Sixties selection

The Madwoman of Challiot is an unusual ensemble comedy starring Ustinov, Brynner, Chamberlain, Pleasance & Katherine Hepburn as the rather odd, eponymous heroine. A surprisingly biting satire, Hepburn plays a romantic minded woman who becomes disgusted by our contemporary world when she discovers there's plans to exploit oil deposits found in her own Parisian neighbourhood. It's soaked in sixties thinking but the razor sharp script pulls it above a trivial protest film into a much more reasoned, intelligent little film. Directed by Bryan Forbes

Modesty Blaise, starring Stamp, Bogarde & Monica Vitti, is a glorious 60's mess. If you enjoy silly retro comedies like Our Man Flynt then I wholeheartedly recommend this film as it's a real gem otherwise I wouldn't bother. The plot is incoherent nonsense and the action is pretty lame but Vitti's charms dispell any flaws and one thing for sure though it's waay better than the version Tarantino produced.

To finish there's What a Way to Go! a musical-ish, 60's satire pointed at our relationship with a then burgeoning capitalist culture. Shirley Maclaine stars as a country girl who seeks a simple life but unwittingly marries into big money over and over again. Maclaine's suitor's include Mitchum, Newman, Dean Martin & Gene Kelly. It's a bit of 60's fluff that should have been funnier.