drums Across The Lagoon

J.G. Goes Hunting

Letter By Robot

The Maori Today

Memories Of Milford

Pictorial Parade

No. 96 (The New Army)

No. 105 (Primary Schools At Work)

No. 106

Skiing At Chateau Tongariro

Poland

Hamles

Krzyzacy

Niewinni Czarodzieje

––––––––

Portugal

O Cantor E Bailarina

Russia

Dama S Sobachkoy

Ilya Muromets

Neotpravlennoe Pismo

South Korea

Hanyo

Spain

The Angel Wore Red

El Cochecito

Mi Calle

El Pequeño Coronel

El Principe Encadenado

Un Rayo de Luz

El Vagabundo Y La Estrella

Sweden

Djävulens Öga

Jungfrukallän

Turkey

The Fabulous Mystery Of Modern Turkey

––––––––

USA

The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn

The Alamo

All The Young Men

The Amazing Transparent Man

The Apartment

Beyond The Time Barrier

Butterfield 8

Cimarron

Comanche Station

Roger Corman

Battle Of Blood Island

Last Woman On Earth

The Little Shop Of Horrors

Ski Troop Attack

Dinosaurus!

Disney

Kidnapped

Pollyanna

Swiss Family Robinson

Ten Who Dared

Toby Tyler; or, Ten Weeks With A Circus

Elvis Presley

Flaming Star

GI Blues

Elmer Gantry

Exodus

The Facts Of Life

The Flower Thief

The Girl In Lover’s Lane

Bert I. Gordon

The Boy And The Pirates

Tormented

High School Caesar

I Passed For White

I’ll Give My Life

Inherit The Wind

Jerry Lewis

The Bell Boy

Cinderfella

Visit To A Small Planet

The Last Voyage

The Leech Woman

Ma Barker’s Killer Brood

The Magnificent Seven

Midnight Lace

The Mountain Road

The Music Box Kid

Naked Youth

North To Alaska

Ocean’s Eleven

On The Pole

Pele’s Destructive Rivers

Pepe

Please Don’t Eat The Daisies

Primary

The Private Lives Of Adam And Eve

Psycho

The Savage Innocents

Sergeant Rutledge

Seven Thieves

The Sinister Urge

Spartacus

The Story Of Ruth

Studs Lonigan

Tarzan The Magnificent

13 Ghosts

This Rebel Breed

The Three Worlds Of Gulliver

The Time Machine

12 Men To The Moon

Where The Boys Are

Wild River

The Wizard Of Bagdad

The World Of Suzie Wong

––––––––

World

Across The Seven Seas

Yugoslavia

Rat

Index

Introduction

The Movie Chronicles series of books are based upon the scripts for the Movie Chronicles podcast. The format can be traced back to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles od the Dark Ages (if you are so included to back that far). During the course of coarsely writing the scripts for the podcast I found I had to institute some rules.

The major rule concerns Spoilers. Regular listeners to the podcast know how much I abhor this concept. It is an internet meme designed by halfwits to troll other halfwits. I’m not a halfwit. However, in order to assuage the wrath of halfwits the rule of thumb is that there will be no spoilers in movies less than ten years old (after that period, I assume there are so many spoilers out there that my contribution doesn’t matter). As always, there are exceptions – these are mostly documentaries – which are films that have already been spoiled before they’re even released – according to the halfwit Spoiler theory.

In these books I am trying to portray the links between history and pop culture (and the history of pop culture) around the world. As a reader in English, I am happy to predict that, if you are watching the latest US blockbusters, then this is NOT the series for you. If you want to explore World Cinema, then hop on board for the ride. None of the books in this series are definitive (in the meaning of covering every film from every country released in that particular year). It is more in the nature of a survey (in which there is a large amount of reviewer bias in the selection). I hope, at beat, to peg out the general territory, and allow you to note some themes within a year through multiple countries.

Format

The movie list follows on from the introduction. At the back of the book is the Index – a list of people, places, and events that are in the main body of the text. I recommend viewing this as I have used it to express ideas that would be complicated in the main text but simple when viewed in this context. The Index is formatted :-

Name    Film    Country

For precisions sake, think of the Country as the Chapter Name.

This looks like :-

Ackland, Norren  Peeping Tom   England

Thus, Noreen Ackland worked on the movie Peeping Tom (or is mentioned in that section) and this movie can be found in the England section. Simple, right?

What!? My England good is.

When the person appears in more than one film, the entry looks like this :-

Alton, John   Elmer Gantry  USA

12 To The Moon  USA

When an entry is in BOLD then this is the entry where the biography can be found.

Th cast and crew lists are not definitive – especially the cast list, which covers the main actors in the film, and then anyone else you should probably keep an eye on.

Names can be tricky things in an Index. For the sake of consistency I have used the following system :- If the Last name is a compound word, then the name is listed under the first name in the compound. For instance :-

Ruiza de Luna, Carlos is listed under R (for Ruiza).

De Carlo, Yvonne is listed under D (for De Carlo) but de Carlo, Yvonne is listed under C (for Carlo)

I have tried, as much as possible, to release foreign words with the correct accent marks (the exception being Asian and Middle-Eastern scripts. These have been translated into their European form).

I would also like to admit to a little eccentricity in the Index which has been done for the sake of concision. Every Institute of higher learning, for instance, makes its way into the Index, No Place names do. The rule I created was to ask myself how relevant this information was to someone who wants to learn about movies.

––––––––

Dictionary

B.A. – Bachelor Of Arts

B&W – Black And White

BBC – British Broadcasting Corporation

DOP – Director Of Photography

HUAC – House Un-American Activities Committee

IRA – Irish Republican Army

RADA – Royal Academy Of Dramatic Arts

History

January

January 6 – The Associations Law came into effect in Iraq. This allowed for the registration of political Parties.

Luis Buñuel released his Mexican production El Fievre Monte A El Pao (Republic Of Sin), one month after the death of its star, Gérard Philipe.

