The 60's is probably the forgotten decade as it comes between the 50's (my personal favourite decade for cinema) and the 70's (the decade considered by most the greatest). The year I'm revisiting in this post is 1966. A mid year of the decade the British cinema invasion was in full force by this year. This reflects in the best picture choice by the academy which went for the very traditional choice of Fred Zinnemann's A Man for All Seasons. Based on the 1960 play of the same name it is a fine feature well told by Fred Zinnemann but a winning choice I can't really agree with that. It's typical British royalty biopic that aside from a few strong performances (oscar nominated Paul Scofield and Robert Shaw) it's that visually appealing or in anyway new material being approached. Even looking at the best picture lineup of this year's oscars outside of one major outlier it isn't that exciting a lineup. The other films nominated in 66 where Alfie, The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, The Sand Pebbles and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. Virginia Woolf is the clear outlier and Russians has it's moments of greatness but the other two especially Alfie are rather dated and while they might be considered great at the time by first viewing of them was not that well. Alfie was especially problematic to be character wise where I just couldn't track the central character of Alfie as he seemed to change to frequently. Sand Pebbles is a 60's blockbuster and showed Steve McQueen at his great power but I didn't find it that thrilling as I'm sure the film wanted me to find it. Returning to Virginia Woolf? I find it laughable and I'm sure many more people do that this film achievement did not dominate the film conversation that year. First the film introduced the film industry to Mike Nichols who grew onto be a stable of america cinema for over 4 decades. Also it is the great time capsule showing as Taylor/Burton flaws and all while they were at the height of their powers. Really all the actors are genius in this film because the material is so strong and Nichols (his first film) is so visually strong that everything of this film works and is endlessly watchable.
The oscar race of 66 wasn't that exciting but there was so many other choices that if nominees and winners were picked today these films I love would be more embraced. Viriginia Woolf is my clear number one and one of my favourites of all time. My runner up is Jean-Luc Godard's Masculine Feminin. The 60's also was about the french invasion related to the french new wave and many of these film changed everything because of how matter of fact they approached their ideas and how they were filmed through camera. Godard was one of these big french directors at the time and Masculine is probably my favourite of his (although Breathless is as the title suggests Breathless). The film is classic for it's non linear structure and just following these young characters is something to behold and why the information we learn about them might not be too important it's just a joy to be so brought in by Godard's camera and these actors natural charisma it's hard not to love this film. My choice for the great British film of 66 is Michaelangelo Antonioni's Blow-Up. His first film entirely in English it follows a fashion photographer who believes we has filmed a murder. The film is big for it's sexual content and how counterculture the film is. It's just a changing point of cinema and how fully the film flows into it's mode rather than focusing on any important plot. One note I have to make about the film is Vanessa Redgrave who burst onto the scene in 66 with three varying roles (Morgan, Blowup, A Man for All Seasons) and Redgrave being one of my favourite actresses ever is a wonder to behold even in her early films. Cul-De-Sac is an early Roman Polanski film and boy does it not disappoint. It's Polanski's second English language film is set in and around one location and is some comedy gold. The film is in Polanski's wheel house and covers themes of horror, frustrated sexuality and alienation. It's a great film that I'm sure I never would've seen before this revisit. The fifth film to fill out my personal picture lineup is The Shop on Main Street. The film explores the terrible Aryanization programme during World War II that destroyed thousands of lives. The film is quite a subtle somber piece of cinema. Every action of the film is simple but the deep depressing feelings taken from these characters is cinema like I've never seen before. It's a film that can never be recreated and never would I want it to be.
29 is the amount of films I saw from 66 and if it's not clear most of my favourite films are quite depressing choices but cinema can send you into some dark places and when those films are best I have to shout about them all. Below is my list of winners and nominees that I would've chosen.
OUTSTANDING PICTURE:
1. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Produced by Ernest Lehman)
2. Masculin Féminin (Produced by Anatole Dauman)
3. Blow-Up (Produced by Carlo Ponti & Pierre Rouve)
4. Cul-De-Sac (Produced by Gene Gutowski, Michael Klinger & Tony Tenser)
5. The Shop on Main Street (Produced by M. Broz & Jaromír Lukás)
6. Seconds
7. Tokyo Olympiad
8. 7 Women
9. The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming
10. The Gospel According to St. Matthew
OUTSTANDING DIRECTOR:
Michaelangelo Antonioni for Blow-Up
John Frankenheimer for Seconds
Jean-Luc Godard for Masculin Féminin
Mike Nichols for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Roman Polanski for Cul-De-Sac
OUTSTANDING LEADING ACTOR:
Richard Burton as George in "WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?"
