The climate for film in the 1960s was burgeoning worldwide as the aftermath of World War II drew to a close. This new wave of young filmmakers, eager to get behind the camera, created a raw sensibility that elevated cinema-making into an art form. In Hollywood, the genre films being carried over from the fifties were no longer cutting it for the domestic market, let alone the international market. With the tide shifting from an older generation to a younger generation, along with the studio system going away and the Hays Code, it made for a playground that filmmakers jumped on.
The 60s were an influential era for cinema because of the climate at the time. The historical context of many of these films comes from the War or the social change that was being swept through the world. The historical events individually experienced by people make a difference in the way their cinema is; you can see that the camera quality from the United States, France, and Poland all vary during this time. This was a decade where movies were being pushed out every week that would redefine how people looked at media. While there’s mention of different types of cinema from around the world, there is far more to explore. While only a few filmmakers are spotlighted here, there were hundreds of other filmmakers who helped collaborate and make history through their creative perspectives.
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Cahiers Du Cinema and The Left Bank Group
Two groups in France had a significant impact on the rest of the world. Cahiers du Cinéma was a French cinema magazine with two hotshot critics, Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut. Other filmmakers in the group were Eric Rohmer, Jacques Rivette, and Claude Chabrol. In their magazine, they would often criticize the monotonous films being produced in Hollywood as well as in France. They hated the big epics and musicals that were constantly being produced and demanded something real, more existential, more French. The films made by this group used non-famous actors, raw locations, and diegetic sound. Using guerrilla filmmaking techniques, they blew the world away with feature films’ ‘400 Blows,’ ‘Breathless,’ ‘My Night at Maud’s,’ and ‘Les Bonnes Femmes.’
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The Left Bank was also home to many prominent filmmakers, although their principles of film were not as stringent as those of the others. They were more relaxed in their approach, while still avant-garde, and had more pleasing stylistic features as opposed to the rugged and raw films of Godard and Truffaut. Agnes Varda should be noted the most as a prominent female director who teetered between the Cahiers du Cinema people and the Left Bank group. Her films were characterized by the female experience. Her husband Jacques Demy created the famous musical ‘Umbrellas of Cherbourg’, taking the principles of the traditional musical and dramatizing them into a heartbreaking love story (the film ‘La La Land’ is inspired by this film). Two other filmmakers, Alain Resnais and Chris Marker, were also a part of this group. In all, these French Filmmakers helped to show others around the world the capability that cinema has.
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Soviet Films
Other influential films came from the Soviet Union. Although closely monitored, some of the greatest films emerged from Russia and its surrounding countries in the sixties. Considered to be one of Russia’s greatest filmmakers, Andrei Tarkovsky managed to take a Chekovian approach to his stories. Although he was granted more freedom in the 1970s, his building blocks in ‘Ivan’s Childhood’ and ‘Andrei Rublev’ took his sensibilities as a filmmaker to a new height. In Poland, filmmaker Andrzej Wajda created three war-focused films titled Ashes and Diamonds, Kanal, and A Generation. Released in the 1950s, these works went on to influence the French New Wave, which embraced many of the same principles, such as casting non-state actors and shooting with natural lighting on location. Other films that were popular in different countries were the comedies in Czechoslovakia. Although connotations suggest otherwise, their films are filled with sarcasm, irony, and characters who just want to have a good time. An Example of this is Jirí Menzel’s ‘Closely Watched Trains,’ a contained film set in a train station. It shows the simple lives of those during the war and how it affects them. Dry humor is the main focus as these characters try to grapple with their existence during this time.
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Hollywood Goes Independent
As the glitz and glamour of the fifties began to fade and the studio system’s control over what could be shown started to loosen, Billy Wilder’s The Apartment captured the shifting tides. What first appears to be a harmless romantic comedy becomes a dramatic character study, revealing a depth to the human soul that had rarely been depicted under the Hays Code. The code remained in effect until 1968, when it was finally abolished, but in its final years, filmmakers became increasingly clever in finding ways around its restrictions. Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho famously opens with a scene in which Janet Leigh’s character is stabbed in the shower, using rapid jump cuts to create vignettes of a horrific murder without explicitly showing the violence. Influences from early French films and other international movements began to filter into the work of countless filmmakers, including Martin Scorsese, who was watching these new releases week after week.
