This is stark but pretty to look at drama about mental illness that I suspect won the Oscar in part because of how foreign in form and content it felt from Hollywood films at the time.
Category: 1961
Yojimbo (1961, Akira Kurosawa)
I have seen A Fistful of Dollars, the American remake of this film, many times and I’ve seen Last Man Standing, the remake of A Fistful of Dollars, at least once. I’ve meant to see this movie ever since I discovered A Fistful of Dollars but somehow it took over two decades for me to …
Il Posto (1961, Ermanno Olmi)
For most of its run, this is a pretty classic Italian neo realist film that demonstrates its neo realist chops and hits most of the marks you would think for such a film. And then there’s the final shot, one of the great ones of the decade, which was almost enough for me to bump …
The Human Condition (1959, 1961, Masaki Kobayashi)
This is an epic film, released as a series, that adapts an epic novel. Taken as a whole film, it is one of the longest narrative films ever – by my count the 8th or 9th longest ever, and probably the longest ever made at the time of its release. But it was released as …
Chronique d’un été – Paris 1960 (1961, Edgar Morin, Jean Rouch)
It’s funny that the opening scene of the film which ostensibly invented Cinema Verite appears to be staged.
Pigeon Feathers and Other Stories (1962) by John Updike
This is a collection of Updike’s short stories and I feel like it might be his first collection. They range in length and quality but, on the whole, I think they are worthwhile if you like Updike as a writer.
Reptilicus [American Version] (1961, Sidney W. Pink)
Note: I watched this as a Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode so I technically didn’t watch the whole movie. Note 2: There are at least three different versions of this movie. I believe I watched the second American version but I’m not 100% sure.
The Best of the Classic Capitol Singles (2013) by Wanda Jackson
This is a compilation that, despite its title, appears to contain every single one of Jackson’s singles for Capitol between 1956 and the early ’60s. It shows off what could only be a pioneering fusion of country and rock music that I was completely unaware existed.
The Physicists (1961) by Friedrich Durrenmatt, adapted by Michael Healy, live at the Tom Patterson Theatre, Stratford, July 25, 2015
This is a play about the social responsibility of scientists posing as a murder mystery-cum comedy, set in an insane asylum. The play uses comedy and the teensiest bit of mystery to dilute it’s otherwise very heavy-handed message. The play itself is so prescient (and so relevant to our time) that I am shocked I …
Complete Organ Works (2003) by Maurice Durufle, performed by Friedhelm Flamme
The pipe organ must be one of the seriously neglected instruments of 20th century “classical” music, at least from the perspective of us musical naifs. I mean, even though there are plenty of notable organ and organ-centric compositions, very few of those have actually made it into mass awareness. The little bit of organ music …
The Complete 1961 Village Vanguard Recordings (1997) by John Coltrane
When Coltrane and his “quartet” recorded these performances, he was just releasing Ole Coltrane, so I think it’s safe to say that much of what was heard here came as a shock to anyone in the audience who wasn’t constantly seeing him live. And even when the LP version came out the next year, much …