1980s

The film COMMITTED, which Sheila McLaughlin realized together with Lynne Tillman, is not a biography of actress Frances Farmer but rather a fictional analysis of the same. It deals with the disturbed relationship between Farmer and her mother, the sociopolitical climate in the USA of the 30s and 40s, the role of psychiatry as an increasingly powerful determinant in this period and the destructive love story between a woman (actress) and a man (director). COMMITTED is conducted as a Film noir and a period piece – the latter of which is unusual for an independent film.Read More »

At a gathering of would-be society debauchees, the Baron Plessis de Regard and the attractive young Nathalie hatch their individual plans to use sex to respectively ruin and punish their selected enemies. The Baron’s plan is to scupper the political ambitions of right-wing parliamentary candidate Colonel Montvilliers by setting him up with a sexy female companion and publicly exposing his new-found vices. He chooses Eliane to give private classes for Montvilliers’ son, Robert. Nathalie’s quest is of a more personal nature, to destroy her estranged father Charles Leroy-Merville by corrupting his innocent 17-year-old daughter Sophie, a task she intends to achieve by securing employ as the girl’s summer tutor.Read More »

After changing the face of science fiction cinema forever with Alien and Blade Runner, director Ridley Scott turned his visionary eye to the fantasy genre, teaming with writer William Hjortsberg (Angel Heart) to create a breathtaking cinematic fairytale with one of the screen’s most astonishingly rendered depictions of Evil.Read More »

A young housewife is not having a good day. Her husband is never home, the rent is late, her kid has caught the flu, and now – someone’s at her door. It’s a salesman, trying to pawn off some stupid thing or other. There’s no time to deal with it. Just tell him to go to hell, to peddle his goods someplace else. And then, when he doesn’t listen, she slams the door in his face. Or more accurately, on his hand. And this guy is pissed. The psycho salesman decides to teach her a lesson. He starts making phone threats. Soon the sick bastard has mustered enough guts to break into her apartment. He savagely torments mommy and child until the woman finally turns the tables… -Thomas Weisser, “Japanese Cinema: Essential Handbook”Read More »

Brussels by Night is a Belgian drama film from 1983, directed by former Humo journalist Marc Didden. The low budget picture was financed partly by Herman Schueremans, organizer of the Flemish rock festival Rock Werchter. The film was named after a 1979 song by Raymond van het Groenewoud, who also wrote the soundtrack for the movie.Read More »

Synopsis:
‘Public television’s “Mystery!” series has acquired a three-part romp through amorality that, right up to its overly pat ending, is bound to fascinate devoted viewers. “Praying Mantis,” which begins tonight at 9 on WNET/Channel 13, has been adapted quite skillfully by Philip Mackie from a novel by the French writer Hubert Monteilhet. So despite the preponderance of British accents, the flavor of the nasty machinations is strictly Gallic.Read More »

Salt, Saliva, Sperm and Sweat takes us on a relentless odyssey into the banalities of everyday life. Its a film about the body. Eating, excreting, sex, violence, masturbation and terror. The voyueristic camera lewdly follows Phillip Dean, an extraordinarily ordinary office worker, to the office, to the toilet, to the same French restaurant every night and finally to bed.Read More »

Three erotic stories from classic writers Marguerite de Navarre, Nicolas Restif de la Bretonne and Guy de Maupassant.Read More »

Return of a Citizen (Arabic: عودة مواطن‎, translit. Awdat mowatin) is a 1986 Egyptian drama film directed by Mohamed Khan. It was screened out of competition at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival.(wikipedia)

Chaker returns to Cairo from the Gulf a comfortably wealthy man, but there is no-one to meet him at the airport. at home he finds that all his family still live under one roof. His family start to fall apart around him, and he must decide whether to stay or leave.(BFI)Read More »