All Aboard The Grindhouse Bandwagon

As previously mentioned in these pages, the world has gone grindhouse crazy…and it seems that the lowly exploitation flick isn’t the only area of low-culture ripe for reappraisal. As the Guardian’s resident nostalgiaist John Patterson points out in today’s Film and Music section the ICA are finally screening the documentary Midnight Movies, which seems to have been languishing in distribution limbo for quite a while now. For those who have missed this fascinating - if somewhat slight - documentary, it traces the history of the midnight boom in cult movies throughout the 1970s, exploring how underground movies went overground and what effects this had for the average film punter. Well worth checking out, if only for the occasional glimpse of Jodorowsky, Waters et al in the (ahem) prime of their youth.

Patterson will also be getting all rose-tinted about Grind House itself in tomorrow’s Guide supplement. Whatever next? Maureen Lipman on video nasties? Richard Littlejohn re-appraising Soho porn cinemas? A Michael Winner retrospective at the NFT? God forbid...