Summer is almost here, which means two things: the time is right for dancing in the streets, and we’ll be teaching a week-long film course at Cornell Adult University. This year’s offering will be a round of Masters and Masterpieces, from July 14 – 20. We’ll be posting on the films during the course as…
Long time followers of Mid Century Cinema know that we are, uh, somewhat fond of Arthur Penn’s neo-noir masterpiece Night Moves, which derives from an original screenplay by Alan Sharp and features an outstanding cast led by Gene Hackman, Susan Clark, and Jennifer Warren. We have previously written a review of the DVD release, posted…
This week’s film, Shampoo, is another MCC favorite—we have posted about it previously, and recently reviewed the new Criterion Collection Blu Ray for Cineaste Magazine. The movie is properly associated with its triple-threat leading man Warren Beatty, who produced, co-wrote the screenplay (with his friend and celebrated seventies film scribe Robert Towne), and whose forceful personality…
Elaine May’s Mikey and Nicky is one of the great achievements of 1970s cinema. Recently released in a properly sparkling edition from the Criterion Collection, it is less well known than many of the celebrated New Hollywood films—but stands alongside the very best of them in the pantheon. Featuring Peter Falk (Mikey) and John Cassavetes…
In an earlier discussion of the New Hollywood landmark Klute (produced and directed by Alan J. Pakula, shot by “Prince of Darkness” Gordon Willis, and starring Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland), we argued that the theme of “control” was the central issue for Bree Daniels (Fonda). Which in turn makes it the central theme of Klute,…
This weeks’ film was Robert Altman’s masterpiece Nashville, which we have previously discussed here. This semester we’re honing in on specific moments from our films-of-the-week, and there are two particular sequences from Nashville that have always impressed us mightily—each an exquisite manifestation of the distinct and intoxicating possibilities of cinematic storytelling. The first is an…
The public relations department here at Mid Century Cinema is delighted to announce that When the Movies Mattered: The New Hollywood Revisited, will be published by Cornell University Press this June. It features a veritable dream team of contributors (you can click on the links below for author IDs). From the Jacket Copy: In When…
We’re still ruminating on the question of great directors and the distinct (and distinguished) attribute of voice, following our recent discussion here that put forth a preliminary working-list-in-progress of twenty-nine directors canonized on this score. Any such list is arbitrary (that is, to some extent influenced by taste), fluid (cue Andre and Wally on this…
Thanks to the internet (which has likely destroyed enlightened civilization but admittedly has its upside), we have at long last been able to screen the one film by Krzysztof Kieslowski that had previously eluded us. (Our post from 2017, Kieslowski for Completists, has been updated accordingly.) Finally seeing the very fine and very representative Life…
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…