Rock Hudson as Antiochus "Tony" Wilson in "SECONDS"
Jozef Kroner as Anton "Tóno" Brtko in "THE SHOP ON MAIN STREET"
Jean-Pierre Léaud as Paul in "MASCULIN FEMININ"
Paul Scofield as Sir Thomas More in "A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS"
OUTSTANDING LEADING ACTRESS:
Anne Bancroft as Dr. D. R. Cartwright in "7 WOMEN"
Françoise Dorléac as Teresa in "CUL-DE-SAC"
Chantal Goya as Madeleine Zimmer in "MASCULIN FEMININ"
Margaret Leighton as Agatha Andrews in "7 WOMEN"
Elizabeth Taylor as Martha in "WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?"
OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR:
Richard Attenborough as Frenchy Burgoyne in "THE SAND PEBBLES"
John Randolph as Arthur Hamilton in "SECONDS"
George Segal as Nick in "WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?"
Robert Shaw as Henry VIII in "A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS"
Lionel Stander as Dickey in "CUL-DE-SAC"
OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
Sandy Dennis as Honey in "WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?"
Catherine-Isabelle Duport as Catherine-Isabelle in "MASCULIN FEMININ"
Vanessa Redgrave as Jane in "BLOW-UP"
Jessica Walter as Libby in "THE GROUP"
Shelley Winters as Ruby in "ALFIE"
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:
Michelangelo Antonioni, Tonino Guerra & Edward Bond for Blow-Up
Roman Polanski & Gerard Brach for Cul-De-Sac
Pier Paolo Pasolini for The Gospel According to St. Matthew
Jean-Luc Godard for Masculin Féminin
David Mercer for Morgan!
OUTSTANDING ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:
Screenplay by Robert Bolt; Based on A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt, A Man for All Seasons
Screenplay by William Rose; Based on The Off-Islanders by Nathaniel Benchley, The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming
Screenplay by Lewis John Carlino; Based on Seconds by David Ely, Seconds
Screenplay by Ladislav Grosman, Ján Kadár & Elmar Klos; Based on The Shop on Main Street by Ladislav Grosman, The Shop on Main Street
Screenplay by Ernest Lehman; Based on Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
OUTSTANDING ART DIRECTION:
Art Direction by Assheton Gorton for Blow-Up
Production Design by Luigi Scaccianoce; Set Design by Andrea Fantacci for The Gospel According to St. Matthew
Production Design by John Box; Art Direction by Terence Marsh for A Man for All Seasons
Production Design by Karel Skvor; Set Design by Frantisek Straka for The Shop on Main Street
Production Design by Richard Sylbert; Set Design by George James Hopkins for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
OUTSTANDING BREAKTHROUGH/DEBUT:
Sandy Dennis (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?)
Chantal Goya (Masculin Féminin)
Lynn Redgrave (Georgy Girl)
Vanessa Redgrave (Blow-Up)
Jessica Walter (The Group)
OUTSTANDING CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Carlo di Palma for Blow-Up
Gilbert Taylor for Cul-De-Sac
Willy Kurant for Masculin Féminin
James Wong Howe for Seconds
Haskell Wexler for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
OUTSTANDING COSTUME DESIGN:
Jocelyn Rickards for Blow-Up
Danilo Donati for The Gospel According to St. Matthew
Elizabeth Haffenden & Joan Bridge for A Man for All Seasons
Jocelyn Rickards for Morgan!
