Cinematic Era: 1962 Vintage

Bollywood 1962

A distressed young woman, possibly on the run is surrounded by nothing but barren landscapes of forests and fields. As she progresses to an indiscernible denouement, the film contorts shape into a circular series of pulsating images that touches on the horror and the metaphysical.

An overbearing company president demands that his timid little employee ask for a raise, or he's fired.

Discovered in summer of 1985, of a set of “haiku-imagistic films” I did before coming to my characteristic style, as in Ray Gun Virus; I thought I’d destroyed all these pre-pure films, in about 1969-1970, the time of my separation from my first marriage. The film concerns my marriage, which lasted seven years; it was shot during its first year, when I was a painting student at the University of Denver. It is full of apprehensions, in a montage style which counterposes “opposites”: sexuality and religion; seasonal opposites; hopefulness undercut by fears of eventual separation (the image of a statue of two women, arm in arm, reading a book). I find it visually and kinetically interesting, after all these years. (Paul Sharits) —Canyon Cinema

One of three London sketches directed by Peter Davis, Pub was filmed at the Approach Tavern on Approach Road, leading up to Victoria Park in East London. It was made for Swedish television to give an impression of a typical working-class British pub.

A subversive experimental short against the ruling class.

A family moves into a house in the suburbs. Jacques, the adolescent son, speaks only French. Jimmy, the adolescent boy who lives in the house next door, speaks only English. There is an initial curiosity between the two from afar, but the language issue places an immediate strain between them. But the initial curiosity and interest in "little boy things" overcome the problems they have. This meeting begins a friendship between the two, which they're both going to need and rely upon as they explore the "haunted" house in the neighborhood inhabited by the scary man.

A Luis Gonzales-Nida Blanca vehicle

Black American presentation of the nativity story from the New York stage production by Langston Hughes.

A poor and ambitious employee provokes his boss's wife in every way imaginable until she falls in love with him.

Documentary about sports and good manners and the interrelationship of both.

April - November 1940. With devastating speed Germany takes Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg. Italy declares war.

Over 24 hours, camera follows everything that is happening on a bench. In that time, the bench is used by a variety of people: pensioners basking in the morning sun, a young mother with her baby, a married couple and, finally, a boy and a girl for whom the bench is a perfect place for love, etc.

A story about a football team captain who has to stay home with his little sister but does not let his teammates down and still makes it to the match on time. Part of the film almanac Little Star.

Documentary directed by Kôji Seki.

Madadali has been interested in Ra'na for years, but the girl's father, Mash Yadollah, and her mother agree to marry their daughter to Lotfollah.

Two old friends, Morteza Khan and Abbas Gholi Khan, who have become successful merchants in Tehran and Mumbai respectively, decide to grow closer by arranging the marriage of their children.

Qin Shi Huang (Kim Seung-ho), who unified China with an army of 500,000, takes Yong-nyeo (Kim Ji-mi), the daughter of a tribal chief, as a concubine on his way back to Hanyang; after spending a night together, she asks for a slave, and he grants her Jin Seung (Kim Jin-kyu), leading to Jin Seung eventually escaping the palace and organizing a rebellion against Qin's tyrannical rule, culminating in a victorious battle against the Qin army.

A Sidney the Elephant short.

A cartoon dialogue between Zeus and Europa explains the lessons of the past and views the future with hope. The six European Community members have pooled their economic destinies, wanting to become a healthy, strong family.

How Canadians adjust to their long, snowbound season. Filmed with humour, 'The Joy of Winter' shows people making the best of what they cannot change. From tiny tots to human polar bears the film leaves no doubt that, in the eyes of many Canadians, winter may offer more attractions than summer.

A look cinema and its evolution regarding comfort and the different types of films that drew audiences in during the 1950's.

A man, troubled and trapped in a deserted station, misses the only train...

A sequel to Dock 1

Inspired by the surrealists, this short movie is made of found film reels bought from flea markets.

