All Films

Noah and the Flood

1962 • 54 min

In 1960 CBS commissioned renown composer, Igor Stravinsky, to compose a new ballet composition, Noah and the Flood, that would be adapted for a TV special. This was supposed to be one out of an eight part series of TV specials that featured prominent artists. Most of these specials never came to fruition. The ballet told the story of Noah and the Flood with symbolic references to other biblical narratives. The choreography was directed by George Balanchine and the ballet was performed by the New York City Ballet. An addition to the performance the TV special also included an overview of Stravinsky’s career and an exposition of the biblical context. The performance was aired on CBS in 1962 with Breck shampoo as the sponsor.

Trap

1962 • 10 min • Poland

Ijon Tichy arrives on a new planet in a single-person spacecraft. His habits and fantasies are with him. The aliens recreate the sex bomb from the poster that could be found in the cabin of his spacecraft. Then, they present him a live dummy. A male-female evening in space with some pre-war music hits becomes possible.

Playtime in Paris

1962 • 27 min • France

Catherine Varlin's 27-minute Playtime in Paris (1962) is almost a practice run for Le joli mai, a sampling that starts in a classroom and then observes various subjects from afar. A woman is compared to a cat, and then we see a little girl on a playground, kissing, hugging and swatting a little boy companion as if he were a doll-plaything. A supermarket is compared to a flea market; an upscale equestrian event is compared to a soccer match, a comic bullfight and other attractions. Marker edited and Lhomme was the cameraman.

Look at Life: The Cinema Steps Out

1962 • 9 min • United Kingdom

A look cinema and its evolution regarding comfort and the different types of films that drew audiences in during the 1950's.

Les Roses de la vie

1962 • 20 min • France

François Truffaut said of Paul Vecchiali in his early days that he was "the only true heir of Jean Renoir." The first short film of this director, who was to become a singular figure of independent French cinema, follows the path of an elderly woman towards her memories and beyond. Attentive, affectionate and sometimes cruel, Vecchiali's camera invents its own expressive language.

Death Trap

1962 • 56 min • United Kingdom

A young woman commits suicide. Her sister is not ready to let the death go without someone answering a few questions. Namely, was it really suicide, and where is the large amount of money her sister withdrew from the bank the day before her death.

The Rocking Horse

1962 • 24 min • United Kingdom

A chance love affair between a teddy boy and a painter, set in early 1960's London. This was a student film made with the assistance of a BFI grant and its influences include the British Free Cinema movement, John Cassavetes' Shadows (1959) and, for the love scene, Alain Resnais's Hiroshima Mon Amour (France, 1959). The film's young hero is a cross between James Dean's troubled teenager in Rebel Without a Cause (US, 1955) and Albert Finney's defiant mechanic in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (d. Karel Reisz, 1960). Initially portrayed as a self-assured, arrogant and immature teenager, his chance meeting with a pretty, sophisticated middle-class artist reveals a more insecure, fragile side. The climactic love-making scene earned Scott the first X certificate given to an amateur filmmaker. This short film is an extra on the BFI Flipside DVD The Pleasure Girls.

A Symposium on Popular Songs

1962 • 20 min • United States of America

Professor Ludwig von Drake plays a variety of popular music, all of which he wrote. First, ragtime: the Rutabaga Rag, with vegetables dancing in stop-motion. Next, the Charleston, with cut-out animation of a singer and dancers. Dixieland and more cut-out animation; the crooner/love ballad; 50's doo-wop; and finally, rockabilly.

Mother Was a Rooster

1962 • 6 min • United States of America

Foghorn Leghorn is sound asleep when the barnyard dog places an ostrich egg beside him for a gag. When Foghorn awakes and sees the egg...

By the Ravine

1962 • 50 min • Soviet Union

Senya, a young hunter, hunts for two wolves that have been preying on sheep of various farms in Siberia. Kira Muratova and husband Oleksandr Muratov's diploma film.

Miss Beauty 62

1962 • 14 min • Yugoslavia

Sarcastic look at a 1962 Yugoslav beauty contest.

Who Said Meow?

1962 • 10 min • Soviet Union

After hearing someone's "meow" for the first time in his life, baby puppy goes in search of the unknown beast and meets various inhabitants of the house and yard. On children's curiosity and the first acquaintance with the world.

The American Way

1962 • 10 min • United States of America

A comedy short which pokes merry anarchistic fun at such quintessential American institutions as mom, baseball, and apple pie. It features an early appearance from actor John Cazale.

The Third Sam

1962 • 10 min

Driver Sam Smith is given the privilege of driving one of the new electric trains. But when a problem arises, it takes three very different Sams before the problem is solved.

Rock-a-Bye Gator

1962 • 6 min • United States of America

It's alligator hibernation season in the Everglades, but Gabby Gator is wide awake and eager to have Woody for dinner.

Room and Bored

1962 • 6 min • United States of America

Woody decides to make a home in a telephone pole where he encounters Smedley, a lineman determined to stop his company's property from trespass.

Umbrella

1962 • 11 min • Yugoslavia

Short by P. Majhrovski.

Mozart and Salieri

1962 • 47 min • Soviet Union

Film version of the Rimsky Korsakov opera from the Pushkin story. Motsart i Salyeri (Mozart and Salieri), based on a legend that Salieri poisoned Mozart, meditates on the nature of creativity while introducing, in brilliantly compressed speeches, what was to be one of the important Russian themes—metaphysical rebellion against God.

Los 40 Cuartos

1962 • 23 min • Argentina

Short film by Juan Fernando Oliva that was censored after its production and its exhibition was prohibited by presidential decree in Argentina. The film addresses the problem of housing based on a documentary record of the lives of the tenement's inhabitants. It is the story of a young couple looking for a home to face the present and build their future.

The Marvelous Garden

1962 • 21 min • Soviet Union

Iro (Colors)

1962 • 10 min • Japan

First projected onto Jiro Takamatsu's naked back at the legendary Sogetsu Art Center for the performance Screen Play, Colors is an experiment in concoction. Iimura drops paint into oil and water and melts wax as he films the colors take shape whilst simultaneously dissolving into one another. An eerie soundtrack by Yasunao Tone of Group Ongaku and Fluxus creates an impression of music being the witch behind the craft. (Julian Ross)

Crimen

1962 • 8 min • Argentina

A construction worker has some terrible thoughts on his break time.

Junk

1962 • 12 min • Japan

"It's a mixture of [dead] animals, pieces of [broken] furniture, industrial waste, kids playing. I didn't have in mind any of the kind of historical perspective, nor was I trying to make an ecological statement. I was showing the new landscape of our civilization. My point of view was animistic. I tried to revive those dead animals metaphorically and to give the junk new life."

Sor Angelina, virgen

1962 • 26 min • Spain