Years & Movies: 1962

According to FilmGourmand, the best film of world cinema of 1962 was recognized the British film "Lawrence of Arabia", which we already wrote about. Second in the list of the best films of 1962 is the Japanese picture "Seppuku 切腹 (Harakiri)" by Masaki Kobayashi.

The film "Seppuku 切腹 (Harakiri)" was released on the screens of Japanese cinemas on September 16, 1962.

In 1963, the film "Seppuku 切腹 (Harakiri)" was nominated for the Palme d'Or of the Cannes International Film Festival. But the jury of the film festival preferred the film "Il gattopardo (The Leopard)" by Luchino Visconti. The company of "relative losers" to the film Masaki Kobayashi made up 24 films, among which were, in particular, "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Robert Mulligan, "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" by Robert Aldrich. But the film "Seppuku 切腹 (Harakiri)" was awarded the Special Jury Prize (tied with the Czechoslovak film "Az prijde kocour (When the Cat Comes)" by Vojtech Jasný).

It should be noted that the original Japanese title of the film looks like "Seppuku". Contrary to the ideas of many, the words "seppuku" and "harakiri" are not identical. "Seppuku" means ritual suicide committed in compliance with a number of prerequisites and ceremonies. "Harakiri" - has a more mundane meaning, literally translated as "ripping open the stomach." Which can be done anywhere and anytime. Without knowing the difference between these meanings, you can not understand what drives the main character of this picture.

But still, this film is not about the physiological process of suicide. In the fair opinion of the Russian film critic Mikhail Trofimenkov, "this is a film about the economic crisis and unemployment, moreover, of a special kind - the unemployment of warriors, ... about the death of military culture and about the rebellion against it."

Approximately in the same vein, Roger Ebert also expressed his opinion, who rated the film 4 stars out of 4 possible and included it in his list of "Great Movies". According to him, "Seppuku 切腹 (Harakiri)" is one of the best films about samurai, which went beyond the scope of purely "samurai" films and includes "stories of ethical problems and human tragedies".

And even the ever-obtrusive and sarcastic Bosley Crowther from The New York Times, though filled his review with poisonous epithets such as "ANOTHER grizzled, grumpy and growling unemployed samurai of the sort that we've seen prowling around the premises in any number of postwar Japanese costume films is the hero of "Harakiri" ", or" You may not get much satisfaction from the tortured human drama in this film ", but nevertheless, though in its own way, he appreciated the merits of the film, graciously assuming that it is comparable to American Westerns.

But moviegoers around the world praised this film very highly. 81% of IMDB and Kinopoisk users gave this film a rating of 8 to 10.

Given the success indicators listed, the rating of the film "Seppuku 切腹 (Harakiri)" according to FilmGourmand was 9.081, which made it the 145th place in the Golden Thousand.

In addition to the films "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Seppuku 切腹 (Harakiri)", the following films were included in the "top ten" of the best films of world cinema of 1962:

- O Pagador de Promessas (The Given Word). Director Anselmo Duarte, Brazil. Movie's Rating - 8,978; 171st Rank in the Golden Thousand.
- Иваново детство (Ivan's Childhood). Director Andrei Tarkovsky, USSR. Movie's Rating - 8,655; 262nd Rank in the Golden Thousand.
- Vivre sa vie: Film en douze tableaux (My Life to Live). Director Jean-Luc Godard, France. Movie's Rating - 8,550; 296th Rank in the Golden Thousand.
- L'eclisse (Eclipse). Director Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy. Movie's Rating - 8,531; 309th Rank in the Golden Thousand.
- Il sorpasso (The Easy Life). Director Dino Risi, Italy. Movie's Rating - 8,529; 311th Rank in the Golden Thousand.
- The Miracle Worker. Director Arthur Penn, USA. Movie's Rating - 8,373; 379th Rank in the Golden Thousand.
- To Kill a Mockingbird. Director Robert Mulligan, USA. Movie's Rating - 8,367; 383rd Rank in the Golden Thousand.
- El Ángel exterminador (The Exterminating Angel). Director Luis Buñuel, Mexico. Movie's Rating - 8,314; 397th Rank in the Golden Thousand.

10 most "cinegenic"*, in our opinion, events of 1962:

- The Caribbean crisis. For 13 days the whole world stood on the brink of nuclear war. To resolve the conflict, Soviet missiles were removed from Cuba, and American - from Turkey.
- Novocherkassk massacre. In the USSR, in the city of Novocherkassk, under the Party guidance there was a shooting of workers participated in protest actions caused by the food crisis due to higher mistakes of the leadership of the Soviet Union. During the shooting killed 23 workers. Later more 7 people were sentenced to death.
- Exchange at the Glienicke Bridge. On the border of West and East Berlin (Germany), the exchange of the American pilot Francis Powers, shot down over the territory of the USSR, took place on the Soviet intelligence officer Rudolf Abel.
- Disappearance of L-1049. The Lockheed L-1049H Super Constellation aircraft of the American airline Flying Tiger Lineruen with 107 people on board flew from the Mariana Islands to the Philippine Islands, but two and a half hours after the departure, communication with it ceased. No traces of the aircraft, or its wreckage, were found. This disappearance was the largest aircraft disappearance in the 20th century.
- The Evian Accords. In the city of Evian-les-Bains, agreements were concluded between France and Algeria, which ended the Algerian War. The ultra-right underground nationalist terrorist organization OAS (Organization de l'armée secrète), which does not agree with the agreements, organized several terrorist attacks, including an unsuccessful attempt on the life of French President Charles de Gaulle.
- Tunnel 29. 29 citizens of the GDR escaped to West Berlin through a tunnel dug under the Berlin Wall.
- Death of Marilyn Monroe. Marilyn Monroe is found dead at her home in Los Angeles. The cause of death was an overdose of sleeping pills and chloral hydrate. Whether this overdose was voluntary suicide or murder has not yet been established.
- Sino-Indian border war. On the border of India and China, a border conflict erupted, the consequences of which were the death of 722 Chinese and from 1,383 to 3,250 Indians.
- Flash flood in Barcelona. In Spain, in the area of Barcelona, there was a sudden flood that killed 440 people.
- Explosion at the Luisenthal Mine. A methane explosion at a mine in Saarland, Germany, caused a devastating coal dust explosion. 299 miners were killed. This tragedy became the largest in the history of the German mining industry.

Besides David Fincher was born. Michael Curtiz died.

* -With "cinematic" in the present context, we mean events that either have already found their reflection in world cinema, or deserve to become the basis of the plot of a future film.