The small town of Lucas, Kansas, is home to one of America’s most unique triumphs of self-expression: S. P. Dinsmoor’s fantastical backyard concrete and wood rendering of the Garden of Eden. Dinsmoor’s self-constructed and wildly imaginative figures represent one man’s attempt to make sense of the world in which he lived. A Civil War veteran, farmer, and self-taught artist, Dinsmoor created a work perhaps more relevant today than ever before; witness Dinsmoor’s Labor Crucified surrounded by a Doctor, a Lawyer, a Preacher, and a Banker to know that this garden is still thriving today. Adding to Dinsmoor’s triumph is the collective work of Montage Production’s Richard Grove, Richard J. Meyer, and Wayne Sourbeer, a trio of avant-garde filmmakers who simply and effectively captured the power of Dinsmoor’s architectural sculptures under the blue-gray skies of southeastern Kansas and further emboldens them using Dinsmoor’s own words.

Rare adaptation of Dylan Thomas' poem of the same name.

A documentary, produced for Swedish television in 1962, which marks the fiftieth anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. It examines both the film A NIGHT TO REMEMBER and Walter Lord’s book of the same name, and features firsthand accounts from three survivors of the tragedy.

A day in the life of London and the Home Counties in 1962, seen from the perspective of the use of London Transport facilities from buses and tubes to long distance coach routes, accompanied by extracts from BBC radio.

The 175th issue of the long running industry cinemagazine. Includes the articles: 'Weatherwise', 'Firedamp' and 'Whitehaven Whippets'.

Beginning in Las Vegas with a dance of the Bluebells, we are shown a variety, with jugglers, singers, Thai boxing, cock fighting and so on. A Variety taking place in Hong Kong, Manila, New York, Paris, Cremona. The break between an act and the next being a striptease.

Indian film starring Taraka Rama Rao Nandamuri.

This film was produced by Government Film Unit of (Ceylon) Sri Lanka which was directed by Pragnasoma Hettiarachi.

Documentary from British Transport Films

A chance love affair between a teddy boy and a painter, set in early 1960's London. This was a student film made with the assistance of a BFI grant and its influences include the British Free Cinema movement, John Cassavetes' Shadows (1959) and, for the love scene, Alain Resnais's Hiroshima Mon Amour (France, 1959). The film's young hero is a cross between James Dean's troubled teenager in Rebel Without a Cause (US, 1955) and Albert Finney's defiant mechanic in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (d. Karel Reisz, 1960). Initially portrayed as a self-assured, arrogant and immature teenager, his chance meeting with a pretty, sophisticated middle-class artist reveals a more insecure, fragile side. The climactic love-making scene earned Scott the first X certificate given to an amateur filmmaker. This short film is an extra on the BFI Flipside DVD The Pleasure Girls.

A Lost Persian Film. After graduating from the city, a young man returns to his hometown in a village in Qazvin to visit his old father and help him with his business. The young man gradually becomes interested in a pure village girl and proposes marriage to her. The boy protests against his father, who is trying to defile his fiancée, and after a fight with him, he marries the girl and leaves his father's house.

A look at the importance of surveying the world's seas and oceans.

Tips on driving in high-traffic areas.

Promotional film for the former Dutch post and telecom company PTT. The occasion was the complete automation of the Dutch telephone network on 22 May 1962. Warffum in the province of Friesland was the last village to be connected. The film follows a number of people in various parts of the country as they make phone calls. The wife of a pastry chef in Maastricht reports a malfunction; an accountant in Amsterdam calls his girlfriend to say he’s absconded with the cash; and an engineer at the delta hydraulic works receives a call telling him that he’s now a father. The PTT’s engineer, working at the central switchboard in Utrecht, links all these scenes together. The film gives a great impression of the prim-and-proper Netherlands of the 1950s and early ’60s, with its sweet, bouncy ’50s style and the appropriate voice-over commentary.

Second Degree, Part 2

The work tells about the difficulties encountered in the lives of young people who went on a campaign to acquire vast land, and how they overcome them in an exaggerated comic tone. The plot of the film is highlighted by the fact that the empty dreamer and pride of the main character Cuckoo leads him to funny events.

This poetic story-documentary shows the death of a tradition as a man reflects on a certain spring of his boyhood. We see a Greek community and culture as it is assimilated into an American city. Filmed in the neighborhoods surrounding the present day site of UIC.

Another experimental film by the director Vic Towas who continues in this cinematographic essay his experiments in the world of "direct film" painting technique.

Italian mondo documentary

Part of BFI collection "Portrait of a People."

Directed by Ibrahim Imara.

A Noveltoon from Famous Studios.

Providing a fascinating look behind the scenes at Madame Tussauds wax museum, featuring Sir Stirling Moss submitting to being measured for his wax work.