All things Cult Cinema

Started by wilder, March 27, 2017, 06:00:36 PM

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jenkins

Rachel Kushner, who is a cool writer as much as that can happen, published her book of essays, The Hard Crowd, and in it she writes about the Italian movie Anna. now, any nerd knows how to be a nerd, and this is a prime selection because mainly Italians review it on letterboxd and its wiki presence is Italian, too. she is appreciating what's underappreciated

she'll be introing at at the Metrograph on April 21, following which it will be available on demand for a week. photos and trailers are in the link. it's 225 MIN long so it's too long for me and this is being catalogued. if someone watches it, great, I'd hear about it. it's direct cinema and Kushner writes its synopsis like this

QuoteAnna, by Albert Grifi and Massimo Sarchielli, shot mostly in 1972, holds in it every seed and secret component of the political explosion that was to come in Italy, a tout court rejection of bourgeois life, a dream that crested in the year 1977, and then was made a nightmare, on account of a repression that swept Italy. If Anna is the mother of all films about Italy in the 1970s, Anna, a pregnant, depressed, beautiful, charismatic, and drug-addicted teenager, is something like the mother of Italy in the 1970s. She gives life, and then lice, to her exploiters, who capture her on film. This movie is near-impossible to see in the U.S. So now is when you should see it. Anna was living on the streets when the filmmakers met her, but she will take up permanent residence in the minds of all who see this film. She disappeared, never to be heard from again, but you won't be able to forget her.

Kushner's essay was slightly revised for the book but also available online

jenkins

for a moment I'd been asking for a Jean Rollin recommendation but then I realized that at the time I was thinking about a Jess Franco movie and it all felt overwhelming

jenkins

Quote from: jenkins on February 22, 2021, 05:13:13 PM
A bootlegger People's Court episode that's famous in cult land

[oh shit, the YouTube link is missing]

fyi: in cult circles he's become a meme, the owner of the distribution company. if you see this someone is responding to a person whose reason for making a decision is highly questionable


jenkins

the upcoming "UHD two pack" from VS is speculated to be Scanner Cop 1 & 2, which I had never heard about, and are connected to the Scanners movie by Cronenberg

QuoteScanner Cop is a 1994 Canadian film. It is the fourth film in the Scanners series and the first film in the Scanner Cop series. It was written, produced, and directed by Pierre David. Daniel Quinn stars as the title character, a police officer with psychic powers.



QuoteSam Staziak, a rookie cop with the Los Angeles Police Department, is also a 'Scanner' (a person born with telepathic and telekinetic abilities). When a string of murders begins to decimate the police department, Sam faces sensory overload and possible insanity as he uses his powers to hunt the man responsible for the killings.



QuoteScanners: The Showdown (also known as Scanner Cop II) is a 1995 American science fiction film directed by Steve Barnett. It is the sequel to Scanner Cop and the fifth film in the Scanners series. Daniel Quinn returns as a psychic police officer who searches for a serial killer who targets other psychics.

wilder

May 25, 2021

Norbert Meisel's Walking the Edge (1985) on blu-ray from Fun City Editions, from a 4K restoration of the original camera negative



Cult movie icons Robert Forster (Medium Cool) and Joe Spinell (Maniac) star with Nancy Kwan (Flower Drum Song) in Norbert Meisel's gritty action drama Walking the Edge. Jason Walk (Forster), a down on his luck cabbie and numbers runner, has a chance at redemption when he crosses paths with revenge-seeking Christine Holloway (Kwan). She's after the gang of violent criminals, led by Brusstar (Spinell), who her murdered her husband and son. Jason unwittingly drives Christine to their lair and when she is unable to finish the job, a hellbent Brusstar and his goons hunt the pair with a vengeance.

Jason Walk's cab prowls the seedier, grimier locales of early '80s Los Angeles and picks up passengers—gamblers, prostitutes and addicts—who match this environment. As such, Walking the Edge is both a sleazy urban thriller and a valuable visual record of an L.A. that has long since been scrubbed clean and redeveloped. And like Max Cherry in Jackie Brown, Jason Walk is the kind of everyman-turned hero that Forster excelled at playing throughout his career.






July 27, 2021

Virginie Despentes' Baise-moi (2000) on blu-ray from Kino



Manu has lived a difficult life. Abused and violently raped, she sets off to find herself only to meet Nadine, a prostitute who has encountered one too many injustices in the world. Angry at the world, they embark on a twisted, rage-filled road trip. They choose to have sex when they please and kill when they need. Leaving a trail of mischief and dead bodies in their wake. Generating a media blitz and manhunt, soon everyone is out to capture the young fugitives.



August 3, 2021

Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker (1982) is being reissued on blu-ray from Code Red



An orphaned teenager finds himself being dominated by his aunt who's hell-bent on keeping him with her...at all costs.



2021 TBD

Mario Bava's Planet of the Vampires (1965) on blu-ray from Kino, from a 4K restoration



In the near future the two spaceships Argos and Galliot are sent to investigate the mysterious planet Aura. As the Galliot lands on the planet her crew suddenly go berserk and attack each other. The strange event passes, but the crew soon discovers the crashed Argos - and learns that her crew died fighting each other! Investigating further, the explorers come to realize the existence of a race of bodiless aliens that seek to escape from their dying world...



