Submitted by cinemascope on Tue, 2007-04-03 17:06. :: Cinemascope 5
Movie title:
Midnight Movies
Starring:
Alejandro Jodorowsky, George A. Romero, Perry Henzell, John Waters, Richard O'Brien, David Lynch
Directed by:
Stuart Samuels
Written by:
Stuart Samuels, Victor Kushmaniuk
Genre:
Documentary
Year:
2007
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Runtime:
1 hour 28 minutes
Imdb:
Rating:
Synopsis
The tale of the rise of the midnight movie in the 1970s, when US cinemas would screen late night showings of oddball and controversial movies, providing unexpected cult successes for 6 notable movies: El Topo, Night of the Living Dead, The Harder They Come, Pink Flamingos, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and Eraserhead.
The tale of the rise of the midnight movie in the 1970s, when US cinemas would screen late night showings of oddball and controversial movies, providing unexpected cult successes for 6 notable movies: El Topo, Night of the Living Dead, The Harder They Come, Pink Flamingos, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and Eraserhead.
Review
While Midnight Movies may not mark a sigificant development in the history of documentaries - being a collection of interviews intercut with scenes from the movies in question - this is a fascinating and illuminating history of a specific moment in the history of American cinema, when these midnight movies brought the cult and controversial into the mainstream. All six directors are present and all provide entertaining and eloquent interviews, with John Waters, as ever, a highlight. Midnight Movies is only receiving a very limited theatrical release in the UK, but stay tuned to Cinemascope, as in the next few weeks we'll be running a competition to win the documentary (in a deluxe edition also featuring the movies Night of the Living Dead and 30s drug-scare movie Reefer Madness) on DVD.
While Midnight Movies may not mark a sigificant development in the history of documentaries - being a collection of interviews intercut with scenes from the movies in question - this is a fascinating and illuminating history of a specific moment in the history of American cinema, when these midnight movies brought the cult and controversial into the mainstream. All six directors are present and all provide entertaining and eloquent interviews, with John Waters, as ever, a highlight. Midnight Movies is only receiving a very limited theatrical release in the UK, but stay tuned to Cinemascope, as in the next few weeks we'll be running a competition to win the documentary (in a deluxe edition also featuring the movies Night of the Living Dead and 30s drug-scare movie Reefer Madness) on DVD.
