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The History of Cinema: 1960

Algeria - Italy

Burkina Faso

Aug -

A Minuit ... L’Indépendance, the first film produced in Burkina Faso (then Upper Volta), is released. [ADD]

Congo

– National leader Patrice Lumumba reveals that, during the years of Belgian rule, locals were not allowed to view foreign films.   The official reason given was that the locals could not distinguish between fact and fiction and therefore film could lead to mental problems. [ADD]

Cuba

– The ICAIC sponsored ‘Cuban Cine’ magazine is founded. [ADD]

West Germany

31/5 -

Marlene Dietrich returns to her homeland for the first time since 1930.   Although the tour is a success, she is pelted with tomatoes at some shows by audiences who have not forgiven her for her self-imposed exile and her status as an American citizen. [ADD]

Greece

– Jules Dassin directs as well as co-stars with his wife Melina Mercouri in Never on Sunday.   Mercouri plays a prostitute in the port of Piraeus, Dassin the American writer who tries to reform her. [ADD]

– The first Greek Film Festival takes place in Thessaloniki. [ADD]

India

5/8 -

K. Asif’s Mughal-e-Azam is released after 10 years in the making. [ADD]

– The Film Institute of India is established. [ADD]

– The Film Finance Corporation is founded to finance quality productions. [ADD]

– The government acquires Prabhat Studios to set up the Film Institute of India. [ADD]

– Gandhian Sarvodaya workers stage protests against indecent film posters and hoardings. [ADD]

– The weekly magazine Movieland is published in Madras. [ADD]

Italy

29/6 -

Michelangelo Antonioni’s L’Avventura is released and meets with a hostile reception from critics.   In response, a statement, signed by, amongst others Roberto Rossellini, Jean Baral, Mario Ruspoli Di Poggio-Suasa, Nelly Kaplan, Ennio Lorenzini, Maurice Ronet, Alice Saprich, Yvonne Decaris, Anatole Daumon, Georges Sadoul, Robert Benayoun, Janine-André Bazin, defends the film, stating, "Aware of the exceptional importance of Michelangelo Antonioni's film, and disgusted by the demonstration of hostility which it has engendered, the members of the film profession and the critics whose names are signed below, also wish to express their wholehearted admiration for the maker of this film. Others who share that enthusiasm wish to make known their approval." [ADD]

22/12 -

La Ciociara (Two Women), Vittorio De Sica’s adaptation of an Albert Moravia story, is released.   Sophia Loren plays a widowed mother fleeing the allied bombing of Rome in 1943. [ADD]

Other Key Films of 1960

Algeria

Djazairouna (R. Vauthier) [ADD]

Argentina

Shunko (Lautaro Murua) [ADD]

Tiré dié (Fernando Birri) [ADD]

Bangladesh

Rajdhanir Buke (In the Heart of Capital City) [ADD]

China

Geming jiating (A Revolutionary Family) (Choui Khoua) [ADD]

Waves on the Southern Shore (Cai Chusheng) [ADD]

Croatia

Deveti krug (Ninth Circle) (France Štiglic) [ADD]

Cuba

Historias de la Revolucion (Tomas Gutierrez Alea) [ADD]

East Germany

Der Schweigende Stern (The Silent Star) (Kurt Maetzig) [ADD]

Egypt

Bidaya wa nihaya (Dead Amongst the Living) (Salah Abouseif) [ADD]

Greece

Madalena (Dinos Dimopoulos) [ADD]

The River (Nikos Koundouros) [ADD]

Young Lady’s Fool (Yannis Dalianidis) [ADD]

India

Baishey Shravana (Mrinal Sen) [ADD]

Devi (Goddess) (Satyajit Ray) [ADD]

Meghe Dhaka Tara (Ritwik Ghatak) [ADD]

Ranadheera Kanteerava (N. C. Rajan) [ADD]

Israel

Description d’un combat (Description of a Struggle) (Chris Marker) [ADD]

Italy

Adua e le compagne (Hungry for Love) (Antonio Pietrangeli) [ADD]

La Dolce vita (The Sweet Life) (Federico Fellini) [ADD]

Rocco e I suoi fratelli (Rocco and His Brothers) (Luchino Visconti) [ADD]

The History of Cinema: 1960