Midi Minuit Fantastique
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Midi Minuit Fantastique (1962 - 1971) was a French film magazine published by Eric Losfeld.
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Overview
Founded by Michel Caen and Alain Le Bris, with help from Jean Boullet, Francis Lacassin and Jean-Claude Romer, the magazine was dedicated to le 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 on Gaston Leroux by Jean Rollin.
Precursors
Precursors to Midi Minuit Fantastique were the film magazine Saint-Cinéma des Prés (1949 - 1950) and Adonis Kyrou's Le Surréalisme au cinéma (1952). Lotte H. Eisner's The Haunted Screen (1952) also deserves mention.
In 1953 Eric Losfeld launches "Bizarre", dedicated to surrealism, the magazine also gives ample attention to fantastic cinema.
In 1957 there is a special issue entitled "Spécial Fantastique" in the magazine Cinéma.
In 1958 Forrest J. Akerman launches "Famous Monsters Of Filmland."
What followed
As Gilles Menegaldo mentions, after Midi-Minuit cult magazines on the fantastique will proliferate. There is Horizons du fantastique, launched in June 1967 which specialized in the fantastic literature but also regularly has specials on horror cinema. A little later, magazine L’Écran fantastique is founded by Alain Schlockoff.
Issues 1 - 24 and bibliography
- MMF1- 05/1962
- MMF2- 08/1962
- MMF3- 10/1962
- MMF4-5- 01/1963
- MMF6- 06/1963
- MMF7- 09/1963
- MMF8- 01/1964
- MMF9- 07/1964
- MMF10-11- 12/1964
- MMF12- 05/1965
- MMF13- 11/1965
- MMF14- 06/1966
- MMF15-16- 12/1966
- MMF17- 06/1967 (Cover image: Barbara Steele)
- MMF18-19- 12/1967
- MMF20- 10/1968
- MMF21- 04/1970
- MMF22- 07/1970
- MMF23- 10/1970
- MMF24- 12/1970
- Bibliography: Etude analytique et sémiologique de Midi minuit fantastique, René Prédal, published by "Centre du vingtième siècle de Nice."
External links
- Souvenirs de Midi-Minuit Fantastique
- index of all issues + covers
- Cinéma américain et théories françaises : images critiques croisées