What’s new at Mid Century Cinema? Everything! It’s a brand new day for America—and it’s also, quite coincidentally, something of a re-launch for us, as you can see by surfing around our updated and upgraded site: https://midcenturycinema.org/. In addition to a spiffy new and improved design (courtesy of our multi-talented new webmaster), the biggest change in these parts is a new page: About this Site. This handy addition, complete with its own clickable tab on the banner above, collects in one location some of our philosophical essays on thinking about the movies; overviews of favorite directors and performers; reams of impeccably crafted and infinitely contestable “best of” lists—and more!
The upgraded site also features a more user-friendly subscription button, one-click reposting, and “contact us” features (so, as the old joke goes, if you don’t get a notification about this post, just let us know, and we’ll enter/re-enter you on the subscriber list). Some new content has also been added since we were last fully up and running: a review of The Big Goodbye (a recent book about the making of Chinatown), and our chapter on the New Hollywood Films of Peter Yates. In addition, there is a completely new section in the Books, Essays and More page that features audio and visual material; new additions there include a long-form interview we did with Movie Geeks United, and a lecture “Chinatown: The Citizen Kane of the Seventies Film,” presented at Cornell Adult University).
Having said all that, this is also very much a “meet the new site/same as the old site” moment. The primary platforms remain “news and commentary” and “fifty years ago this week”; new contributions there will be supplemented by additions that will first appear in other outlets. Speaking of which, we are especially excited about two forthcoming items: David Thomson has a new book coming in March (of course he does), and so we have a new interview slated for publication then to discuss his latest, which is about directors and directing. And speaking of directors, we’ve been commissioned to write a feature on the spectacular new Agnes Varda Box set.
And all for the same great low price! We look forward to hearing from you, and continuing the conversation about the movies, and all that jazz.
