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…
William Holden would have turned one hundred on April 17 2018, and we thought a few words were in order to mark his centennial. Holden, a product of the studio system, is one of the few actors who made enduring contributions to both the Old Hollywood and the New. And in a handful of those…
Claude Chabrol’s first “comeback” film, Les Biches, opened on March 22, 1968. One of our favorite directors here at Mid Century Cinema (dedicated subscribers will recall that we’ve written about him repeatedly, with our top ten list, some words about The Line of Demarcation (a notable obscurity), an essay about that astonishing run of films…
The ever-dedicated staff here at Mid Century Cinema has been revisiting some of the films of Claude Chabrol for a forthcoming essay about his “second wave” of films—a remarkable dozen releases between 1968 and 1975. One of our favorite directors, and, although of course (following the Dylan rules), we didn’t know him, we nevertheless have an…
As faithful readers can attest, we have something of a Nixon obsession here at Mid Century Cinema. And, kind of like one of Jerry’s girlfriends speaking of George—we don’t like him. (Don’t care much for that Henry Kissinger, either, but that’s another matter.) Thus the following “programing note”—we have an article in the new (Spring…
In a recent essay in The New York Times A. O. Scott asks the question, “Is Woody Allen a Great Filmmaker?” Scott is a critic for whom we at Mid Century Cinema have enormous appreciation—his reviews are thoughtful and well written; his longer-form thought pieces and video essays are almost invariably valuable and insightful. We…
One of the great Americans of the 1970s, Lieutenant Columbo, made his first television appearance on February 20, 1968, in the made-for-TV movie “Prescription Murder.” Sure, he was a tad disheveled, and didn’t have a first name—but his understated intelligence, basic decency, and indelible but lightly-worn second-generation ethnicity made him an exemplar of the best…
On February 8 1968, Planet of the Apes premiered in New York City. The film, starring Charlton Heston, was a hit, and spawned four sequels of increasing dystopia and decreasing budget—but at least the unloved fifth installment, Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973) gave us John Huston as the lawgiver, which works for us….
The hardworking staff at Mid Century Cinema recently had reason to revisit the New Hollywood films of Peter Yates. Of the nine features he directed from 1967 to 1977, two stand out as landmarks of the movement: Bullitt (1968) and The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973). We will consider the under-appreciated Bullitt later this year for…