January 9 – Construction of the Aswan Dam began in Egypt.

January 14 – The Reserve Bank and Commonwealth Bank were created in Australia.

January 15 – Three Tales, the first anime TV series, made its debut on HHK, Japan.

January 16 – The Screenwriter’s Guild in the USA called a Strike. They demanded a percentage of the television rights for their film work.

January 18 – Principle photography began on Let’s Make Love, a film starring Marilyn Monroe as an off-Broadway star, with Yves Montand as an international tycoon. It was intended for there to be cameos in the film from Bing Crosby, Milton Berle, and Gene Kelly.

January 21 – In South Africa, the Coalbrook mining disaster killed 435 miners.

In Jamaica, 37 people died when a plane crashed and burned after landing at Montego Bay.

January 22 – President of France, Charles de Gaulle, dismissed commander-in-chief of French troops in Algeria, Jacques Massu.

Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh descended into the Mariana Trench in a bathyscape to become the first persons to reach the lowest point on the surface of planet Earth. Piccard was inspired to Make it so.

January 24 – An insurrection against French colonial rule began in Algiers. This is a continuation of the terrorist campaign to achieve independence.

January 25 – In a surprise move, the National Association of Broadcasters threatened to fine disk jockeys who accepted money to play particular records. A lucrative income stream, called the Payola scandal, is shut down.

January 30 – The African National Party was founded in Chad by the merger of traditionalist parties.

February

February 1 – In Greensboro, North Carolina, USA, four students from the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University sat down for lunch at a Woolworth lunch bar. They refused to leave until they had been served. It was a long wait. The event even triggered similar non-violent protests across the Southern United States. Six months later, the original four students were finally served lunch. Did I mention the students were Black? Probably not. Prejudice against students in Southern States began to decline as a result of this protest.

February 5 – The first CERN particle accelerator became operational in Geneva, Switzerland. Past participles pondered the implications.

February 13 – France tested its first atomic bomb. The test was in the Saharan Desert of Algeria, thus beginning a long process of French nuclear testing off-shore (leading to the line in a Dave Dobbyn song France stopped nuking the Pacific [Don’t Hold Your Breath].

February 18 – The 1960 Winter Olympics began at the Squaw Vallet Ski Resort in California, USA.

February 21 – In Paris, France, and just a few days after the release of his film Le Trou, Jacques Becker died.

March

March 3 – Elvis Presley returned to the USA after being stationed in Germany for his military service.

March 5 – Alberto Korda took his iconic photograph of Che Guevarra in Havana, Cuba.

March 6 – The USA announced that it would send 3 500 soldiers to Vietnam.

The Canton of Geneva in Switzerland gave women the right to vote.

March 16 – French critics praised director Jean-Luc Goddard’s production of Á Bout de Souffle. Goddard got the immediacy of the performances by refusing to allow his actors to learn their lines. Instead, he cued them out of shot.

March 21 – In Sharpeville, South Africa, police fired upon protestors demonstrating against the Pass Laws that cemented apartheid into the State. There were 249 casualties, including 29 children. Many are shot in the back (because we all know how dangerous the backs of Blacks can be).

April

April 1 – The USA launched the first weather satellite, TITOS-1.

The US census began. Disturbingly, it listed all Latin Americans as white, along with those from the Dominican Republic, European whites from Argentina, and Mexicans who resembled Native Americans. Well, my mind is blown in two ways. If you self-identify as a Mexican, and the census taker decided you looked Native American, then you’re entered into the census as white. This looks more like a political act to skew the figures in favour of whites to make sure Black people don’t get the level of government assistance their numbers deserve.

April 9 – David Pratt shot Henrik Verwoerd, Prime Minister of South Africa, and badly wounded him. I hope census designers in the USA were his next target.

April 13 – Navigation satellite, Transit I-b, was launched by the USA.

April 19 – The April revolution began in South Korea. Students held a pro-democracy protest that eventually forced President Syngman Rhee from office.

April 21 – The Capital of Brazil was transferred from Rio de Janeiro to Brasilia. Rio de Janeiro became the state of Guanabara.

April 27 – Togo became independent from France.

May

May 1 – U-2 pilot, Frances Gary Powers, was shot down by Russian surface-to-air missiles while on a spy mission for the CIA.

May 3 – The European Free Trade Association (EFTA) was formed.

May 11 – Four Israeli Mossad agents kidnapped Nazi war criminal, Adolf Eichmann, in Buenos Aires, Argentina (he was put on trial and executed).

May 13 – A joint Swiss and Austrian mission ascended Mt Dhaulagiri, the world’s seventh highest mountain.

May 14 – The Kenyan African National Congress was formed.

May 15 – Russia launched Sputnik 4.

May 16 – Russian Premier, Nikita Khrushchev, demanded an apology from the US President for authorising the U-2 spy mission piloted by US imperialist stooge, Frances Gary Powers.

May 20 – The Japanese Diet approved a mutual security treaty with the USA.

At the Cannes Film Festival in France, L’Avventura by Michelangelo Antonioni fared well with the critics and poorly with the general public. Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita was booed by the audience at its first screening.

May 27 – A coup d’état in Turkey removed President Celal Bayar and installed General Cemal Gursel.

May 31 – Marlene Dietrich returned to Germany for the first time since 1930. The tour is a success (although some places had Marlene Go Home scrawled on the walls of the theatre, and she was pelted by tomatoes [which is good for the greengrocer and bad for Marlene])

June

June 1 – New Zealand’s first television station began to broadcast from Auckland.

June 5 – In Espoo, Finland, on the borders of Lake Bodom, Maila Bjorklund, Anja Maki and Seppo Boisman were murdered inside their tent, while Nils Gustafsson was found outside with broken facial bones and stab wounds. The killer and motive have yet to be discovered.

June 15 – Violent demonstrations erupted at Tokyo University, Japan. 589 people were injured and there were 182 arrests.

