Honors Cinema

(France; 1960; Jean-Luc Godard) is one of the earliest, most influential examples of the French New Wave (nouvelle vague) style of cinema. A 1960 French crime-drama film written and directed by Godard—based on an newspaper article recommended by François Truffaut; with a treatment by Claude Chabrol—the film is about a wandering petty criminal (played by Jean-Paul Belmondo) and his American girlfriend (Jean Seberg) as they contemplate their next move after he’s killed a policeman who had followed him on a country road. It was Godard's first feature-length work and represented Belmondo's breakthrough performance as an actor. The film brought international attention to this new style of French filmmaking noted for its bold visual style which includes plein air settings; the unconventional use of jump cut editing; and other cinematic innovations. Breathless won the 1960 Berlin International Film Festival Award for Best Director.

(United States; 1962; Robert Mulligan) tells the story of Scout through her memories of her father (Atticus Finch), older brother (Jeb), and summer best friend Dill during a momentous 1930s summer when Atticus is appointed to defend Tom Robinson, a black man accused of assaulting a local girl. During that same summer, Jem, Scout, and their friend Dill play games and search for Arthur “Boo” Radley, an odd, reclusive neighbor who lives with his brother Nathan. Based on Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, the film was nominated for eight Academy Awards and Gregory Peck’s Atticus Finch was named by the American Film Institute as the 20th century’s “greatest movie hero” in 2007. 

(United States; 1963; Stanley Donen) spans three classic Hollywood film genres: suspense thriller, romance, and comedy. While on a skiing holiday; Regina “Reggie” Lampert (Audrey Hepburn) tells a friend that she has determined to divorce her husband Charles. But on her return to Paris, she finds her apartment stripped bare; with police notifying her that Charles sold their belongings, then was killed trying to leave Paris with that money now missing. At Charles’ sparsely attended funeral, three odd characters—Tex Panthollow (James Coburn), Herman Scobie (George Kennedy) and Leopold W. Gideon (Ned Glass); survivors of a World War II secret operation—show up to view the body. CIA administrator Hamilton Bartholomew (Walter Matthau) tells her the men are after Charles’ missing money; as is the seemingly charming stranger, Peter Joshua (Cary Grant).

(Japan; 1964; Ishirō Honda) is one of the most vivid entries in this fabled science fiction/adventure/fantasy franchise. Monster alert/long story short: A greedy Tokyo real estate developer unwittingly hatches a gigantic baby moth—the insect-god Mothra; and its two baby offspring moths—which descend upon Tokyo just as the radioactive monster Godzilla strikes after also having been accidently awakened. Often considered the greatest of the many Godzilla sequels with the classic Godzilla design refined after three prior films, this film is considered the international turning-point of the series.

(Great Britain; 1964; Richard Lester) is a legendary watermark in the rock musical genre. Using surreal and cinema vérité techniques in what is otherwise seemingly a film documentary; the film crystalized the public images of the fab four—John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr—in their run up to a British televised performance during the height of Beatlemania. Each song in the film’s soundtrack has become a bona fide rock classic despite the fact than not a single one of the songs was nominated for an Oscar or a Grammy or any other award—except, oddly, enough “Best Score (Adaptation).” Oh, yeah? Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!

(Great Britain; 1965; Martin Ritt) is based on the same name best-selling novel by John Le Carré that’s substantially different from the typical 1960s super “secret agent” exploits of James Bond (among cinematic others). Richard Burton plays Alec Leamas, a cashiered British operative drummed from England’s secret Service “Circus.” A defector to East Germany, Leamas is given a one-way ticket to redemption by posing as a British defector to sow disinformation on an East German Intelligence officer—at least until his cover may have been blown. Considered a classic in the film spy genre, the film’s a somber “Cold War” ode to the mid-20th century gray shadows between the east and west superpowers.

(Great Britain; 1966; Michelangelo Antonioni) reflects mod London during the heights of the Swinging ‘60s—albeit with a murder mystery twist. Incorporating Existential themes of alienation and angst through the lenses of high fashion photographer, Thomas (David Hemmings), the film is a psychological enigmatic wrapped in a conundrum shot through (literally) with ambiguity. One of the most influential films of the decade, it also features a rare cinematic dueling guitar lead performance between future rock superstars Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck in the then blues-based Yardbirds.

(United States; 1967; Mike Nichols) features full-blown undergraduate angst in one of the most famous films of the 1960s whose success created a whole new way of achieving Hollywood success. Dustin Hoffman’s ascent to stardom was sealed as Benjamin Braddock; whose maturation is complicated by his entanglement with family friend Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft) and her daughter, Elaine (Katherine Ross). Toss in a best-selling soundtrack by the classic folk duo Simon and Garfunkel, and post-Hollywood studio confusion has never been so iconic.

(United States; 1969; Haskell Wexler) is one of the most fascinating mixtures of fictional and factual filmmaking ever committed to celluloid. Initially shot as a feature film by cinematographer-director Wexler as an observation on Marshall McLuhan’s famed diction about 20th century media theory that “the medium is the message,” the film morphed into inadvertent documentary when his cast and crew were inadvertently caught up in the famed Chicago student riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

(United States; 1969; Dennis Hopper) is a parable about the state of the USA’s social spirit at mid-20th century. Motorcyclists Wyatt (Peter Fonda) and Billy (Dennis Hopper) amble across the southwest with wastrel lawyer George Hanbson (in a star-making turn by Jack Nicholson) after their big score on the road to New Orleans Mardi Gras. Credited as being the film that sparked the American independent film movement during the second golden era of American cinema; the film is, in turn, hopeful and melancholy replete with tie-dye and hippie flags flying.