My Generation

A very easy-to-watch reminisce of swinging 60s London, with old mate Michael Caine. For those like me, who always wished we experienced the 60s, this is as close as we'll ever get.

There's a lot to like here: Michael Caine, the 1960s, Britain, Beatles, The Who, The Stones, attractive models. It captures the feel and atmosphere of the 1960s well, albeit while being a bit all over the place. But weren't the 60s like that anyway?

It's also a documentary about youth. Something to put on whenever you feel like you're turning into a grumpy old nag. "My Generation" has a killer soundtrack and interesting footage - is like having a time machine back to the 60s, featuring the ingredients that brought about change.

It was fascinating to hear how Michael came up with his "Michael Caine" name, as well as the challenges he faced due to his cockney accent (forced to get rid of it for his first role!). At times it felt like there was too much emphasis on 60s fashion, modeling and photography - though if you're into that, this is the film for you.

Fairly sure I fell in love with every 1960s girl during in this.

The fast montages towards the end made me feel like John Lennon had slipped some LSD into my cup of tea - which I guess was the point while covering drug use of 1960s culture. It wraps up with Michael Caine giving us a mini-inspirational pep talk:

"Never ever look back in anger, always look forward in hope - and never dream small"

I want to go binge Michael Caine's filmography now!

Revolutions are rare in England's history, but when they happen, they shake off the system and have repercussions not only on the Island but also around the world. More than three hundred years after Cromwell's revolution and 150 years after the Industrial Revolution, the pop culture revolution made in the 1960s of London last century one of the two cultural capitals of the world and the avant-garde model of a reversal values and styles of scale. This is the subject of the documentary 'My Generation', whose director David Batty has been known over the last decade, especially for his films about ... the history of Christianity.

Michael Caine is the producer, the presenter, and receives a lot of screen time in this documentary. It's an interesting choice, but it comes with its problems. Of course, for Caine's fans among which you can always count me, it's always a pleasure to see the clever and articulate actor at the age of 84, sharing his memories and experiences from these times. On the other hand, I felt that Caine is pushing himself too far in front of the stage and he is "gonflating" his role as a cultural hero at the expense of other personalities, the real and significant heroes of the youth of the period.

The film starts from an interesting thesis and develops it convincingly: the pop revolution of the 1960s was not only a cultural revolution but also a social revolution in art. For the first time the younger generations and the classes considered "inferior" in the British system have found a broad stage to express themselves and have conquered the front of the artistic scenes of the world in different fields (music, film, fashion) . However, cultural references are rather limited when it comes to other fields than pop music. I believe, for example, that Pinter and Stoppard's theater would have deserves to be mentioned. Even when talking about cinema, big names are missing - for example those of Losey or Kubrick.

Another cultural dimension is missing. England and London played a central role in the pop culture revolution of the 1960s, but not an exclusive role. There is no mention of the influence of the pop and hippie movement in the United States, the Flower Power phenomenon, the festivals and protests that had the epicenter in the United States rather than in England. It can be said that it was a bi-cephalic phenomenon that had two capitals - London and San Francisco, and the film only deals with one.

In spite of all these observations, it is an interesting film that includes many significant testimonies about what happened in those years on the London artistic scene. The three "chapters" of the film feature the three stages of the birth of the phenomenon, the conquest of the artistic scene, and the appearance of the premises of its decadence. For those like me who lived those years on the alien planet that was Eastern Europe, there is a lot of invaluable information, images that generate nostalgia, places we were dreaming about then without being sure we'll ever get to see them. 'My Genration' is a documentary that generates nostalgia, but not the ultimate documentary about that period.

It's always a treat to see Michael Caine being interviewed; he has so many stories and they're all funny. But for a comprehensive statement about what Britain in the 60's was all about, we need more. The painters who refashioned the visual arts are barely mentioned: David Hockney, Richard Hamilton (whose Just What is it that Makes Today's Homes...? blasted its way into my teenaged mind), R. B. Kitaj and more all deserve more coverage. Instead we get lots of footage of David Bailey, Brian Duffy and other photogs--frankly it just isn't that interesting. If there was a novel or book of poems published during this decade we never hear of it.

The political turmoil of the time isn't mentioned. Tariq Ali, Caroline Coon and Michael X don't get name-checked; you'd never know that Godard made One plus one/Sympathy for the Devil with the Stones and all the London activists he could find. But you can ignore these criticisms and just sit back and enjoy a well-constructed time capsule.

I really enjoyed this. I'm not Michael Caine's greatest fan but he does well here and where the voice of him today relates an instance in the past that we see in an old clip and another in the same clip also speaks from today the effect can be electrifying. Some have spoken of the simplicity and cheapness of putting something like this together and I couldn't disagree more. This is so seamless, even when clearly the clips are from different sources, that there is an excitement in simply watching this come together before us. The script by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, which might seem unnecessary is quite the opposite because the visuals have to constantly be given the right context. Not sure this would be quite so thrilling for anyone born in later years, but I loved it and was incredibly impressed by hitherto unseen clips.

Turns out the crumbling of crusty upper class Britain was engineered by a bunch of long haired art hooligans who made dreary old London swing with a rainbow of colours. And who better to flashback to the mid-sixties than Michael Caine?

Don't answer that, just see the movie.

With a bevy of jovial (off screen) interviews, Caine reminisces revolution with old pals McCartney, Daltrey, Twiggy and Marianne. The stories are great, and we are treated to some primo era footage, but it all rests on Caine's ample shoulders. As a Cockney in a princely movie industry, he helped usher in the working class bloke as a screen presence. A significant moment, aligned with the rock and roll explosion, contemporary art and fashion waves, it signalled a way out of the stodgy career paths previously devoid of any detours.

More of a history lesson than exploitation flick, a classy bit of cinema this.