Billy Wilder premiered his latest film, The Apartment, in New York City. Critics found it ...a touching romance... that include(s) questionable sexual morals, loneliness in the big city... in which Wilder obliquely comments on the less appetizing side of supposed respectability.

June 20 – Mali and Sudan gained independence from France.

June 22 – The US Naval Research Laboratory SOLRAD 1 became the first successful US reconnaissance satellite to spy on Russia. It also returned the first real-time X-Ray and Ultraviolet observations of the sun. I wonder which of those specs was the most important?

June 26 – British Somaliland gained its independence from Britain and, five days later, united with the Trust Territory of Somaliland to form the Somali Republic.

The Malagasy Republic became independent from France.

June 30 – Belgium Congo became independent from Belgium and was renamed the Republic of Congo. A Civil War starts shortly thereafter.

In Italy, public demonstrations, led by the Italian Socialist Movement, were suppressed by the heavy hand of the Law.

July

July 1 – Ghana became a Republic.

A US jet fighter, flying over the Barents Sea, was shot down. Four of the crew are killed and two are captured.

July 4 – The 50-star flag of the USA was officially flown for the first time.

July 11 – Harper Lee published her novel To Kill A Mockingbird.

July 20 – Ceylon elected Sirimavo Bandaranaike as Prime Minister. She is the first elected women in the world to head a government.

July 21 – Francis Chichester completed his solo Atlantic crossing in the yacht, Gypsy Moth, setting a new record of 40 days.

July 25 – Woolworth’s, in Greensboro, North Carolina, USA, served its first meal to a black person. I’m really hoping to find out this was to celebrate the opening of the store.

August

August 1 – Benin became independent from France.

August 3 – Niger became independent from France.

August 5 – Burkina Baso became independent from France.

August 6 – In response to the US embargo of Cuba, Fidel Castro nationalised all US and foreign owned property in Cuba.

August 7 – The Ivory Coast became independent from France.

August 10 – In Los Angeles, California, USA, Alfred Hitchcock premiered his minor work, Psycho. He described it as, My first horror film.

August 11 – Chad became independent from France.

August 12 – Dr Seuss published Green Eggs With Ham.

August 13 – The Central African Empire became independent from France.

August 15 – The Republic of Congo became independent from France. When, O when, will France become independent of France.

August 16 – Cyprus became independent from the UK.

August 17 – A long-haired group of freaks/musicians (?) began their contract at the Indra Club in Hamburg, West Germany. As a guitar-based group, I don’t expect them to last. They call themselves The Beatles. This just sounds like retro-Rock’N’Roll to me.

The trial of Francis Gary Powers, in Russia, as a spy, began.

August 18 – US President, Dwight Eisenhower, while being briefed on the on-going problem in the Congo, overstepped the mark quite considerably by suggesting a war crime. He asked the US Security Council if the US can’t get rid of this guy [Patrice Lumumba]. Sadly, in this present age, this is standard US foreign policy.

August 19 – Francis Gary Powers was sentenced to ten years in prison for espionage.

That same day, Russia launched Sputnik 5, which carried the dogs, Belka and Strelka, safely into orbit and then returned them to earth the next day.

August 20 – Senegal announced its independence from the Mali Federation.

August 25 – The 1960 Summer Olympic Games began in Rome, Italy.

September

September 5 – Muhammed Ali won the gold medal in light heavyweight boxing at the Olympic Games.

September 6 – In Moscow, Russia, William Hamilton Martin and Bernon F. Mitchell, two US cryptologists, announced their defection to the USSR. The FBI did not read the signs.

September 16 – In the USA, Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy engaged in televised combat in a debate to prove their worth as next President.

September 28 – Several New York directors got together and created the New American Cinema group which published its manifesto today. In this document they claimed, we don’t want rose-colored films any more, but films the color of blood. They have been inspired by the plays of the Angry Young Men in Britain, and the New Wave movement in French cinema. They are looking for a cinema independent of the Studio system in the US; one where the films are rough, badly made perhaps, but alive.

September 30 – The Flintstones cartoon first screened on TV in the USA.

October

October 1 – Nigeria and Cameroon became independent from Britain.

October 6 – Spartacus finally debuted in the US after two years of preparation, at a cost of $12 million, and using 8 000 Spanish extras. Blacklisted screenwriter, Dalton Trumbo, got his first screen credit since his blacklisting. Executive Producer, Kirk Douglas, fired Director, Anthony Mann, after the first week of shooting.

October 5 – South Africans voted to make the nation a Republic (Well, white folk did, anyway).

October 7 – Nigeria became a member of the United Nations.

October 12 – Russian Premier, Nikita Khrushchev, became a shoe-in for a cobbler, when he pounded his shoe on the table at a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly. He didn’t want the Assembly to discuss Russian foreign policies towards Eastern Europe.

October 14 – John F. Kennedy, in the USA, launched the idea of a Peace Corps. The US has been at war ever since, as the military-industrial complex fought back against the idea.

In New South Wales, Australia, the Warragamba dam was opened to become the world’s largest domestic water supply.

October 24 – The Soviet space program in Russia encountered a small setback when a rocket exploded on the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, killing an estimated 92 people.

October 28 – Critics were perplexed when Zazie Dans le Metro was released in Paris, France. It was a film that seemed to go against all the conventions of comedy films.

October 29 – Muhammad Ali won his first professional bout as a boxer.

October 30 – Dr Michael Woodruff carried out the UK’s first successful liver transplant.

November

November 2 – In England, Penguin Books were found not guilty of publishing obscenity in the case against the company for the publication of D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover.

November 8 – In the USA, John F. Kennedy was elected President, becoming the second youngest to serve in this position, and the youngest to be elected to it.

November 10 – The song, Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien performed by Edith Piaf, was released.

November 28 – Mauritania became independent from France.

December

December 1 – Soviet dogs, Pcholka and Mushka, burnt up on re-entry to Earth’s atmosphere.

