Film Shots Of The Decade: 1960s Edition

Images from films both English and non-English, starting from 1960 until 1969.

Halfway through curating this list, I discovered that the internet is arguing about what is the “shot of the decade”. Bit pointless since the decade is still not over yet. Instead, here are some shots from films made and released in the decade of the 1960s— NOT “shots of the years” or even the decade, but shots from films I like and that capture my imagination and attention.

Just as I did with an earlier list of shots from films I liked, ordered alphabetically, I set two rules to decide the films and the shots:

1. One film from each year;

2. The same director could not be featured twice.

What films from the 1960s do you like and what shots do you love from them? Please share your answers in the comments!

(NOTE: There will be spoilers below, so proceed with caution!)

Peeping Tom — Michael Powell, 1960

Twenty-eight years before John Carpenter popularized the killer POV shots in Halloween, Michael Powell did it first. In today’s eternally-documented era with smartphones, Peeping Tom feels like it was ahead of the curve with a serial killer who liked to document his victims’ moment of death.

La Dolce Vita — Federico Fellini, 1961

By the end of La Dolce Vita, Marcello (Marcello Mastroianni) has abandoned his former ambitions and has become a publicist, but his jaded expression here suggests that nothing has really changed for him, except maybe gotten worse.

Lawrence of Arabia — David Lean, 1962

With cinematographer Freddie Young, David Lean painted the desert in beautiful compositions (look at that triangle!), while also generating tension from the two men watching the black-clad rider (Omar Sharif) growing from a tiny dot in the distance to a larger figure as he draws closer.

The Leopard — Luchino Visconti, 1963

Don Fabrizio Corbera (Burt Lancaster) watches as the old way of life as he knew it— as the Prince of Salina— effectively disappears while the fireworks herald in a new way of ruling in which he will have no part of.

Charulata — Satyajit Ray, 1964

Satyajit Ray captures that heady sense of freedom on the swing, as Charulata (Madhabi Mukherjee) sings a song.

Thunderball — Terence Young, 1965

Even in pink, Bond still remains deadly as he uses a harpoon gun to dispatch an enemy that snuck up on them.

Daisies — Věra Chytilová, 1966

After trashing a room prepared for a feast, Marie decides to parade down the table like it’s a fashion show runway.

Two for the Road — Stanley Donan, 1967

Honestly, you could put any shot with Audrey Hepburn in it and it would look good, but this is the moment in which Joanna and Mark (a handsome Albert Finney) will fall in love and really set them off on their life together, with its ups and downs. Hepburn has never been better than she is in this film.

2001: A Space Odyssey — Stanley Kubrick, 1968

There’s Earth in the distance, here’s the moon, and there’s the monolith in the ground. A picture really can speak a thousand words.

Army of Shadows — Jean-Pierre Melville, 1969

In Jean-Pierre Melville’s film, being a French resistance fighter during World War 2 isn’t glamorous or heroic. It’s frightening, fraught with suspicion, and usually resulting in death. After escaping death from the Gestapo, the protagonist and his associates discover the traitor who betrayed Gerbier and prepare to execute him. But when they can’t use guns because they might be heard, they strangle him.

https://www.threeleftfeetmedia.com/p/film-shots-of-the-decade-1970s-edition

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Long live the movies!

D.L. Holmes