It’s become an annual tradition: During the dog days of August, right between the last major release of the summer movie season and the start of the fall festival onslaught that kicks off at the end of the month, IndieWire devotes an entire week to celebrating a previous decade of film. We launched with ’90s Week in 2022, ticked back in time with ’80s Week the following year, and naturally did the obvious thing the year after that by… jumping forward to focus on the aughts.
The ’70s just seemed too vast — too robust — to contain within a few short days of lists, essays, interviews, and the like. Which isn’t to say that our previous theme weeks offered a comprehensive overview of their respective decades, or even intended to, but it always felt like we could see enough of the whole picture through the various pinholes we chose to use.
More from IndieWire
But the ’70s were different; they were a time — maybe the last time — when it seemed like the movie world was still expanding in every direction all at once as both a business and an art form. It felt comical to suggest that we could wrap our heads around it to the same degree as the previous eras we’ve covered (which happen to be the eras that most of the IndieWire staff have lived through).
And yet, it was always just a matter of time before we tried to do it anyway, because that’s how the internet works. And because there were so, so many things about the ’70s that our writers were excited for an excuse to explore more deeply than our publishing cycle typically allows. And because our fearless editor-in-chief lit up — instead of firing me on the spot — when I jokingly suggested we devote an entire day of the site’s coverage to Pier Paolo Pasolini’s “Saló, or the 120 Days of Sodom” (which will include new interviews with the likes of John Waters and Luca Guadagnino, along with a deep-dive into the history of on-screen shit-eating, and a variety of other bits and bobs that have seek to have some fun with the movie’s outsized reputation, while still respecting the gravity of its horrors).
I’ve spent much of the last few months trying to figure out what our latest theme week could and should make room to include, and while I don’t think I’m any closer to knowing the answer now than I was when we first started hashing out ideas, I have to say I’m happy with what we ultimately got.
Some of our more ambitious plans invariably fell by the wayside (at one point we tinkered with the idea of asking a number of prominent filmmakers to each remake a few minutes of “Jeanne Dielman” on their own terms, and I thank many of them for taking the concept more seriously than it deserved), and it pains me that we didn’t have the bandwidth to dedicate entire pieces to Cinema Novo or the Shaw Brothers or any of the other rich subjects we only brush up against as part of our 100 Best Movies of the Decade list, but I’m thrilled with the far-ranging variety of stuff that we’ve prepared.
Sharp and probing essays about everything from post-colonial African cinema and Meiko Kaji to the woman who wrote “Slap Shot” and the glories of Martin Scorsese’s misunderstood “New York, New York.” A star-studded tribute to the glory days of Roger Corman, featuring contributions from Scorsese himself, Robert De Niro, Joe Dante, and more of his most famous acolytes. Keith Carradine on making “Nashville.” Walter Hill on making “The Warriors.” Horror. Anime. The list(s) goes on. We even have a great sponsor in Bleecker Street’s “Relay,” which plays like a riveting throwback to the New York thrillers that helped to define the ’70s.
In honor of ’70s Week, which kicks off this coming Monday, here is a small sample of highlights from our previous theme weeks:
Postcards from ‘Jurassic Park’: Why ’90s Movie Summers Will Last Forever
‘Malcolm X’ at 30: Spike Lee Reflects on Winning the Fight to Make His Masterpiece
Bill Duke on ‘Deep Cover,’ ‘Sister Act 2,’ and Reshaping What Black Movies Could Be in the ’90s
The Rom-Com Boom Owed Everything to Its Leading Ladies
Dogme 95 Was the Last Great Filmmaking Movement
How ’80s Movies Stopped Worry and Learned to Love the Synth
‘Streets of Fire’ Should Have Been the Biggest Rock Musical of the ’80s
A Farce with ‘Teeth’: Hal Hartley Chronicles the Making of ‘The Unbelievable Truth’
When Scorsese Met Ballhaus — the ’80s Collaboration That Redefined Cinema
‘Buddies’: Inside the First Movie to Deal Frankly with the AIDS Crisis
2000s week
Todd Field Looks Back on How the Film Industry Has Changed Since ‘In the Bedroom’
The Best Bollywood Musical Numbers of the 2000s
IndieWire’s ’70s Week is presented by Bleecker Street’s “RELAY.” Riz Ahmed plays a world class “fixer” who specializes in brokering lucrative payoffs between corrupt corporations and the individuals who threaten their ruin. IndieWire calls “RELAY” “sharp, fun, and smartly entertaining from its first scene to its final twist, ‘RELAY’ is a modern paranoid thriller that harkens back to the genre’s ’70s heyday.” From director David Mackenzie (“Hell or High Water”) and also starring Lily James, in theaters August 22.
Best of IndieWire
Sign up for Indiewire’s Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.