Orson Welles’ final film, The Other Side of the Wind, was shot in early 1970s—but left unfinished at the time of the great man’s death in 1985. In the decades that followed, the fate of the hundred hours of footage Welles shot was entangled in impossible legal and financial complications. But against all odds, and…
Ingmar Bergman’s masterpiece Shame had its premiere on September 29, 1968. In the U.S., the National Society of Film Critics would name it the best film of the year, and Liv Ullmann as best actress. A visceral film about a terrifying war with harrowing action on-screen, it is unlike any other Bergman film, in both…
Elliott Gould recently celebrated his eightieth birthday, which presents a fitting moment to appreciate his contributions as one of the notable participants in the New Hollywood. From 1968 to 1977 (stretching slightly here to include Capricorn One, a ridiculous movie that we have a tremendous fondness for), Gould appeared in a score of feature films….
As many local followers of Mid Century Cinema are aware, we are opening up a branch office in Boston. To cut the ribbon on the new regional headquarters we thought we’d give a quick shout out to our ten favorite films shot in the local area (remembering always the Andre and Wally rules about all…
Stanley Kubrick would have turned ninety on July 26, and in noting the occasion, our crack staff reported the anomaly that despite the fact that he is one of our favorite filmmakers (and one for whom that powerful illusion of personal affinity is particularly pronounced), Kubrick is, to date, relatively underrepresented on these pages. So…
The specular career of MCC favorite Ingmar Bergman stretched across seven decades; in anticipation of Bergman’s centennial (July 14), an earlier post offered a career overview and user’s guide to (almost) every one of his feature films. Here we hone in on the eight films written and directed by Bergman from 1966 to 1973: Persona,…
Now available at a bookstore (or website) near you: Tough Ain’t Enough: New Perspectives on the Films of Clint Eastwood, edited by Lester Friedman and David Desser. We have a chapter in this volume – “A Man’s Got to Know His Limitations”: The Cop Films from Nixon through Reagan – which considers eight of Eastwood’s…
Petulia, a relatively overlooked New Hollywood gem, had its premiere on June 10, 1968. Shot on location in San Francisco, the film, diving into the sexual revolution, could be mistaken today for a period piece/counterculture curio. And certainly it is of that time and place: the production features performances by Bay Area locals Janis Joplin…
Agnes Varda, one of the most distinct voices of postwar French cinema, turns ninety on May 30. Associated with the French New Wave, Varda’s career exemplifies, more than any other filmmaker, the New Wave ambition to blur the distinction between “documentary” and “fiction” films. (The argument in brief: documentaries follow narrative threads, reflect the choices…
The 1968 Cannes Film Festival opened on May 10 for what was supposed to be a two week run, with twenty-eight films screening in competition. It only made it through eight days and eleven of those entries, before shutting down on May 18. Jury President Louis Malle, along with François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard (with…