December 2 – The Archbishop of Canterbury had a talk with Pope John XXII at the Vatican, Italy. This is the first time a leader of the Anglican Church had meet with a Pope – tea and crumpets, I presume (although, given Catholic history, choirboys might have been more to the Pope’s taste).

In the USA, President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorised (with a Dr Evil smile) the spending of $1 million dollars for the relief and aid of Cuban refugees, who were arriving in Florida at the rate of about 1 000/week.

December 4 – Giving a good example of how useless the United Nations is, Russia vetoed the entry of Mauritania into the organisation (because how can you be in a group if there is no outside).

December 5 – While being deported to France, Algerian insurrectionist, Pierre Lagaillarde, fled to Spain. French Courts noted his failure to appear before them.

The Supreme Court of the United States declared that segregation in public transport was illegal (it was the least they could do. Having failed to address the issue for decades, the US political system continued to curry favour with white segregationists and Lost Cause conspiracy theorists, rather than smacking them down).

December 9 – As French President Charles de Gaulle visited Algeria, European and Muslim citizens rioted, causing 127 deaths.

December 12 – The Supreme Court of the United States upheld a Federal Court ruling that Louisiana’s racial segregation Laws were unconstitutional. It voted to overturn those Laws (which should have been followed by trials, in absentia, of all the people who proposed and voted for those Laws. As this didn’t happen, the decision is just mocking the toothlessness of the US Constitution).

December 13 – While Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia was hobnobbing in Brazil, the Kebur Zabagna (Imperial Bodyguard) attempted a Palace coup to place Prince Asfaw Wossen Taffari on the throne.

El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua announced the formation of the Central American Common Market.

December 17 – Troops loyal to Emperor Haile Selassie dealt with the coup attempt. The emperor formally absolved his son of any guilt in the matter.

December 19 – A fire broke out on the USS Constellation under construction in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, USA. 50 workers were killed and 150 injured.

December 27 – France set off its third A-bomb test at its nuclear weapons testing range near Reggane, Algeria.

December 31 – This was the last day the farthing (a British coin) was legal tender.

In 1960, the International Association for Animated Films (IAAF) was created.

Asia

Safari To Asia

Director, DOP & Actor: Amand Denis   Script & Actor: Michaela Denis

DOP: Grant Wolfkill

We start in Bali (a very good place to start. When you sing you begin with do-ra-mi, when in Asia you begin with Ba-a-li). The Denis’ become fascinated with the coracle boatmen and encourage them to race. Noticing one who has no paddles, they have a second, paddleless race. The children avidly watch the filming.

In Malaya, its Pigtail Rhesus monkeys, who have been trained to collect cocoanuts from the palm trees.

In Bangkok, there are two items. The first is a display of classical dance and the second involves sword fighting in the grounds of a temple. In the male bout, the men have two swords each. In the female bout, the women have only one sword.

This takes us to Singapore for the Tai Pu San Hindi festival (at least, that’s how I heard it. It is actually the Thaipusam [aka Kavadi] festival, celebrated mainly by the Tamil community). Penitents, pierced through the tongue, cheeks, chest and back, carry religious objects. This is a sequence not for the faint-hearted.

Director,

Amand Denis

Was born on December 2, 1896, in Brussels, Belgium, and he died in 1971.

Amand developed an early interest in wildlife. He fought (for a time) in WWI before escaping to England to study Chemistry at Oxford University. He then began to search for a career. He began at the Royal Aircraft Establishment in Farnborough, creating lubricating oils. Next, he moved to Belgium to work on coke oven technology before finally moving to the USA where he invented an automatic volume control for radio. From the royalties from this invention, he was able to explore his love of travel and record it on film.

But first, he had to learn how to do this. His next destination was obvious – Hooray for Hollywood! Amand teamed up with André Roosevelt to make The Kriss (1930) [This was re-edited and re-released as Love Powder in 1932 to meet censorship requirements]. With this film as a calling card, he was now able to get financing for his projects. The first expedition was to the Belgian Congo to record stock footage and sounds for sale to the big studios. From this footage, he released a record album and a series of films.

Re-marrying after a 1948 affair, Amand used his new, glamourous wife (Michaela Denis nee Holdsworth) to front productions the pair made for the BBC. They were so prolific that the style of their documentaries became much parodied.

Australia

The Sundowners

Director: Fred Zinnemann    Script: Isobel Lennart

DOP: Jack Hildyard     Editor: Jack Harris

Music: Dimitri Tiomkin

Actors: Deborah Kerr, Robert Mitchum, Michael Anderson (Jnr), Peter Ustinov, Glynis Johns, Chips Rafferty, John Meillon, Ronald Fraser, Mervyn Johns

What is it about big countries that makes the people in them so insular? The fifties and sixties were the period of Australian history when the policy of Whites Only immigration was in full flower. When you add this to the racism in Hollywood you get this film, where an aborigine appears in one shot in the entire film and disappears thereafter. The myth of an empty country, by and for the White Man, is preserved.

In the course of writing this book I have had to encounter many problems. The hardest struggles for me have to be what country to assign a film to when it’s an international co-production. My simple rules of thumb sometimes fall into disarray. Take this film. It is set in Australia, the cast all try hard at an Australian accent (with the exception of Peter Ustinov who plays... well... Peter Ustinov in Australia). Yet the director and the principle cast members are NOT Australian. The rule that had to apply, therefore, was how successful I thought the film was at portraying Australia. Not a disaster like On The Beach (1959), anyways.

Australia was searching for its whites only identity through the fifties and come up with works like Summer Of The Seventeenth Doll (1959) and The Shiralee (1957), I Can Jump Puddles and the Smiley series. The myth it chose for itself was the hard workin’ and drinkin’ itinerant farm worker. Like New Zealand, Australia had been hard hit economically by WWII. The Film industry was in disarray. Prior to the war the Australian National Film Board had been releasing fifty documentaries a year. After the war, the industry depended upon international co-productions – the partner controlling the tone, style, and content of the film. Australia was on screen – it just might not be an Australia that any Australian would recognize. For instance, in this film, the term Sundowner is explained as someone whose home is where the sun sets. In Australia, it actually refers to a swagman who arrives at sundown, in time to get fed but not in time to do any work, and who leaves early in the morning before he can be asked to work.