Irene Sharaff for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
OUTSTANDING ENSEMBLE OF THE YEAR:
7 Women (Anne Bancroft, Sue Lyon, Margaret Leighton, Flora Robson, Mildred Dunnock, Betty Field, Anna Lee, Eddie Albert, Mike Mazurki, Woody Strode, Jane Chang, Hans William Lee, H. W. Gim, Irene Tsu)
Cul-De-Sac (Donald Pleasence, Françoise Dorléac, Lionel Stander, Jack MacGowran, Iain Quarrier, Geoffrey Sumner, Renée Houston, Robert Dorning, Marie Kean, William Franklyn, Jackie Bisset, Trevor Delaney)
The Group (Candice Bergen, Joan Hackett, Elizabeth Hartman, Shirley Knight, Joanna Pettet, Mary-Robin Redd, Jessica Walter, Kathleen Widdoes, James Broderick, James Congdon, Larry Hagman, Hal Holbrook, Richard Mulligan, Robert Emhardt, Carrie Nye)
A Man for All Seasons (Paul Scofield, Wendy Hiller, Leo McKern, Orson Welles, Robert Shaw, Susannah York, Nigel Davenport, John Hurt, Corin Redgrave, Colin Blakely, Cyril Luckham, Vanessa Redgrave, Jack Gwillim, Michael Latimer, Thomas Heathcote, Yootha Joyce, Anthony Nicholls, John Nettleton, Eira Heath, Molly Urquhart, Paul Hardwick, Philip Brack, Martin Boddey, Eric Mason, Matt Zimmerman)
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, George Segal, Sandy Dennis)
OUTSTANDING FILM EDITING:
Frank Clarke for Blow-Up
Alastair McIntyre for Cul-De-Sac
Ferris Webster for Seconds
Tatsuji Nakashizu for Tokyo Olympiad
Sam O'Steen for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
OUTSTANDING FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM:
The Gospel According to St. Matthew (Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini)
A Man and a Woman (Directed by Claude Lelouch)
Masculin Féminin (Directed by Jean-Luc Godard)
The Pornographers (Directed by Shohei Imamura)
The Shop on Main Street (Directed by Ján Kadár & Elmar Klos)
OUTSTANDING MAKEUP:
Alan Brownie for Cul-De-Sac
Eric Allwright & George Frost for A Man for All Seasons
Del Acevedo, Ben Nye & Bill Turner for The Sand Pebbles
Jack Petty & Mark Reedall for Seconds
Gordon Bau & Ronnie Berkeley for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL/ADAPTATION SCORE:
Herbie Hancock for Blow-Up
Komeda for Cul-De-Sac
Luis Bacalov for The Gospel According to St. Matthew
Georges Delerue for A Man for All Seasons
Alex North for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SONG:
Alfie, "Alfie" (Music by Burt Bacharach; Lyrics by Hal David)
Born Free, "Born Free" (Music by John Barry; Lyrics by Don Black)
Georgy Girl, "Georgy Girl" (Music by Tom Springfield; Lyrics by Jim Dale)
Hawaii, "My Wishing Doll" (Music by Elmer Bernstein; Lyrics by Mack David)
A Man and a Woman, "A Man and a Woman" (Music by Francis Lai; Lyrics by Pierre Barouh)
OUTSTANDING PERFORMER OF THE YEAR:
Vanessa Redgrave (Blow-Up, A Man for All Seasons, Morgan!)
OUTSTANDING SOUND EDITING:
David Campling for Cul-De-Sac
Barry Gray Fahrenheit 451
Walter Rossi for Fantastic Voyage
Sidney E. Sutherland for The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming
Bernard Freericks, Murray Spivack & Douglas O. Williams for The Sand Pebbles
OUTSTANDING SOUND MIXING:
Bob McPhee, Gordon K. McCallum, Norman Wanstall & Otto Snel for Fahrenheit 451
David Dockendorf & Bernard Freericks for Fantastic Voyage
Al Overton & John Romness for The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming
Bernard Freericks, Murray Spivack & Douglas O. Williams for The Sand Pebbles
Ichirô Hoshi for Tokyo Olympiad
OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS:
Charles Staffell & Les Bowie for Fahrenheit 451
Art Cruickshank for Fantastic Voyage
Linwood G. Dunn for Hawaii
Daniel W. Hays for The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming
Jerry Endler for The Sand Pebbles
Again I have to put a change to my release of my revisit posts. I've been releasing 4 every month for the last two months and now I'm decreasing that down to 3 starting on the 10th of October and from then on every 10th, 20th & 30th of the month I will released a post. So for now I say bye till the 10th when I will be revisiting 1976 the year when Rocky the literal underdog came from behind and won best picture.
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