Once again the crack staff here at Mid Century Cinema is getting ready to teach “The Politics of the Seventies Film,” (new bat time, new bat channel). Long time listeners will recall that we’ve followed along with the class in previous incarnations, with posts under the headings of “A Semester of Seventies Films” and then “Another Semester of Seventies Films.” (We’ve also written about many of these films for other outlets as well.) All of these previous entries can be accessed using the handy-dandy search function on the middle of the MCC home page, off to the right.
This time around – still in love with these movies but keen to avoid repetition – we plan to revisit each week’s film, honing in on a close read of a specific scene or sequence. And we thought some of you might like to follow along—or even watch the movies in advance, and raise suggestions about or questions pertaining to a particular scene or sequence you’d like to see discussed (using the equally handy “contact” button on top right of the home page banner).
Almost every one of these selections streams on amazon and i-tunes, though you should have these on your shelves (I mean, really)—most are available in spiffy special edition DVDs and Blu Rays (including eight from the Criterion Collection).
Here is the schedule, with a mention of some notable participants.
January 23: The Graduate (D: Mike Nichols, W: Buck Henry; Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft)—if you haven’t seen this in years, you might find your allegiances shifting.
January 30: Midnight Cowboy (D: John Schlesinger, W: Waldo Salt, P: Jerome Hellman; Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight)—follow this with Schlesinger’s Sunday Bloody Sunday.
February 6: Medium Cool (D/W/DP: Haskell Wexler, M: Mike Bloomfield; Robert Forster, Verna Bloom, Peter Bonerz)—extra credit: read along with Norman Mailer’s Miami and the Siege of Chicago.
February 13: The King of Marvin Gardens (D/P: Bob Rafelson, DP: Laszlo Kovacs; Jack Nicholson, Bruce Dern, Ellen Burstyn)—David Thomson an early champion of this BBS masterpiece.
February 20: Nashville (D/P: Robert Altman, W: Joan Tewkesbury; Ned Beatty, Karen Black, Ronee Blakely, Allen Garfield, Henry Gibson, Lily Tomlin)—Peak 70s, Peak Altman.
March 13: Klute (D/P: Alan J. Pakula, DP: Gordon Willis; Jane Fonda, Donald Southerland, Roy Scheider)—Repeat after me: “It’s not about the mystery.”
March 20: The Conversation (D/W/P: Francis Coppola; Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Allen Garfield, Teri Garr)—Coppola’s price for agreeing to direct The Godfather, Part II.
March 27: Mikey and Nicky (D/W: Elaine May; Peter Falk, John Cassavetes)—“One of the 10 best American films of the decade” –Stanley Kauffmann.
April 3: Network (D: Sidney Lumet, W: Paddy Chayefsky, DP: Owen Roizman; Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch, Robert Duvall)—At the time, they said it was over the top. Alas.
April 10: Shampoo (D: Hal Ashby, W: Warren Beatty, Robert Towne, DP: Laszlo Kovacs; Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, Goldie Hawn, Lee Grant, Jack Warden)—Why is Nixon is smiling?
April 24: Taxi Driver (D: Martin Scorsese, W: Paul Schrader, DP: Michael Chapman; Robert DeNiro, Cybill Shepherd, Peter Boyle, Jodie Foster, Albert Brooks)—Nobody is smiling.
May 2: Chinatown (D: Roman Polanski, W: Robert Towne, P: Robert Evans, DP: John A. Alonzo; Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston)—“The Citizen Kane of the 70s Film.”
But wait, there’s more: a few readings to get you in that 70s mood: Phillip Lopate’s beautiful, moving, “Anticipation of La Notte: The ‘Heroic’ Age of Moviegoing”; a small piece of business from us on the good old days; and this brilliant essay by Paul Schrader.