Jon Cleary, who wrote the novel the film is based on, was born in Sydney, Australia. Cleary left school at the age of 14, taking a variety of jobs. In 1940 he enlisted in the Army and also began writing. He quickly turned this into a more permanent relationship with a newspaper when he began to write a serial. The Sundowners was Jon’s fourth novel and published in 1952. He was living in New York City and probably feeling homesick, as the narrative recounts stories his father told him about swagging around Australia.

Director, Fred Zinnemann, has directed a few Westerns in his time. It was he who insisted on shooting the exterior scenes in Australia when studio head, Jack L. Warner wanted to use Arizona (which would have caused me to list this as a US film). This proved awkward as the weather in Australia did not co-operate with the shooting schedule (Fred did work in the rain for a scene, and some storm clouds). He started with a 12-week session of shooting locations and sheepherding sequences before the cast had even arrived. The cast, like the weather, had already been a problem. Gary Cooper was originally cast as Paddy Carmody but had to leave due to ill health. Errol Flynn was the replacement... until he died. Robert Mitchum then agreed to the part, but only so he could be with close friend, Deborah Kerr.

Paddy Carmody is a drifter and takes his family from job to job. He takes a contract as a sheep drover and takes on one Rupert Venneker to assist. His wife, Ida, and son, Sean, want to set down some roots and are taken with a farm they see for sale. At their destination, Ida suggests they all stay on over for the shearing season to get some money in the kitty. By the end of the season, they have enough money for a deposit on the farm. Paddy manages to gamble all their money away (I was expecting for this to be a lie of Paddy’s, to test whether his wife and son really did want to settle down. In the film, because he actually does gamble all the money away, he comes across as white trash, no better than he should be. Given what we have seen of his character up to this point, it is an action he would be unlikely to take – especially as it is done by issuing IOU’s. Paddy is a man who would never owe anything to anyone [taking out a mortgage is his main scruple against settling down]).

Director,

Fred Zinnemann

Was born on April 29, 1907, in Rzeszow, Austria-Hungary, and he died in 1997.

Fred felt inspired to become a violinist until he entered the University of Vienna and switched to Law. At the university he became interested in film, especially film from the USA. He once recounted, I was born and raised in Austria. When I was growing up, I wanted to be a musician, but fortunately I discovered in time that I had no musical talent. Then I tried law, and I am not sorry I did because it taught me a method of thinking. Also, since in Austria in those days canon law was required for law students, I later found that very helpful in making films...

Fred was able to convince his parents to let him study film in Paris, France. Fred studied for a year at the École Technique de Photograhie et Cinematographie. On graduating he became a cameraman in Berlin and then emigrated to Hollywood in the USA.

In Berlin, Fred worked with rising talents, Billy Wilder and Robert Siodmak, and became noted for insisting on realism. It was the introduction of sound into European cinema that forced Fred to leave for the US. European cinema was unprepared for this new dimension to the cinema experience. Fred decided to move where there were greater opportunities. His family, who had remained behind, were subsequently wiped out in the Holocaust.

Fred did not seem to have experienced any culture shock arriving in New York City, rather, he later wrote, [I felt]... as though I had just left a continent of zombies and entered a place humming with incredible energy and power.

He started out directing The Wave, a cultural protest film for Mexico and then travelled to Hollywood with this naturalistic calling card. The quality of realism had an appeal to director Robert Flaherty who was later to recall Fred was, probably the greatest single influence on my work as a filmmaker.

After a few years in Hollywood all illusions had been beaten out of him. There is an apocryphal story of him sitting down with a studio executive. The executive asked Fred to list what he had done in his career. Fred replied, Sure. You first.

Through the forties he made pictures that didn’t really appeal to movie executives although they had enough commercial success to keep him employed. The fifties belonged to him, starting with The Men (1950) starring Marlon Brando and followed by High Noon (1952). The hits kept on coming, reaching a zenith with The Sundowners. What followed was the effect of Hollywood hubris; struggling against television, the Studios overspent on a number of flops and Fred’s projects got caught up in the fall out. It wasn’t until A Man For All Seasons (1966) that he returned to form. This doesn’t mean he had lost his disillusionment with Hollywood. By the seventies, and the rise of the New Hollywood, he believed this, marked the end of an era in picture making and the dawn of a new one, when lawyers and accountants began to replace showmen as head of the studios and when a handshake was a handshake no longer. He continued making hits until 1982 when he released his final film and announced his retirement because, I'm not saying it was a good picture. But there was a degree of viciousness in the reviews. The pleasure some people took in tearing down the film really hurt. Finally, he had had enough.

He was to say, I will always think of myself as a Hollywood director, not only because I grew up in the American film industry, but also because I believe in making films that will please a mass audience, and not just in making films that express my own personality or ideas. I have always tried to offer an audience something positive in a film and to entertain them as well. And, in giving advice to young director’s, he said, The three most important things about a film are the script, the script, the script.

DOP,

Jack Hildyard

Was born on March 17, 1908, in London, England, and he died in 1990.

Jack began his career, as a focus-puller in 1934, and then worked up to the role of camera operator in a group of films starring Leslie Howard. His first job as DOP was on Laurence Olivier’s Henry V (1944) which subsequently led him to be one of England’s most sought-after cinematographers. He is especially noteworthy for his role in collaborations with director, David Lean.

Composer,

Dimitri Tiomkin

Was born on May 10, 1894, in Kremenchuk, Russia, and he died in 1979.

