Double Feature: Goldfinger x A Hard Day’s Night

All that glitters is not gold, but Goldfinger is certainly not a fake. The movie, made with the finest of Bond’s metals, turns 60 this year. It was the third chapter of the series, filled with absurd, yet spectacular sequences, that established the myth of Bond as the superhero of the 1960s. Sean Connery  remains a synonym of violent, threatening masculinity, a witty sense of humour and killer’s instincts. The chase after the gold smuggler Goldfinger (Gert Fröbe’s legendary role) is not only a journey across countries and continents, but also a challenge to the imagination which asks viewers to suspend their disbelief. Cold War tension is replaced by a fantasy of wealthy villains, sensual women and cars filled with deathly gadgets which are accompanied by racial stereotypes (a mute Asian decapitates with his hat!) and controlled misogyny. Bond is at his best and at his worst at the same time, but who can resist the power of the agent on Her Majesty’s service, when John Barry’s title song performed by Shirley Bassey resounds through the screening room?

Sebastian Smoliński

Guy Hamilton (1922–2016) was a British director who started out as an assistant to several notable filmmakers, including Carol Reed. He is best known for directing Goldfinger (1964) as well as three subsequent films in the James Bond series, the last of them being The Man with a Golden Gun (1974). Later in his career he worked on less successful projects, regrettably losing a chance to direct Superman (1978) and turning down the chance to direct Batman (1989) a decade later.

4K reconstruction made in 2015.