A Pictorial History of the Movies: 1963 – 8½
1963 is a tough year to choose from. Because what exactly is the focal point?
I thought about choosing Cleopatra, as an example of the crumbling institution of classical Hollywood filmmaking, but there were a couple of epic films over the past few years, and why focus on that?
Plus, 1963 has a couple of holdovers from 1962 in it, like Dr. No and How the West Was Won, which makes it difficult. Which year do they count for?
Then, there’s a movie like The Cardinal, which deals with a lot of social issues, like abortion, bigotry, and racism, in a very frank way, which was just one of the final death knells to the production code. But I talked about that a lot as well.
And there are other great movies I could have chosen as well, for various reasons.
But instead, I’m completely copping out and choosing 8½, and the rest of this article is basically going to consist of, “Look at it. Look how great this is.”
Though aren’t they all like that? (more…)
Pic of the Day: “I thought my ideas were so clear. I wanted to make an honest film. No lies whatsoever. I thought I had something so simple to say. Something useful to everybody. A film that could help bury forever all those dead things we carry within ourselves. Instead, I’m the one without the courage to bury anything at all. When did I go wrong?”