The young Dimitri studied piano at the St Petersburg Conservatory under Felix Blumenfeld and Isabelle Vengerova. In St Petersburg he made friends with composer Sergei Prokofiev and choreographer Mikhail Fokin. All the time he was being exposed to the music of Irving Berlin, to Ragtime, Blues and early Jazz. Dimitri started professional life as piano accompanist to French and Russian silent films

When film comedian Max Linder did a tour of Russia, he hired Dimitri to play piano improvisations. Of Max Linder, he observed, Linder was one of the truly great comedians of our time; his pantomime and appeal were eloquent. He had an inspired comedy sense, and he also had an analytical, ingenious mind.

With the Russian Revolution in 1917, Dimitri found himself a Red Army staff composer, writing scores for Revolutionary spectaculars. He left the country in 1921 and went to Germany. By 1922 he was known in Berlin as a concert pianist and extended this by touring in France. In France it was Feodor Chaliapin (Snr) who encouraged Dimitri to emigrate to the US.

By 1925 he had taken up this offer and was meeting the likes of George Gershwin, Richard Rodgers and Jerome Kern (in 1928 he returned to France to premiere Gershwin’s Piano Concerto In F).

In 1929 MGM offered a contract to score five films. Dimitri quickly became disillusioned with the Studio system and didn’t return to Hollywood until 1933. He returned on his own terms, as a freelance and in the process became a crusader for the rights of a creator to a share in the profits of their work. He was later to say, My fight is for dignity. Not only for composer, but for all artists responsible for picture. He frequently fought with Studios over musicians. Dimitri claimed race shouldn’t have a part in the selection process. In 1937 Dimitri became a US citizen.

During the fifties Dimitri was especially prolific. This included a three-picture collaboration with Alfred Hitchcock. The person who gave him the most trouble was David O. Selznick who ordered, Make the theme an orgasm. After several rejected attempts Dimitri told the producer, Mister Selznick, you may fuck the way you want, but this is the way I fuck! (which, I think, is a surprisingly polite way to tell this powerful man not to fuck around with the talent). The rebuke was accepted and no further rewrites were required.

In 1967 Dimitri was attacked when returning from his wife’s funeral. This was so emotionally devasting that he retired to Europe.

Actor,

Deborah Kerr

Was born on September 30, 1921, in Hillhead, Scotland, and she died in 2007.

It was Deborah’s aunt who initially got her some radio work. This came to the attention of producer, Gabriel Pascal, who cast Deborah in Major Barbara (1941). The film made her a star, which kept rising with a series of collaborations with The Archers (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger).

In 1947 Deborah moved on Hollywood, bringing along a reputation culled from her prim and proper characters. Deborah complained, I came over here to act, but it turned out all I had to do was to be high-minded, long suffering, white-gloved and decorative. She managed to break this mould in From Here To Eternity (1953). It was Yul Brynner who returned her to form when he insisted her as the romantic lead in The King And I (1956). Of the film, she was later to say, I'd rather drop dead in my tracks one day than end up in a wheelchair in some nursing home watching interminable replays of ‘The King And I’".

Deborah first met Robert Mitchum on the set of Heaven Knows, Mr Allison (1957). Robert was worried that Deborah was like the prim characters he knew her as portraying. This quickly ended when she swore at Director, John Huston. Deborah and Robert became fast friends until the day he died. She noted, I admire Mitchum very much for the simple reason that he happens to be a super actor and contrary to public opinion, he is the most amazingly sensitive and poetic man.

Noting a change in the times, in 1969 Deborah said, When I was under contract to MGM, with people like poor Robert Taylor and so many others, the cinema's job was solely entertainment. It filled a public need then. Now the cinema serves so many other purposes; it functions as psychiatrist, politician, message-maker, money maker and, incidentally, entertainer. But it's no good regretting that things are different.

Deborah gave this advice to actors, If you want to make lots of money, you keep making films. But if you want to exercise your talent, you look for the challenge of the stage where you are completely exposed, with no technicians, clever cameramen, or film editors to help you. She also explained why women aren’t getting good roles, It's all economics now. With movies it's always been a tricky business combining art and finances, but when they spend 30 million dollars on ONE movie, the mind boggles. It's just absolutely ridiculous! Almost everyone seems to desire more real, more decent, more believable movies. That's why most people watch old movies on television. At the moment the sure-fire things are disaster, pornography, and violence; I suppose men fit into those categories better than women.

Actor,

Robert Mitchum

Was born on August 6, 1917, in Bridgeport, USA, and he died in 1997.

His father died in a train accident when he was two. His mother moved to New York City, where she, and his stepfather (a British Army Major) raised him. Robert grew up with a contempt for authority. A good section of his teen life was spent on the road. In fact, at the age of 14, he was arrested for vagrancy (and sent, you might hope, to a children’s home. No, he was sentenced to a chain gang... from which he escaped. Not even a chain gang could cow him). He was later to say, The only difference between me and my fellow actors is that I've spent more time in jail.

Robert discovered acting in an amateur theatre company. He was working for Lockheed Aircraft at the time, and job stress had led to temporary blindness. He served in WWII; he claims as a pecker checker (checking out recruits for venereal disease). Later, with a little coaching under his belt, Robert started to pick up acting jobs, making his film debut in 1943. He quickly became an icon of the Film Noir movement. But this was for the future. In 1946 Katherine Hepburn complained to him, You know you can't act, and if you hadn't been good-looking, you would have never gotten a picture. I'm tired of playing with people who have nothing to offer. His laconic performances did upset people but he explained it with the story, I gave up being serious about making pictures around the time I made a film with Greer Garson and she took a hundred and twenty-five takes to say no. He also made fun of himself by saying, Listen. I got three expressions: looking left, looking right and looking straight ahead.

His run ins with authority continued. He became the first male star to refuse to shave his chest for shirtless roles. He also tried to avoid the shirtless roles by developing a paunch.

Of this period, he recalled, RKO made the same film with me for ten years. They were so alike I wore the same suit in six of them and the same Burberry trench coat. They made a male Jane Russell out of me. I was the staff hero. They got so they wanted me to take some of my clothes off in the pictures. I objected to this, so I put on some weight and looked like a Bulgarian wrestler when I took my shirt off. Only two pictures in that time made any sense whatever. I complained and they told me frankly that they had a certain amount of baloney to sell and I was the boy to do it. When Otto Preminger ordered him to slap Jean Simmons for real for a film, Otto was unsatisfied with the result. Robert slapped him and then asked if that was hard enough for him.

