The ultimate jam session

It’s sad that we can only recreate that scene, that buzz, in our imaginations. Still, we’re fortunate to live in an age of availability, where we can double-bill Pull My Daisy and Shadows as often as we like, in our own homes. Both are out on DVD and also appear on YouTube, although Shadows is split into several parts.

Watching the films now, you can’t help but be struck by their vibrancy. They still live, breathe and excite in similar ways to, say, the music of John Coltrane or the novels of John Dos Passos. And you can see their spirit hovering over everything from the films of Martin Scorsese (who has said Shadows made him realise that ‘cinema could be made anywhere’); to the boom in American independent cinema; to the digital footage shot nowadays on mobile phones and camcorders.

As for Vogel, he brought Cinema 16 to an end in 1963, but has continued to project Mickey Mouse backwards, so to speak, ever since. Countless cinéastes owe him thanks for his programming at festivals, his lectures, his articles and his seminal book Film as a Subversive Art. But, above all, we should be grateful that he paired two particular films together on a November evening, 50 years ago.