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Posted: |
Oct 28, 2020 - 10:23 PM
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By: |
joan hue
(Member)
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I’d like to recommend to the movie lovers at FSM that you might want to check out a book called CINEMA 62 by Stephen Farber and Michael McClellan. No this isn’t a book about film composers, but I’m putting in on this side of the board because in order to hear scores, most of us see a lot of films.
Yes, composers are mentioned in this book including Jarre, Waxman, Kaper, Mancini, Addison, Rozsa, Goldsmith, Elmer Bernstein, Herrmann, and a few others. These composers are mentioned because they are tied to the films delineated in this book.
The book’s thesis is very simple. These authors contend that the year 1939 was a great year for films, but the films from 1962 were the greatest films in the history of movies. The authors make the, “bold claim that 1962 was a peak year for film, with a high standard of quality that has not been equaled since.” You don’t have to buy into their thesis, but their efforts to prove this thesis are fascinating. (Yes, they do talk about some current films too.)
In 1962 the Legion of Decency and the Catholic churches could still demand controversial issues be removed from film. Issues like homosexuality had been VERY subtly or subliminally touched upon in earlier movies. Racism and some psychological issues had also been rather gently explored before 1962. However, the authors contend that movies in 1962 started opening doors for the exploration of more controversial subjects even though they were still somewhat confined by censorship.
The book talks about some of the old guard directors like Ford and Huston as well the new Auteurs that emerged like Lumet, Peckinpah, Kubrick, Bergman, Truffaut, Fellini, and others. Also, certain stars, mainly women, were being less utilized like Bette Davis, Hepburn and Stanwyck and replaced by Fonda, Redford, Beatty and others. In Britain new actors were recognized like Rita Tushingham, Terence Stamp ad Tom Courtenay.
(The authors did raise concerns about the lack of women’s roles in 1962, and about older men like Cary Grant still getting choice roles, while women over 40 had diminishing opportunities.)
Yes, the book does zero in on Hollywood films but it also devotes a full chapter for foreign films and references a lot foreign films throughout the book. (I.E. New French Wave Directors, Italian Directors, etc.) Foreign films were gutsier than Hollywood films with less controlling censorship.
Chapter titles are: Overseas Explosion (for 1962), New American Auteurs, Survivors: Con Men and Hollywood Honchos, Grande Dames and a Box Office Queen, Calling Dr. Freud, Adapted for Screen: Prestige and Provocation, Black and White to Technicolor, A New Frontier, Sexual and Social Outlaws, and Crowning Achievement.
Each chapter presents several films relating to a certain subject like psychology. For instance, the films Freud, Lolita, and David and Lisa are analyzed to examine their new psychological insights.
Other films analyzed in various lengths are book Billy Budd, Birdman of Alcatraz, To Kill a Mockingbird, Ride the High Country, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane, The Miracle Worker, Lonely Are The Brave, Loneliness of a Long Distance Runner, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Days of Wine and Roses, Manchurian Candidate, Sweet Bird of Youth, Through The Glass Darkly, Mutiny On The Bounty, Advise and Consent, Pressure Point, Yojimbo, Hatari, Last Year at Marienbad, La Notte, and many others. The last chapter is devoted entirely to Lawrence of Arabia which won the Oscar for best picture and other Oscars. That was a fabulous chapter.
Lots of information in this book surprised me. I will share just two. Rozsa was originally hired to score Mutiny On The Bounty, but Marlon Brando’s arbitrary and capricious behavior extended the movie’s deadline so Rozsa left. I have to agree with the authors that Kaper’s score was epic.
Marlon Brando was also David Lean’s first choice to play Lawrence in Lawrence Of Arabia. However, Brando wanted Lean to postpone filming until Brando got done with raising problems that extended the completion of Mutiny On the Bounty. Lean got O’Toole. Smart move.
Okay I’ll quit writing. I hope a few of the film lovers here at FSM will check out this book. It is enjoyable and fairly easy read. Readers won’t get bogged down with a lot of technical language.
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I got it the day it came out. I so wanted to love it, but I really kind of hated it. It's such a great idea for a book, but it's organized so poorly and the writing is nothing to write home about and it was just a slog for me. It's no secret that 1962 was and is my favorite year for films so the book was especially disappointing to me and a real lost opportunity.
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Posted: |
Oct 29, 2020 - 1:18 PM
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By: |
joan hue
(Member)
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Howard, Crowther said some horrid things about female characters. Cary Grant made That Touch Of Mink with Doris Day who was a leading lady then. According to the book, Grant became uncomfortable playing the lead with Day who was two decades younger than Grant. He didn’t want to appear “lecherous.” Crowther liked the movie and said nothing about the age difference, but he attacked the “heartless” Day character. Combining Lolita and that Touch of Mink Crowther said both films, “make elaborately sadistic sport of the familiar disposition of women-or, rather females to be cruel toward men.” “Girls will be Girls-Female Perversity Rife in two new films.” “Miss Day, in her way, is quite as nasty to the utterly beguiling Mr. Grant when he offers everything a man can offer-except the honor of being his wife.” Day and Lolita withheld sexual favors, but the men were honest with their impulses.
“His ageist bias and misogyny were further demonstrated in his critique of several actresses’ work throughout the year, particularly his dismissal of older stars like Rosalind Russel, Barbara Stanwyck, Dorothy Lamour, Joan Crawford, and Better Davis.”
Yes, the book does say that Crowther stepped down after repeatedly attacking Bonnie and Clyde. (If you know details about this "ruckus", let me know.) He seemed “out of touch with the times.” Obviously.
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Posted: |
Oct 29, 2020 - 2:14 PM
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By: |
Thor
(Member)
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Some of the films you list above, Joan, are 1961 films (like LA NOTTE and YOJIMBO), so I'm not sure why they're in the book. Perhaps they're US release dates?
In any case, just for fun and giggles, here are my 13 favourite films from 1962:
1. To Kill a Mockingbird
2. L’eclisse
3. L’Anné Dernière à Marienbad
4. Lawrence of Arabia
5. Lolita
6. Viridiana
7. Mutiny on the Bounty
8. Knife in the Water
9. Jules et Jim
10. Cléo de 5 à 7
11. Ivan’s Childhood
12. La Jetée
13. What Ever Happend to Baby Jane?
Only four Hollywood films, but I have to be honest and say I have several holes here. I've never seen films like HATARI, THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, THE MIRACLE WORKER, HOW THE WEST WAS WON, THE LONGEST DAY, DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES etc. etc. -- even though I own soundtracks from several of them.
Also a few I don't find good enough, or that appeal enough to me, to be included on the list, like DR. NO, BOCCACCIO '70.
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