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The History of American Cinema: 1968

July - December

16/7 -

The American Film Institute embarks on a project to compile a complete catalogue of every film produced in the USA since the beginning of the film industry. [ADD]

5/8 -

Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni begins filming Zabriskie Point, his first American film, with Mark Frechette and Daria Halprin. [ADD]

31/8 -

Robert Redford opens an ecological ski resort, Sundance, in Colorado. [ADD]

18/9 -

William Wyler’s Funny Girl is released. Barbra Streisand makes her film debut as Fanny Brice in this adaptation of the Broadway musical while Omar Sharif plays her husband Nicky Arnstein. [ADD]

26/9 -

Paul Morrissey’s Flesh is released by Andy Warhol’s Factory, which has closed after the attempt on Warhol’s life in June. Joe Dallesandro stars as a male prostitute trying to raise money to pay for his wife’s girlfriend’s abortion. Geri Miller and Candy Darling also star. [ADD]

1/10 -

George Romero’s debut film, a low-budget horror film called Night of the Living Dead, is released. Filmed on weekends in Pennsylvania, it tells of the increasingly desperate attempts of a group of people to fight off an army of the walking dead. [ADD]

2/10 -

Don Siegel’s Coogan’s Bluff, in which modern-day cowboy cop Clint Eastwood comes to New York to extradite Don Stroud’s killer hippy, is released. Lee J. Cobb and Trisha Sterling also appear. [ADD]

10/10 -

Roger Vadim’s film version of the comic strip Barbarella is released. Censors force Vadim to cut parts of the opening credits sequence in which the films’ star (and Vadim’s wife) Jane Fonda performs a weightless striptease. The film is released with an adult certificate only. [ADD]

17/10 -

British director Peter Yates’ Bullitt is released. The film, which features a breathtaking car chase, stars Steve McQueen as a San Francisco cop investigating the murder of a grand jury witness. Jacqueline Bisset and Robert Vaughn also star. [ADD]

31/10 -

The body of 69-year-old former screen heartthrob Ramon Novarro is discovered in the bedroom of his Hollywood home. A subsequent investigation concludes that two hustler brothers, Paul and Tom Ferguson choked Novarro to death with a lead art deco dildo given to the actor by Rudolph Valentino. [ADD]

1/11 -

The film industry voluntarily adopts a classification system for the first time in its history. Films are now classified as follows: G – general exhibition; M - mature audiences; R - under 17s only admitted accompanies by an adult; X - adults only (over 18). Individual states have the option of raising the ages of the last two ratings. [ADD]

10/11 -

Mel Brooks’ first film, The Producers, is released. Zero Mostel stars as a producer who hatches a plan with a hapless accountant (Gene Wilder) to stage a flop play in order to make a fortune. The film is only released after Peter Sellers, having seen a private screening, convinced Joseph E. Levine not to shelve the film as he had originally planned. [ADD]

21/11 -

Jane Fonda starts a campaign on behalf of American Indians who have settled on Alcatraz Island. [ADD]

28/12 -

Columbia is renamed Columbia Pictures Industries. [ADD]

– Universal Studios begins its popular studio tours. [ADD]

– Film critic Andrew Sarris promotes the concept of director as auteur in his influential tome, The American Cinema. [ADD]

Other Key American Films of 1968

Faces (John Cassavetes) [ADD]

Finian’s Rainbow (Francis Ford Coppola) [ADD]

5 Card Stud (Henry Hathaway) [ADD]

Hell in the Pacific (John Boorman) [ADD]

High School (Frederick Wiseman) [ADD]

Rachel, Rachel (Paul Newman) [ADD]

Star! (Robert Wise) [ADD]

Targets (Peter Bogdanovich) [ADD]

The History of Cinema: 1968