Midnight Movie

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Midnight Movies were a phenomenon on the US film scene in the 1970s. Back then, special low-budget films and independent productions , which were mainly shown in late-night cinemas, became cult films that had a remarkable and unique impact on pop culture and American society. The performances always started around midnight and were particularly popular with young people and students. Through the gathering of cinema-goers at this particular time of day or night, a cinematic scene was formed whose cultural and intellectual statements should be seen as an alternative to the life of the parents' generation and the so-called cultural elite as well as the mainstream .

The 1970s marked a turning point in modern American and global culture. The Vietnam War and the associated intellectual division in the USA called on a new generation of artists and filmmakers to include in their productions a. a. to make a lot more political statements. They shared the same goal: they wanted to throw the traditional aspects of filmmaking overboard and create something that was outside the norm. As a revolt against the post-war generation and the establishment, a subculture began to form that set up its own parameters in terms of film, film content, aesthetics and the demarcation of what can be represented.

Midnight Movies broke with many taboos and presented many unusual things as normal: the bizarre was staged as the better, the grotesque as the good, and sexual diversity as modern; the cinema-goer was often confronted with cannibalism , incest , coprophagy and similar borderline or bizarre customs for the first time . But also absurd horror and science fiction films of the 40s, 50s and 60s returned to the screen after decades of oblivion.

The films were often shown in New York and Los Angeles cinemas for several years. As a result, true fan bases were formed, some of whom re-enacted the scenes shown on the screen in costume and mask during the film screenings in the cinemas (best-known example: The Rocky Horror Picture Show ). Midnight Movies are films from a wide variety of genres. The palette ranges from horror films , science fiction films , cartoons , drama and westerns to musicals and docu-dramas, for example Reefer Madness , which was intended to be used for educational purposes in the 1930s.

Important midnight movies

Documentaries

literature

  • J. Hoberman, Jonathan Rosenbaum: Midnight Movies. Da Capo Press, New York 1983, ISBN 0-306-80433-6 .

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