Reviewing his career, he said, I've survived because I work cheap and don't take up too much time.

Austria

Arnulf Rainer

Director: Peter Kubelka

Arnulf Rainer was an abstract painter. Initially influenced by surrealism, he slid over to Destruction Of Form, where illustrations and photographs are deformed with masking, over-painting, and other techniques.

The film Arnulf Rainer alternates between abstract patterns of light and sound. Director, Peter Kubelka, was part of the surrealist movement which philosopher Simon Blackburn described as, belief that phenomena of human life are not intelligible except through interrelations.

––––––––

2/60: 48 Köpfe Aus Dem Szondi-Test (48 Faces From The Szondi Test)

Director: Kurt Kren

The Szondi Test (designed by psychologist Léopold Szondi) is a discredited nonverbal projective personality test. The subject is shown facial photographs displayed in six groups of eight photographs each (48 in all). Each group will show a photograph of a mental health care patient who has been classified as either homosexual, sadist, epileptic, hysteric, catatonic, paranoid, depressive, or manic (this classification alone should tell you why the test has been discredited). The subject is shown the photographs and asked to identify the two most appealing and the two most repulsive. Each photograph was believed to be a stimulus to detect the pulsional drive tendencies from which the main personality traits can surface (and yes, that is gobbledegook. I had to include it so you, dear reader, can understand what was happening. Feel free to throw something at the wall in anger and frustration [I bet there’s a photograph for that as well]. In effect, this is psychological divination. It is neither therapeutic nor able to predict a psychological state).

The film 48 Faces gives the complete test but points out the conceit of the test by alternating the time given to the viewing of each face (Fun game: Spot the homosexual!).

––––––––

3/60: Bäume Im Herbst (Trees In Autumn)

Director: Kurt Kren

Trees In Autumn is a structuralist film in which Director, Kurt Kren, is playing with the dialogue between light and shade in the imagery.

Brazil

Iguassu (Na Garganta Do Diable; The Devil’s Throat)

Director, Script & Editor: Walter Hugo Khouri

DOP: Rudolf Icsey     Editor: Mauro Alice

Music: Gabriel Migliori

Actors: Luigi Picchi, Odeta Lara, Edia Van Steen, Fernando Baleroni, Sérgio Hingst, José Mauro de Vasconcelos, André Debroy, Milton Ribiero

It is 1867. Native children find a soldier’s body floating in the water. This is followed by deserters entering the village. They bring guns to a fist fight, so the natives aren’t arguing. It’s all ka pai until the body of a village boy is found. The deserters decide the better part of valour is discretion, and flee before they can take the blame. Along the way they pick up the native who has guided them so far (he is the murderer. He wears the necklace of teeth the boy had). Sergeant Pedro, the leader of the deserters, decides not to execute the scum. They may need him as bargaining chip if the natives should catch up.

This group consists of the guide, Sergeant Pedro, Captain Ray (who seems to be shell-shocked and uncommunicative), and Ramon Quitara, a braggart/murderer/mercenary/bandit. They arrive at a farm. The crops are failing and most of the stock has been stolen by one Army or the other. On the farm are Pa, his two daughters, and Juan, a blind servant. Ramon has led them here because it is rumoured Pa has a stash of gold he made by selling (and stealing) cattle for the Army. He led a previous group that looted this farm and tried to get Pa to hand over the gold. His son was shot in front of him, but still Pa would not talk.

This act has caused serious tensions within the family that are put on hold when this new group of looters arrive. When Captain Ray is found to have cholera, Juan is sent out with him in quarantine to look after him. The youngest daughter takes pity on the captain. She has seen too much death and doesn’t want to lose anyone else. Juan uses native treatments on the Captain.

Sergeant Pedro, meanwhile, gets as romantic as a rapist can, with the oldest daughter. She is more than willing as she sees the Sergeant as her way off the farm. The war has kept the family trapped. They cannot move out without the risk of losing everything. Pa values his gold horde above all else. He will not return to civilisation to be a pauper.

The sounds of war start to echo through the jungle. The deserters decide to flee, but first, they need Pa’s gold. He refuses to say anything; even under torture. To make matters worse, the natives now arrive and surround the house with vengeance on their minds.

The guide kills Ramon. Sergeant Pedro beats him up and then drags him out to the natives. The guide has one last trick up his sleeve. He reveals Sergeant Pedro has the dead boy’s tooth necklace in his pocket. The natives take him blindfolded to the Iguassu Falls and he falls to his doom.

Pa, driven mad by the torture, wanders off into the jungle. Captain Ray has been cured by Juan’s medicine., which, I suppose, is a happy ending... of sorts.

The only false step in this film is in not clearly signalling when we are entering the family’s flashback. For a period, I thought the Army group looking for the deserters had arrived at the farm (this could have created an interesting dynamic if the natives had then surrounded the farm).

War Of The Triple Alliance (1864-70) (Paraguayan War)

The backstory begins with the 1750 Treaty of Madrid which was an attempt to sort out tenable borders between Brazil and Paraguay. Neither Spain nor Portugal were satisfied with the document, so it was relitigated into the Treaty of Badajoz (1801).

The collapse of the Vice-Royalty of the Rio de la Plata was the background to the rise of Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia and Uruguay, who were immediately involved in territorial disputes with Brazil. In 1844, Brazil recognized the independence of Paraguay (which Argentina considered to be a breakaway province). To supply Paraguay’s military needs, Brazil needed access to the Paraguay river. Paraguay was reluctant to give this permission.

On April 19, 1863, General Venancio Flores (an Officer in the Argentine and Uruguayan Armies it seems... and also leader of the Colorado Party in Uruguay) invaded Uruguay with the blessing and support of Argentina. This was the Cruzada Libertadora.