September 7, 2021

Joe D'Amato's Crazy Nights (1978) on blu-ray from Full Moon Features



"Italian exploitation icon Joe D'Amato's outrageous and rarely seen 1978 "mondo" movie meltdown CRAZY NIGHTS (aka Follie di notte) is one the strangest snapshots of the disco era you'll ever see.

The legendary and controversial performer Amanda Lear appears here as herself, singing her signature dance floor hit "Follow Me" while D'Amato's camera uses her as an entry point into the glamorous, eccentric, often depraved annals of Rome's after hours nightclub scene. But that's only scratching the surface. CRAZY NIGHTS then meanders - in true "mondo" fashion - all over the world, filling the screen with strippers, sex and ritualistic absurdity, all set to the beat of Lear's sultry cabaret pop sound. Lear - who famously dated David Bowie, was the cover girl for many Roxy Music records and long served as Salvador Dali's lover and muse - was at the peak of her popularity when she signed on to film CRAZY NIGHTS.

Originally pitched as a musical centered around her fame called FOLLOW ME, Lear believed the movie to be incomplete until - to her shock - it turned up in Italian theaters under the name Follie di notte. Horrified to discover that she had been tricked into starring in a full-blown exploitation film, Lear sued the producers, one of many reasons CRAZY NIGHTS has lapsed into virtual obscurity. Full Moon is pumped to be presenting this delirious and decidedly adult pseudo-documentary in its fully uncut edit, remastered from the original negative. Get ready for the wildest and weirdest "mondo" movie ever made!"






July 27, 2021

Dario Argento's Cat O'Nine Tails (1971) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Arrow



A reporter and a retired, blind journalist try to solve a series of killings and in so doing, both become targets of the killer.



August 24, 2021

Dario Argento & George Romero's Two Evil Eyes (1990) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Blue Underground



The masters of modern horror – George Romero and Dario Argento – bring you an unprecedented pair of shockers inspired by the tales of Edgar Allan Poe. In Romero's 'The Facts in the Case of Mr. Valdemar', a conniving wife (Adrienne Barbeau of THE FOG) and her lover use a hypnotic trance to embezzle a fortune from her dying husband, only to receive some chilling surprises from beyond the grave. Then in Argento's 'The Black Cat', a deranged crime scene photographer (Harvey Keitel of RESERVOIR DOGS) is driven to brutal acts of madness and murder by his girlfriend's new pet. But will this cunning feline deliver a final sickening twist of its own?



July 6, 2021

Willard Huyck's Howard the Duck (1986) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Universal



Howard the Duck is suddenly beamed from Duckworld, a planet of intelligent ducks with arms and legs, to Earth, where he lands in Cleveland. There he saves rocker Beverly (Lea Thompson) from thugs and forms a friendship with her. She introduces him to Phil (Tim Robbins), who works at a lab with scientist Dr. Jenning (Jeffrey Jones). When the doctor attempts to return Howard to his world, Jenning instead transfers an evil spirit into his own body.



Quote from: wilder on March 01, 2021, 08:19:14 PMMay 11, 2021

Yasuzo Masumura's Giants and Toys (1958) On blu-ray from Arrow



Making its worldwide Blu-ray debut, this lurid adaptation of the award-winning 1957 novel by Ken Kaiko is considered a landmark in Japanese film history and a key work by Yasuzo Masumura (Blind Beast, Red Angel), one of the country's most highly acclaimed directors of his generation. Its absurdist and acidly cynical take on the excesses of the media and advertising worlds recalls the work of Frank Tashlin (Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?), as it presents a garish vision of a bold new postwar Japan where traditional company values come head-to-head with American-style consumer capitalism.





Quote from: wilder on April 12, 2021, 08:40:19 PMSummer 2021 TBD

John J. McLaughlin's Death Collector (1988) on blu-ray from Culture Shock, from a 4K remaster



In a future time, when things have reverted back to the days of the Old West, a man goes after the gang that murdered his brother.

Quote from: Letterboxd user Justine WieseA low budget, regionally shot, dystopian sorta-western that feels like an Alex Cox film with Lynchian overtones

Up for pre-order from Culture Shock







jenkins

totally recommend listening to this and imagine she's talking about you


jenkins

Def by Temptation is an Ernest Dickerson-shot supernatural horror movie that borrows from Mario Bava and Videodrome, written directed and produced by James Bond III, an actor who only directed this one movie. this is his Night of the Hunter. the Videodrome-inspired sequence is well done and I'd share it if i had found it sitting around on YouTube

jenkins

of interest to me: this is a special, unlicensed release of Mr. Bug Goes to Town, the second and last Fleischer animated feature ever made, following Gulliver's Travels, at the very beginning of animated features

WorldForgot


wilder

2021 TBD

Grigori Kromanov's The Dead Mountaineer's Hotel (1979) on blu-ray from Camera Obscura (Germany). Will include English subtitles.



