If there was a decade I would want to live through if only for its cinema I think it would be the 60s. While I love all the classic films that came before it, as well as the new Hollywood movies that came after it in the 70s, for me the 60s was the time that changed all the rules.
This may seem like romanticising the decade, and coming from someone who never went through it, I probably am a little. I pretty much just know of the sixties from a historical point of view. It was a turbulent time which included the assassinations of JFK, RFK, and MLK, as well as the Vietnam war and civil rights being shown all across the television.
I first became entrance with the sixties throught its music. As a kid I listened to The Beach Boys, then The Beatles, and as I grew older I leaned towards Dylan as my one true poet laureate. I remember writing a short story in my seventh grade English class about a kid who felt he belonged in the sixties rather than today.
It was only till later on I started viewing more films from the sixties. Growing up I only remember watching the films that the old studio system was still dishing out. I was fed on big budget Broadway musicals like "My Fair Lady", and "West Side Story", along with Disney's "Mary Poppins". It was all fairly lighthearted stuff, strange I thought, considering the music I was listening to at the time seemed to have more of a raw feeling of rebellion and revolution, it was odd the films of that time didn't reflect the same thing. However I wasn't really getting the whole picture.
Two films that soon changed my opinion were Richard Lester's "A Hard Days Night" and D.A. Pennebaker's "Don't Look Back". As a fan of both The Beatles and Dylan, I simply had to see them. The thing I noticed right away, which differed from the other 60s films I was seeing at the time was they were done in a crude fashion, but there was something unique about that whole approach. In "A Hard Days Night", The Beatles were in an absurdest comedy not unlike a Marx Brothers film, things were never as it seemed as scenes would cut away to something completely different. In "Don't Look Back", it was a behind the scenes look at Bob Dylan who is seen more of an anti-hero who seems to resent his celebrity status but at the same time embraces it. He's seen as sometimes unlikable and isolating, but that's what draws us to him.
My first impression of these films was one of intrigue, if these films were made during the sixties perhaps there's more of them. I found out there was not only more, but better films.
It's safe to say the old golden age of Hollywood crumbled in the 60s, but in its wake a new generation arose, however the bulk of the talent were coming from Europe. The French New Wave exploded in the late 50s early 60s with the first films by Truffaut, Godard, and Malle. They were film critics who saw American films but were able to put them into context. They had their own theories about what films were, and what they could do. They came from a background of film criticism, and approached it as an artform rather than popular entertainment. Along with them came Fellini and Antonioni from Italy with films like "La Dolce Vita", "8 and a half" and "L'Avenntura".
The 60s became a breeding ground for freedom of expression, filmmakers became open to discuss philosophical and political issues more openly. There was a need for this all over which made arthouses more popular than ever.
Film criticism itself became more relevant as we saw the breaking out of important writers as Pauline Kael and Andrew Sarris, as well as the blossoming of a young Roger Ebert.
All this came to a boil, and it wasn't long until Hollywood changed its tune starting in 1967 with "Bonnie and Clyde" paving the way for more personal films to come in the 70s.
When the 70s came, there seemed to be more of an open door policy for filmmakers, more and more people were seeing movies not just from Hollywood but from all over the world, this then paved the way to the indie movement of the 80s, right up to today where a director can now show their latest film on Youtube.
I think this all started with the 60s, the ending of that decade for me came with the monumental documentary about "Woodstock" which celebrated its 40th anniversary just this year. After recently re-watching that film, it brought to my mind everything about the sixties that I loved. There was the music, but there was also this talk about change, and the opening of new possibilities, and a hopeful future. Of course we can't say that would all come to pass, but I still would say that sensibility is in me today.
Today I get tired of a somewhat jaded and cynical point of view in our films, not much of what I see seems to move me in any such way. Of course there is the exception, but the 60s represented something alive, youthful, and vibrant, and it's lacking not only in our films today, but in some of the audiences that go to them.
My favorite film of the 60s would probably be Truffaut's "Jules and Jim" which represented something more than just a doomed romantic triangle, but a certain bohemian life that seems to be drifting more and more away from us. Perhaps this was just Truffaut's romantic idealism, but maybe in the 60s it seemed more possible. People seem to take into conformity a lot easier these days.
I long for the day when the kind of rebellious and reactionary films that the 60s represented come again, and something is telling me that day is coming soon.
Anyway what's your take on this, plus I would love to know if there was a decade of film you'd love to live through, what would it be?
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