USA

Nine closely related episodes featuring the erotic escapades of a young New York heiress and the people associated with her.
Wealthy heiress Pauline (Pauline LaMonde) is bored with the “cold detachment” her Husband shows during sex and spends her time in various sexual encounters with other men, and women.
Pauline writes about her experiences to a woman named Gypsy, mysterious opium smoking, Tarot Card dealing ex lover of Pauline’s (who talks directly to the viewer about Pauline and their times together).
As Gypsy reads the letters we see Pauline’s encounters and learn about her history…..Read More »

Review:
A telephone rings in the dark—three times, pauses, then rings three times again. A fully-clothed figure lights a cigarette before rising from bed, dons a raincoat, then sets out into the night. Another figure emerges from the shadows, lights a cigarette, then discards a crumpled cigarette pack, which the first picks up and carries home. Back in his room, the first man places the refuse on his desk, paces apprehensively about his apartment before he finally removes the inner foil and examines it. After letting what it reveals sink in, he sets it on fire, and a cold look comes over his face…Read More »

“Dave Kehr” wrote:

Abel Ferrara’s ”Blackout,” a film featuring sex, drugs and Claudia Schiffer, caused a stampede when it was shown at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival. That it is only now receiving a New York theatrical premiere says a lot about what the film promises, and what the film delivers. (It will be shown at the Anthology Film Archives in the East Village for the next two weeks, as the climax of a series of Mr. Ferrara’s films.)

Mr. Ferrara is a Bronx-born filmmaker whose fascination with urban excess and questions of Roman Catholic faith sometimes makes him seem like Martin Scorsese’s self-destructive, insistently undisciplined younger brother. These are qualities that make Mr. Ferrara’s work enormously respected in Europe, where he is taken to be one of the primary interpreters of the contemporary American scene, and virtually unknown in the United States, where it can seem arty, self-indulgent and wholly unreal.Read More »

The Enchanted Drawing is a short film made in 1900. It was directed by J. Stuart Blackton, an American film producer of early silent films, the founder of Vitagraph Studios and an early animator.

Upon a large sheet of white paper a cartoonist is seen at work rapidly sketching the portrait of an elderly gentleman of most comical feature and expression. After completing the likeness the artist rapidly draws on the paper a clever sketch of a bottle of wine and a goblet, and then, to the surprise of all, actually removes them from the paper on which they were drawn and pours actual wine out of the bottle into a real glass. Surprising effects quickly follow after this; and the numerous changes of expression which flit over the face in the sketch cause a vast amount of amusement and at the same time give a splendid illustration of the caricaturist’s art.Read More »

Quote:

ECSTASY IN BERLIN, 1926
2004 in b&w and tinted
A film by Maria Beatty
Duration: 45 minutes
Starring: Sonya Sovereign and Paula Rosengarthen
Music by Nick Holmes

THIS DECADENT AND LUMINOUS FILM IS A NEW ACHIEVEMENT IN THE REALM OF EROTICA!

A golden Weimar beauty slips a needle into her creamy thigh, and while in her euphoria slips into erotic fantasy. It begins with a white-gloved hand at her throat, emphasizing her vulnerability and surrender, followed by a lingering, deliciously thorough kiss from a stunning and powerful woman. She drifts through a variety of exotic experiences, all made possible by her dazzling submission and her partner’s absolute command. Her perfect flesh is alternately spanked and caressed, her lips kissed and then forced to worship a fine leather boot. She dreams of being strictly corseted, whipped, and bound, and led to a glowing, graphic climax.

Both delicately sensual and sexually intense, it conveys all the dangerous rewards of passion indulged. To enjoy “Ecstasy in Berlin 1926” is to experience the delirious, consuming, and glorious fever of obsession itself.Read More »

Review
One of Hitchcock’s most discussed films. Retired police detective Stewart, who has a fear of heights, is hired by old school chum in San Francisco to keep an eye on his wife (Novak), eventually falls in love with his quarry and that’s just the beginning; to reveal more would be unthinkable. Alec Coppel and Samuel Taylor scripted, from the novel D’entre les Morts by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac. Haunting, dream-like thriller, with riveting Bernard Herrmann score to match; a genuinely great motion picture that demands multiple viewings.Read More »

Robert Mitchum and Jean Simmons star in this classic tale of love, money, and murder directed by Otto Preminger. This film noir centers on Diane, a femme fatale whose sweet features belie the murderess within. Diane is looking for someone to take the heat when her stepmother dies in a mysterious accident and leaves her stepdaughter a hefty inheritance. That someone is Frank – a man whose average life is thrown into chaos when he meets Diane.Read More »

by Hal Erickson
This adaptation of Vera Caspary’s suspense novel was begun by director Rouben Mamoulien and cinematographer Lucien Ballard, but thanks to a complex series of backstage intrigues and hostilities, the film was ultimately credited to director Otto Preminger and cameraman Joseph LaShelle (who won an Oscar for his efforts). At the outset of the film, it is established that the title character, Laura Hunt (Gene Tierney), has been murdered. Tough New York detective Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews) investigates the killing, methodically questioning the chief suspects: Waspish columnist Waldo Lydecker (Clifton Webb), wastrel socialite Shelby Carpenter (Vincent Price), and Carpenter’s wealthy “patroness” Ann Treadwell (Judith Anderson). Read More »

Quote:
Ann Lake has recently settled in England with her daughter, Bunny. When she goes to retrieve her daughter after the girl’s first day at school, no one has any record of Bunny having been registered. When even the police can find no trace that the girl ever existed, they wonder if the child was only a fantasy of Ann’s. When Ann’s brother backs up the police’s suspicions, she appears to be a mentally-disturbed individual. Are they right?Read More »