With audiences ever more glued to their TV sets and the loosened rules about what was "permissible" in cinema with the abolition of the Production Code, filmmakers embraced the freedom to explore the possibilities of film as an art form. As was often the case, the Europeans led the way, the French with Nouvelle Vague directors like Godard and Truffaut, and the Italians with such innovative films as Fellini's 8 1/2 and Antonioni's Eclipse.

By the mid-'60s the United States also began to exercise greater creative liberties, especially in films from young underground directors such as Russ Meyer, John Frankenheimer, and Sam Peckinpah. Meanwhile, Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music ushered out the grandiose Hollywood musical era with a bang while the Spaghetti Western became an instant phenomenon, and Kubrick set new standards for sci-fi with 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Though the term "feminism" may not have been ready for prime time, the decade was also one of major advances in female characterization. From Jane Fonda's Barbarella to Holly Golightly of Breakfast at Tiffany's to Bonnie Parker of Bonnie and Clyde, it was the 1960s that saw women on-screen graduate from decorative accessories to complex, kick-ass personas.