Beginning of the End

Beginning of the End
1962: New York Film Critics Circle
by Armond White

HOLLYWOOD PUBLICITY HAS popularly established 1939 as the great signpost of the studio system’s output (the year of Gone with the Wind,Wizard of Oz, Stagecoach and at least a dozen other memorable movies). But films of the ’39 classical era are rivaled by a year in the modernist era: 1962. It marked the highpoint of international, art-film exhibition as well as the beginning of the end of the old Hollywood system, all culminating in extraordinary but—up until now—overlooked riches.

As part of this year’s New York Film Critics Circle’s 75th anniversary celebration, the Brooklyn Academy of Music presents a series devoted to 1962—the only year in the group’s history without an awards roster. There had been a legendary newspaper strike at year’s end, causing the newspaper critics who made up the Circle’s membership (along with magazine critic members showing solidarity) to forfeit confirmation on what turned out to be a legendary movie year. Starting this week, with help from BAM’s curators Jake Perlin and Florence Almozini, the Circle fills in that history with a retrospective sampling of what makes 1962 matter.

David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia remains the best-known 1962 feature. It won the Academy Award and has since held on to its critical stature, repeatedly placing high on Sight and Sound magazine’s international critics poll each decade. But Lawrence of Arabia (showing Oct. 25 at BAM following a NYFCC panel discussion) was not the year’s only masterwork—although it certainly looms large.

American moviegoers have fond association with such ’62 releases as Sidney Lumet’s Long Day’s Journey into Night, Sam Peckinpah’s Ride the High Country, John Ford’s The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Robert Mulligan’s To Kill a Mockingbird, John Frankenheimer’s The Manchurian Candidate and Stanley Kubrick’s Lolita.These major works from major directors easily distinguish 1962 and that list—a veritable canon of significant American pop art—is just for starters.

It’s time to recognize 1962 as a turning point in film culture—the happy coincidence of art and commerce that made it possible to appreciate movies as the ultimate, culminating art form for both elites and the general public. There’s no better example of Art and Pop cinema’s greatness than Anouk Aimee in Lola (Oct. 23), Jacques Demy’s debut feature that itself is a tribute to film history (Sternberg, Ophuls) and a defining statement of personal cinephilia. Equally wondrous was Vincente Minnelli’s 1962 two-fer: Two Weeks in Another Town and Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, both sumptuous, melodramatic commentaries—the former on Hollywood history, the latter on the world’s spiritual history.

Due to the usual methods of foreign-film distribution at that time, many of the great European and Asian filmmakers who were at the peak of their post-WWII creativity often came late to the attention of American audiences. Even work by an established director like Michelangelo Antonioni might take years to get an American theatrical release. This resulted in an abundance of art-film releases that allowed American audiences to catch up on the most important international cinema developments.

In 1962, Michelangelo Antonioni was among the many world-class filmmakers to have more than one movie premiere in the United States. Antonioni’s more recent L’Eclisse and La Notte (completing the trilogy that began with 1960’s L’Avventura) opened New York along with the late U.S. premiere of his 1957 Il Grido—all masterpieces.

An amazing number of leading art film directors had two movies make debuts in 1962.

Francois Truffaut: Jules and Jim, Shoot the Piano Player (Nov. 6 and 5, respectively) Buñuel: The Exterminating Angel,The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz. Kurosawa: Yojimbo,The Hidden Fortress. And a trio of greats were represented in the omnibus film Boccaccio ’70, showcasing short films by Luchino Visconti,Vittorio De Sica and Federico Fellini.

It was also the year of Alain Resnais’ art-film deluxe, Last Year at Marienbad—a definitive example of experimental modernism.

Resnais’ great challenge to filmmaking and film-watching convention was appropriate— could even seem natural—during a movie year already replete with individual vision and innovation. 1962’s highpoints of acting (Long Day’s Journey, Lawrence, Jules and Jim, Lolita, Ride the High Country), cinematography (Lawrence, Marienbad,The Longest Day) have never been surpassed.

The Critics Circle’s revival of 1962 movie art completes the film critic’s basic mandate to further open up public appreciation of the art form.This BAM series isn’t an exercise in nostalgia, as usually happens when people talk about 1939.The films on view range from Jerry Lewis’ The Errand Boy (Nov. 3) to Howard Hawks’ Hatari! (Nov. 4) and Agnes Varda’s Cléo from 5 to 7 (Nov. 7) and Robert Aldrich’s Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (Oct. 29). It’s a celebration of how popular art and high art can be indistinguishable. All these films (and the ’62 goes on) are worth knowing, enjoying and learning from. Future filmgoers might ask for more than 1962 offered, but they’re not likely to get it.