Midi- Minuit Fantastique (1962-1971)
Related: French-language profile on grindhouse cinemas in Paris - Eric Losfeld (publisher) - fantastique - French cinema - fantastic film
All covers: MM01 - MM02 - MM03 - MM04-05 - MM06 - MM07 - MM08 - MM09 - MM10-11 - MM12 - MM13 - MM14 - MM15-16 - MM17 - MM18-19 - MM20 - MM21 - MM22 - MM23 - MM24
It has been said that Cahiers du cinéma is the most influential French film magazine. While I do not wish to contradict this, Jahsonic readers may find the equally French film magazine Midi- Minuit Fantastique more entertaining. [Jul 2006]
Midi Minuit Fantastique, cover of issue 1 (May 1962), this entire issue is dedicated to the work of Terence Fisher.
MM18-19 (12/1967)
Profile
Midi Minuit Fantastique (1962-1971) was a French film magazine published by Eric Losfeld (publisher of Ado Kyrou and film magazine Positif).
Michel Caen and Alain Le Bris started it, accompanied by Jean Boullet et Jean-Claude Romer.
The magazine was dedicated to the fantastique, horror and science fiction films of the 1960s. It had a guide to the Parisian film theatres showing those cultish genres.
Some of Midi Minuit Fantastique issues were dedicated to special themes (King Kong, Dracula, Les chasses du comte Zaroff).
In later days, when acceptance of alternative canons of cinema had grown, Midi Minuit Fantastique sometimes dealt with more mainstream subject matter with profiles on Samuel Fuller, Otto Preminger or Federico Fellini.
Literary fiction was also the subject of Midi Minuit, with a memorable essay Gaston Leroux by Jean Rollin.
Bibliography: Etude analytique et sémiologique de Midi minuit fantastique, René Prédal, published by "Centre du vingtième siècle de Nice" --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midi_Minuit_Fantastique [Aug 2005]
see also: France - Midi Minuit Fantastique - film
Midi Minuit Fantastique 1 - 24 publishing history
1- 05/1962 2- 08/1962 3- 10/1962 4-5- 01/1963 6- 06/1963 7- 09/1963 8- 01/1964 9- 07/1964 10-11- 12/1964 12- 05/1965 13- 11/1965 14- 06/1966 15-16- 12/1966 17- 06/1967 18-19- 12/1967 20- 10/1968 21- 04/1970 22- 07/1970 23- 10/1970 24- 12/1970
see also: Midi Minuit Fantastique - film
French profile
Edité par Eric Losfeld (éditeur des ouvrages de Ado Kyrou et de Positif). Michel Caen et Alain Le Bris en sont les initiateurs, entourés de Jean Boullet et Jean-Claude Romer. Totalement en prise sur l'actualité (soutien aux films produits par la Hammer), la revue consacre de riches dossiers, remarquablement illustrés, aux grands classiques (King Kong, Dracula, Les chasses du comte Zaroff). A partir de 1966, le fantastique étant un peu mieux considéré qu'au début de la revue, et l'attitude militante ayant moins de raisons d'être, Midi minuit fantastique élargit son propos et traite de Samuel Fuller, d' Otto Preminger ou de Federico Fellini. Le théâtre, la littérature trouvent également une place dans la revue (dossier Gaston Leroux). La passion, le sérieux, la richesse de l'iconographie ont fait de Midi minuit fantastique la revue culte du cinéma fantastique. Une étude exhaustive lui a été consacrée : Etude analytique et sémiologique de Midi minuit fantastique de René Prédal, parue au Centre du vingtième siècle de Nice.Cote : FRA MID
En accès libre à la BiFi
Volumes reliés (1er étage) : N°1 (1962) - N°24 (1971) --http://www.bifi.fr/doc_site/expert/periodiques/fiches/francais/perio211.html [Nov 2004]
Midi-Minuit Fantastique nr 4-5. Special Dracula
Book Description: Paris Editions Le Terrain Vague January, 1963. First Edition. Paperbound. Text in French. Special issue of this French film magazine focusing on the horror film classic, Dracula, starring Bela Lugosi. Poor used copy with edge wear and a creases, some water damage. The front cover is illustrated with a terrific still of Lugosi as Dracula. Also illustrated with other cinematic Dracula portrayals by Carlos Villarias, Lon Chaney, Jr., John Carradine, Christopher Lee, and others. Includes critical essays, stills from the film, posters and other promotional items, and Dracula inspired spin-offs and related material. --http://dogbert.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=217844676Collection
(4-5), (18-19), 21, 22, 23 ,24, special BenazerafEric Losfeld [...]
Midi- Minuit Fantastique (1962-1971)
When we were in Paris a week or two later, I bought Freddy Buache’s enthusiastic pamphlet on Franju, which not only made me want to see all his other movies but put me onto the French movie journal Positif, published by Eric Losfeld’s Surrealist-oriented Librairie le Terrain Vague, which in turn put me onto Midi- Minuit Fantastique, also published by Losfeld and devoted entirely to horror and fantasy. It was in part the intellectual challenge of those journals, and of books like Ado Kyrou’s Le Surréalisme au Cinéma and Georges de Coulteray’s Le Sadisme au Cinéma—Losfeld’s press again—that made me write during our second summer in Provence, 1966, a long essay on violence in the arts that I subsequently expanded into a book of that name.
If C. had dismissed Les Yeux sans Visage as gratuitously repulsive, my interest in Franju would most probably have ended there. In those days, Franju and Positif and Midi-Minuit Fantastique were simply absent from “serious” English-language film criticism. The new French cinema that mattered there was that of Truffault, Godard, Chabrol, Rivette, and the only French movie journal worth talking about and learning from was Cahiers du Cinéma.
--John Fraser , http://www.jottings.ca/carol/movies.html [Aug 2004]Jean Pierre Bouyxou [...]
Midi Minuit (1970) - Pierre Lestringuez
French S/M horror film named after and inspired by Midi Minuit Fantastique. Stars Daniel Emilfork of Mark of the Devil).Plot Outline: A woman marries into a family of insane psychopaths in this bizarre French horror film with strong sadomasochistic overtones. --http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0066077/combined [Apr 2005]
Helene (Sylvia Fennec) is the straight laced girl who falls in love with a strange and decidedly sick young man. On a visit to his family, she discovers his father is a sadist and his nymphomaniac sister likes to see men beaten up for excitement. Her boyfriend turns out to be the strangest of them all as he murders young men with a glove fitted with razor sharp claws. Even stranger is the fact Helen covers up for her lover's crimes and eventually marries him. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
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