Quote:
Films that explore mental illness, especially Hollywood productions such as The Snake Pit, The Three Faces of Eve and A Brilliant Mind, usually tend to be heavy on the histrionics providing highly dramatic showcases and Oscar award opportunities for actors. But a descent into madness isn’t always signaled by wildly disruptive or overwrought behavior from the afflicted. Sometimes the illness can creep up slowly by degrees and pass for something more fleeting and subtle that avoids detection during the early stages. Life Upside Down (La vie à l’envers), directed by Alain Jessua, is a remarkable example of this, presenting a man who goes quietly mad while interpreting his erratic behavior as a profound new self-awareness.Read More »
1960s
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Alain Jessua – La vie à l’envers AKA Life Upside Down (1964)
Alain Jessua1961-1970DramaFrance -
Basil Dearden – The Mind Benders (1963)
1961-1970Basil DeardenDramaThrillerUnited KingdomQuote:
A British scientist is discovered to have been passing information to the Communists, then kills himself. Another scientist, Dr. Henry Laidlaw Longman (Sir Dirk Bogarde) decides that they might have brainwashed him by a sensory deprivation technique, but he doesn’t know if someone really can be convinced to act against their strongest feelings. So he agrees to be the subject in an experiment in which others will try to make him stop loving his wife Oonagh (Mary Ure).Read More » -
Philippe Garrel – Actua I (1968)
1961-1970DocumentaryFrancePhilippe GarrelShort FilmThe Films of May '68May 68 events seen through various 16 & 35mm shots, anonymous images made by young protesters who were filming during the night.Read More »
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Frank Perry – Ladybug Ladybug (1963)
1961-1970DramaFrank PerryUSAquote:
During the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, the normal routines of a rural elementary school are thrown into a panic when the civil defense alarm sirens go off, warning them of an imminent nuclear attack. The children are separated into groups, with one teacher leading each squad. Mrs. Andrews, the 6th grade teacher with a slowly building sense of doom, leads her group of students through the countryside to one of the children’s family’s bomb shelter. When they arrive at the shelter, they divide the rations and assume various duties, not knowing if they are in the middle of a nuclear holocaust—or if it was a false alarm.Read More » -
Atsushi Yamatoya – Ke no haeta kenjû AKA The Pistol That Sprouted Hair (1968)
1961-1970Atsushi YamatoyaCrimeExploitationJapanShirō raids the office of the organization that attacked his lover, wreaking havoc and escaping with a stolen handgun. In retaliation, the organization hires two killers to get rid of Shirō. The duo begin to develop a strange kinship with their target…Read More »
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Atsushi Yamatoya – Uragiri no kisetsu AKA Season of Treason (1966)
Atsushi YamatoyaExperimentalExploitationJapanA press photographer returns to Japan from the war in Vietnam after losing his friend and fellow photographer on the battlefield.Read More »
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D.A. Pennebaker – Monterey Pop [+Extras] (1968)
USA1961-1970D.A. PennebakerDocumentaryPerformanceOn a beautiful June weekend in 1967, at the beginning of the Summer of Love, the Monterey International Pop Festival roared forward, capturing a decade’s spirit and ushering in a new era of rock and roll. Monterey featured career-making performances by Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Otis Redding, but they were just a few of the performers in a wildly diverse lineup that also included Simon and Garfunkel, the Mamas and the Papas, the Who, the Byrds, Hugh Masekela, and the extraordinary Ravi Shankar. With his characteristic vérité style—and a camera crew that included the likes of Albert Maysles and Richard Leacock—D. A. Pennebaker captured it all, immortalizing moments that have become legend: Pete Townshend smashing his guitar, Jimi Hendrix burning his, Mama Cass watching Janis Joplin’s performance in awe. The most comprehensive document of the Monterey Pop Festival ever produced features the film Monterey Pop along with every available complete performance filmed by Pennebaker and his crew, along with additional rare outtakes and supplements.Read More »
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Ibrahim Shaddad – Jagdpartie AKA Hunting Party (1964)
1961-1970African CinemaDocumentaryGermanyIbrahim ShaddadShort FilmIbrahim Shaddad’s graduation film Jagdpartie (1964), which he shot at the Deutsche Hochschule für Filmkunst Potsdam-Babelsberg (now: Filmuniversität Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF), is a treatise on racism. Shot in a forest in Brandenburg, it uses a Western look to portray the hunt for a Black man.Read More »
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Jacques Tourneur – War-Gods of the Deep AKA The City Under the Sea (1965)
1961-1970AdventureJacques TourneurSci-FiUnited KingdomCity Under the Sea (released as War-Gods of the Deep in the US) is a 1965 British-American adventure horror science fiction film. It was directed by Jacques Tourneur (his final film) and starred Vincent Price, Tab Hunter, Susan Hart and David Tomlinson.
The plot concerns the discovery of a lost city beneath the sea off the coast of Cornwall. Price is the captain overseeing a group of sailors who have lived there for more than a century where the peculiar mix of gases has allowed them to extend their lifespan.Read More »









