From the Archives - Bergman, Don Siegel and Eastwood enthused about, the MFF ranted about.

Once again thanks to Gary Andrews for retrieving these pieces that I wrote for George Munster fondly remembered fortnightly Nation, way back in 1969. Somehow or other I wrote about Bergman's  1968 Shame ("perhaps his best film", my goodness) and Eastwood and Siegel's work on Coogan's Bluff. Looking back I take some pleasure in the Sarris-ite phrase "I prefer Clint Eastwood's stoicism to Steve McQueen's mannerisms". My goodness again. Then I concluded with a bit of a rant about the Melbourne Film Festival screening films that were going to come out on commercial release. Guess that argument has been comprehensively lost.

Those were the days when critics in newspapers and magazines weighed into those issues. There you are.