As societal changes swept through the nation, that energy echoed back in the films being made. The melancholy of the era can be felt in works like Arthur Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde, Mike Nichols’ The Graduate, Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch. Each of these films reimagined familiar genres, breaking boundaries in the absence of the Hays Code. Released within just three years of each other, they remain beloved by both fans and critics, alongside many other titles from the period that deserve equal recognition.
Cast & Crew Details
The Apartment (1960)
Director & Producer: Billy Wilder
Screenplay: Billy Wilder & I. A. L. Diamond
Cinematography: Joseph LaShelle
Editing: Daniel Mandell
Music: Adolph Deutsch
Starring: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray, Ray Walston, Edie Adams
Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
Director: Arthur Penn
Writers: David Newman & Robert Benton (with uncredited contributions by Robert Towne and Warren Beatty)
Producer: Warren Beatty
Cinematography: Burnett Guffey
Editing: Dede Allen
Music: Charles Strouse
Starring: Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Michael J. Pollard, Gene Hackman, Estelle Parsons
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Director & Producer: Stanley Kubrick
Screenplay: Stanley Kubrick & Arthur C. Clarke
Cinematography: Geoffrey Unsworth
Editing: Ray Lovejoy
Production Design: Ernest Archer, Harry Lange, Anthony (Tony) Masters
Choreography (notably “Dawn of Man” sequence): Daniel Richter (uncredited choreographer)
Voice of HAL 9000: Douglas Rain
By Devon James
Click here to read The Hollywood Insider’s CEO Pritan Ambroase’s love letter to Cinema, TV and Media. An excerpt from the love letter: The Hollywood Insider’s CEO/editor-in-chief Pritan Ambroase affirms, “We have the space and time for all your stories, no matter who/what/where you are. Media/Cinema/TV have a responsibility to better the world and The Hollywood Insider will continue to do so. Talent, diversity and authenticity matter in Cinema/TV, media and storytelling. In fact, I reckon that we should announce “talent-diversity-authenticity-storytelling-Cinema-Oscars-Academy-Awards” as synonyms of each other. We show respect to talent and stories regardless of their skin color, race, gender, sexuality, religion, nationality, etc., thus allowing authenticity into this system just by something as simple as accepting and showing respect to the human species’ factual diversity. We become greater just by respecting and appreciating talent in all its shapes, sizes, and forms. Award winners, which includes nominees, must be chosen on the greatness of their talent ALONE.
I am sure I am speaking for a multitude of Cinema lovers all over the world when I speak of the following sentiments that this medium of art has blessed me with. Cinema taught me about our world, at times in English and at times through the beautiful one-inch bar of subtitles. I learned from the stories in the global movies that we are all alike across all borders. Remember that one of the best symbols of many great civilizations and their prosperity has been the art they have left behind. This art can be in the form of paintings, sculptures, architecture, writings, inventions, etc. For our modern society, Cinema happens to be one of them. Cinema is more than just a form of entertainment, it is an integral part of society. I love the world uniting, be it for Cinema, TV, media, art, fashion, sport, etc. Please keep this going full speed.”
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Devon James is a screen and media writer determined to provide readers with engaging and informative content. His film industry background gives him an adept knowledge in the entertainment industry. This complies with The Hollywood Insider’s mission to educate readers. Devon likes seeing hidden voices in film that provide new cultural perspectives. He enjoys the conversations cinema creates; hoping through his writing to open up topics for discussion.
Devon James is a screen and media writer determined to provide readers with engaging and informative content. His film industry background gives him an adept knowledge in the entertainment industry. This complies with The Hollywood Insider’s mission to educate readers. Devon likes seeing hidden voices in film that provide new cultural perspectives. He enjoys the conversations cinema creates; hoping through his writing to open up topics for discussion.
