Dog Day Afternoon premiered in late September 1975, and, although regular followers of Mid Century Cinema may grow weary of the phrase, I nevertheless have no choice but to report that it is one landmark films of the New Hollywood. In my defense, it was an era that produced many landmarks, right up there with…
Some news to report from Mid Century Cinema land – We’ve embarked on a new adventure: A podcast! It’s the brainchild of Michael Cohen (no, not that one!), who approached me with this notion. I was a bit wary at first, but the entire staff at MCC threated to go on a general strike if…
There is a joke I heard from an old professor when I was a graduate student (at least I thought he was kidding—the guy was from Harvard, so he might have been serious): “Never offer expert commentary about any country you have not flown over at least once.” Inspired by the fact that one of…
Once again, it’s time for the Best from Fifty Years Ago. This is our ninth such list (having previously “bested” 1967 – 1974), and we approach 1975 with mixed emotions. Why is that, you ask? Good question—glad to see that you are reading with care and not just skipping ahead to the list. Well it’s…
February 1975 welcomed the release of Michelangelo Antonioni’s The Passenger, starring Jack Nicholson and Maria Schneider. An international production (it was filmed on location in Germany, Spain, England and Algeria), The Passenger is nevertheless a New Hollywood landmark. (Beyond the essential imprint of the French New Wave on the New Hollywood, other European auteurs were…
The best thing about the approach of Festivus for the hardworking staff at Mid Century Cinema is not the airing of grievances (although, sidebar, don’t ask), but quite the opposite—it is also the time to share our annual Top Ten home video releases. As always, this is not so much a list of our favorite…
The crack staff here at Mid Century Cinema has been somewhat distracted lately, what with the relentless rhythm of the academic semester, and, ya know, The End of Everything. We could not even get ourselves together to catch Francis Ford Coppola’s career capping Megalopolis in the theater. But as we revere Coppola – one of…
For reasons too complex to easily unpack, the crack staff here at Mid Century Cinema have been catching up with re-runs of Kojak, the mid-70s TV policier. It has been an eye opening experience. There were easily a dozen decent cop shows in the late sixties and early seventies—but in retrospect, it is clear that…
Donald Sutherland, one of the most consistent, sure-handed, and prolific actors of the last sixty years, left us a few weeks ago. One of the signature performers of the New Hollywood era, we were remiss in not previously punching his ticket for admission to the Mid Century Cinema pantheon. In the decade of the 1970s…
It’s that season again—time to revisit the best movies from half a century ago. And 1974 was a great year for the movies. The New Hollywood, which only had two big years left ahead of it, wasn’t just hot, it was incandescent. And it was a also a very strong year for film globally. Confronted…