When Argentina claimed it had no involvement in this war, Uruguay responded by imposing compulsory military service. Things went downhill from there, Paraguay, defeated by conventional military tactics, instituted guerilla warfare. President Francisco Solano Lopez was killed in the Battle of Cerro Corá, but Brazilian and Argentine forces failed to occupy Paraguay until 1876.

Director,

Walter Hugo Khouri

Was born on October 21, 1921, in Sao Paolo, Brazil, and he died in 2003.

Walters parents were from Lebanon and Italy. He was a highly regarded Brazilian Director, scriptwriter and producer who won the 1965 Palm d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival for Noite Vazia (Empty Night; Man & Woman) (1964). He was also responsible for the controversial film set in a brothel, Love, Strange Love (1982).

Editor,

Mauro Alice

Was born in 1925, in Cuntiba, Paraná, Brazil, and he died in 2010.

Mauro was studying Chemistry at Santo André, Sao Paulo, when he began working in the projection room of the Vera Cruz Film Studio in Sao Bernardo do Campo. He soon realised he was more interested in film than chemistry. This began a career that saw him work with some of Brazil’s greatest directors – people such as Amácio Mazzaropi, Watson Macedo and Héctor Babenco.

Notable on his filmography are – Noite Vazia (1964) and Kiss Of The Spider Woman" (1985).

Canada

Universe

Director & Script: Roman Kroitor

Director: Colin Low      Script: Stanley Jackson

Editor: Tom Daly

Music: Eldon Rathburn

Actors: Donald MacRae, Douglas Rain

Biographer, Vincent Lobrutto, wrote about the time Director, Stanley Kubrick, first saw this film, Kubrick watched the screen with rapt attention while a panorama of the galaxies swirled by, achieving the standard of dynamic visionary realism that he was looking for. These images were not flawed by the shoddy matte work, obvious animation and poor miniatures typically found in science fiction films. ‘Universe’ proved that the camera could be a telescope to the heavens. As the credits rolled, Kubrick studied the names of the magicians who created the images: Colin Low, Sidney Goldsmith, and Wally Gentleman. Kubrick hired Douglas Rain to do some voice work for his production of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and Wally Gentleman as a DOP.

Five years before Russia launched Sputnik (i.e. 1952) Roman Kroitor and Colin Low pitched the idea of a film about the universe to the Canadian NFB. They suggested a budget of

$60 000. The Canadian government agreed, but wanted the project spread over three years, budgeted at $20 000/year. The project went forward and was put on hold each year as the budget ran out. Three years was too short for completion. The film was finally released in 1960 with a budget of $105 146. NASA ordered 300 prints. The NFB (National Film Board) sold 3 100 copies in total, making it one of the most widely distributed educational films ever made.

We open falling through space, onto the earth, and then drop into an observatory (which is presented through German Expressionist angles). Dr Donald MacRae, while not the narrator, is the visual focus, as he works through his night time assignments at the observatory. Once the equipment is set up, the movie, creates on the screen a vast, awe-inspiring picture of the universe as it would appear to a voyager through space. Realistic animation takes you into far regions of space, beyond the reach of the strongest telescope, past Moon, Sun, and Milky Way into galaxies yet unfathomed.

We start prosaically, with an earth rise as seen from the moon (I say prosaically because we have all seen this image which opens 2001. Here we see the image that inspired the one in Kubrick’s film). The voyage now begins.

We go to Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, the asteroid belt, Jupiter (as seen from one of its moons), Saturn’s rings, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. A comet guides us back to the sun (in all its raging glory).

Back on earth, Dr MacRae, the astronomer, pauses for a bite to eat. He breaks out the star charts. This allows a discussion on how the telescope navigates through space and some details of the telescope mechanisms.

To round off, the imagery now turns to star systems, Pulsars, Novas and the vastness of Space as measured by time.

China

Ge Ming Jia Ting (Geming Jiating; A Revolutionary Family)

Director & Script: Choui Khoua   Script: Cheng Tao, Yan Xia

DOP: Jiang Qian     Editor: Shanghua Yan

Music: Wei Qu

Actors: Lan Yu, Daolin Sun, Liang Zhang, Xiaoman Shi, Guolian Luo, Yang Yu

A Revolutionary Family was chosen to screen at the 2nd Moscow International Film Festival. It is an epic covering the first and second revolutionary civil wars in China (1924-37), and, as you might expect, comes with a strong propagandist taint.

My strongest criticism against the film is that the family are presented as being Middle Class. Through all their struggles, they still manage to maintain a Middle-Class existence. I also admit to opening this review by describing this as an epic. It is not epic in the general sense. This is a stage-bound story set in rooms and sound stages with a limited number of characters. The epic sense is created by the time period the film covers and the back history to the struggles of the family. They are on the periphery of history and, like good Communists, they are whole-heartedly in the struggle for political and cultural reform. Western countries don’t have the historical background to easily parse this film and the struggle doesn’t have an easily identified good side and a side working against the flow of history (like the US Civil War).

The story begins in present times. An old teacher tells her pupils about the struggles of her past. This gets us into the flashback that is the core of the film. This very cunningly establishes two things: we know the narrator will survive whatever happens; AND we are surprised when bad things happen to those around her (this is in part because they are her relatives and so we expect their relative safety, and in part because they are portrayed as heroes of this story).

The story begins in relative comfort with a delightful family we can easily identify with. Youngest brother is irritating, the older siblings bicker, father and oldest son are off on a journey down river. A feature of the first part of this story is the extensive use of Voice Over narration. There is too much explaining of what is happening (just so we don’t make the wrong ideological connections). This is very heavy-handed and comes with an air of treating the audience with contempt. Fortunately, the performances manage to carry the emotional impact of the events and this carries on throughout the film.

The family have been sundered and now is the autumn of their discontent. Soldiers appear in the village and a rally is held for the communist party. On this triumphal note, father and oldest son return. There is an air of