When I was a kid in increasingly down and out 1950s Brooklyn, one of the ways I escaped what was happening around me was going to the “movies” – usually with my semi-delinquent friends. Today in increasingly up and in Brooklyn, I travel with my reasonably accomplished friends to the “cinema.” I don’t think films(video?) have changed so much but I/we certain have. Sometimes I watch a movie like Brooklyn and try to recognize myself as a character in the screenplay and on the screen. If it seems “familiar” to me, I think of it as “authentic,” or that it accurately captured the time and place. We think of the vicarious pleasures of viewing performances as normal; like rooting for or against heroes and villains or placing yourself in a romantic scene. For me, movies like West Side Story make me want to sing and dance. Others like Schindler’s List evoke very different emotions.
This is a long introduction for tonight’s class in the Screening Room where I plan (hope) to show you the trailers from a number of more and less popular films in the 1960s— for example from the Academy Awards (Oscars) for the best films in the years 1960-70. I also collected a list of films about or in The Big Apple (“Gotham” as the monicker more likely for the time period) in or circa the 1960s like Breakfast at Tiffany’s — some of which shown at the time — and I’ll try to get their trailers up on the screen as well. Most of these are listed in the Resources Page. We’ll discuss the relationship between the actual of New York City at the time and the virtual or the imaginaries. How do popular movies or other of the “arts” either reflect or influence their objects or subjects? We went to the Museum of Modern Art on Saturday to see “From the Collection: 1960–1969” which included many artists associated with NYC such as Andy Warhol. You are expected to write a short Review of the exhibition and put it in your Portfolio. The best way to do this would be to think about how what you saw reflected (or not) what I hope you are learning about NYC at the time.
After viewing the trailers we will watch The Warriors, a film adaption of the book by the same name by Sol Yurick. You already read his reflections of the book and the film That gives you a heads up about what to expect, but I still think you will be more or less pleasantly surprised (as was he) about it. You will also write a short Review of the film as well. See if you can find yourself or someone you know (Remember Max Weber: wissen, kennen, verstehen), or recognize a situation in it which you have experienced. How does it or does it not relate to the 1960’s auto/biography you are creating for the class? Bring some popcorn.
For next week please read:
Friedan, Betty. “The Sexual Solipsism of Sigmund Freud” in The Feminine Mystique. Penguin Books, 1965.
King, Martin Luther, Clayborne Carson, and Kris Shepard. “Beyond Vietnam” in A Call to Conscience: The Landmark Speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2001).
Marton, Janos. “7 Places to Remember Malcolm X in NYC on 50th Anniversary of Assassination” in Arts & Culture, Guides, New York. (2015).
Novak, Michael. “First Things” in The Rise of the Unmeltable Ethnics: Politics and Culture in the Seventies. (1978).
