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The History of Cinema: 1956

Algeria - Mexico

Australia

– The Film Division at the Department of the Interior is renamed The Commonwealth Film Unit (CFU). [ADD]

Bangladesh

– Abdul Jabbar Khan’s Mukh O Mukhosh, the first feature film produced in Bangladesh (the East Pakistan), is released. [ADD]

China

Jun -

The Beijing Film Academy establishes the Performance Institute. [ADD]

Cuba

– Tomás Gutiérrez Alea’s El Megano is banned by the Batista regime for being subversive. [ADD]

Denmark

7/5 -

Erik Balling’s Kispus (Puss in the Corner), Denmark’s first colour feature film, is released. [ADD]

Germany

– A record number of 817.5 million visits to the cinema are made in Germany in this year. [ADD]

Holland

– The Productiefonds voor Nederlandse Films is established to subsidise the production of Dutch films. [ADD]

India

19/5 -

The government bans six US and two British films – including The African Queen and Mogambo – for showing a ‘disparaging’ view of life in Africa following demonstrations by African students. [ADD]

– The silver jubilee of the Indian talkie is celebrated in Bombay. [ADD]

– The government refuses to supply ‘approved’ compulsory propaganda films free of charge to distributors. [ADD]

– A ban on the construction of new cinemas in Bombay is lifted. [ADD]

– The Kerala Film Chamber is established in Cochin. [ADD]

– The first issue of the Andhra Film Journal is published in Vijaywada. [ADD]

– The first issue of the Hindi film journal Film Sangeet is published. [ADD]

– Invited to India at the request of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Italian director Roberto Rossellini begins work on the documentary film India 57.   His visa is allowed to expire after his affair with screenwriter Sonali Das Gupta creates a scandal. [ADD]

Italy

– Italy has the largest number of cinemas – 17,000 – in Europe. [ADD]

– The cinema screen quota requirement is amended to a minimum of 100 days of Italian productions a year. [ADD]

Japan

21/1 -

Kon Ichikawa’s Biruma no tategoto (The Burmese Harp) is released.   The pacifist story is written by Ichikawa’s wife, Nato Wada. [ADD]

18/3 -

Kenji Mizoguchi’s Akasen chitai (Street of Shame) is released. [ADD]

24/8 -

Film director Kenji Mizoguchi dies from leukaemia in Kyoto at the age of 58. [ADD]

Laos

– Khuan Khet Taohom Song Khoueng (‘Gathering in the Zone of Two Provinces’), the oldest surviving Laos film footage is shot.   It is made by the Lao Patriotic Front’s Film Production Unit in Houaphanh and Phonsali Provinces with the help of Vietnamese filmmakers. [ADD]

Mexico

26/3 -

Luis Buñuel begins filming the Franco-Mexican co-production Evil Eden with Simone Signoret, Georges Marchal, Charles Vanel and Michel Piccoli. [ADD]

Other Key Films of 1956

Algeria

Les réfugies (Cecile Cujis) [ADD]

Egypt

Siraa Fil-Mina (Dark Waters) (Youssef Chahine) [ADD]

Greece

The Abduction of Persephone (Grigoris Grigoriou) [ADD]

A Girl in Black (Michael Cacoyannis) [ADD]

The Ogre of Athens (Nikos Koundouros) [ADD]

India

Ek din raatre (Shambhu Mitra, Amit Maitra) [ADD]

Ek Hi Rasta (B. R. Chopra) [ADD]

The History of Cinema: 1956