After receiving an anonymous phone call, police inspector Glebsky embarks on a journey to a remote mountain hotel to uncover a group of international terrorists. However, almost immediately after his arrival, an avalanche cuts the hotel off from the rest of the world and the situation changes drastically. The surreal nature of events and circumstances ultimately leads inspector Glebsky to question his sanity.

This Estonian adaptation of the eponymous novel by the Strugatsky Brothers (renowned authors of sci-fi classics such as HARD TO BE A GOD and ROADSIDE PICNIC, the source for Tarkovsky's STALKER) is a stylistically striking exploration of a fictional world that mirrors the Soviet one. The visual richness – the film is known for its unorthodox camera angles, vivid colors, and unearthly sounds – as well as the gripping script and unforgettable characters, has made THE DEAD MOUNTAINEER'S HOTEL a cult film.



This is a bucket list blu-ray release for me. You can currently watch the entire film in HD, for free, on Anthology Film Archives' vimeo channel.

jenkins

omg, this was released by VS days ago. i don't think they're Tarkovsky fans but this level of film nerdery is fun to witness

A cover of the Champagne & Bullets title song:


wilder

August 31, 2021

David Lynch's Dune (1984) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Arrow



A Duke's son leads desert warriors against the galactic emperor and his father's evil nemesis when they assassinate his father and free their desert world from the emperor's rule.



August 24, 2021

Yasuzô Masumura's Blind Beast (1969) on blu-ray from Arrow



Blind Beast is a grotesque portrait of the bizarre relationship between a blind sculptor and his captive muse, adapted from a short story from Japan's foremost master of the macabre, Edogawa Rampo (Horrors of Malformed Men, The Black Lizard, Caterpillar).

An artist's model, Aki (Mako Midori), is abducted, and awakens in a dark warehouse studio whose walls are decorated with outsized women's body parts – eyes, lips, legs and breasts – and dominated by two recumbent giant statues of male and female nudes. Her kidnapper introduces himself as Michio (Eiji Funakoshi), a blind sculptor whom she had witnessed previously at an exhibition in which she featured intently caressing a statue of her naked torso. Michio announces his intention of using her to sculpt the perfect female form. At first defiant, she eventually succumbs to his intense fixation on her body and finds herself drawn into his sightless world, in which touch is everything.

Blind Beast is a masterpiece of erotic horror that explores the all-encompassing and overwhelming relationship between the artist and his art and the obsessive closed world that the artist inhabits, with maestro director Yasuzo Masumura (Giants and Toys, Irezumi) conjuring up a hallucinogenic dreamworld in which sensual and creative urges combine with a feverish intensity.




November 2021

Sylvia Kristel 1970s Collection (1974-1978) on blu-ray from Cult Epics



QuotePLAYING WITH FIRE (France, 1975) Alain Robbe-Grillet. Bonus features: 2K Transfer, Audio Commentary by Tim Lucas, Interview with Catherine Robbe-Grillet and more tba.

PASTORALE 1943 (Netherlands, 1978) Wim Verstappen. Bonus features: 2K Transfer, Audio Commentary by Peter Verstraten, Vintage Interviews 1978 HD, Theatrical HD Trailers and more tba.

MYSTERIES (Netherlands, 1978) Paul de Lussanet. Bonus features: 2K Transfer, Audio Commentaries by Peter Verstraten and Jeremy Richey, Vintage Interviews 1978 HD, Theatrical HD Trailer and more tba.

JULIA (Germany, 1974) Sigi Rothemund. Bonus features: 2K Transfer, Audio Commentary by Jeremy Richey, Theatrical HD Trailer and more tba.

NSFW


Clips from the other films in this set here



August 31, 2021

Walerian Borowczyk's Love Rites (1987) on blu-ray from Kino



Love Rites (Cérémonie d'amour) is cult director Walerian Borowczyk's (The Beast) subversively erotic final feature. He returns with a vengeance to a signature theme—emasculation. Vain clothing buyer Hugo (Mathieu Carrière) meets beautiful Myriam (Marina Pierro) on the subway and pursues her, discovering to his delight that she's a prostitute. The crafty Myriam, of course, has more in mind for their encounter than smug Hugo bargained for. Love Rites turns the sexual tables with perverse exactitude.



August 16, 2021

Domenico Paolella's The Nun and the Devil (1973) on blu-ray from 88 Films (UK)



Directed by Domenico Paolella (The Prey/The Story of a Cloistered Nun), The Nun and the Devil AKA Le Monache di Sant'Arcangelo is a headily erotic tale of seduction and persecution detailing the sinful practices which spill out of a 16th century convent. When the psychotically ambitious Sister Julia (Anna Heywood) vies to take the place of a dying Mother Superior by any means possible, other inmates start to lose their way, indulging in heterosexual flings and lesbian coupling. But things take a nasty turn when the nuns are subjected to a violent inquisition and their existence becomes one of torture and degradation.

Made just two years after Ken Russell's notorious The Devils (1971), this 1973 film sought to offer a corruption of the innocent style plot which monopolised on the short-lived wave of nunsploitation features, incorporating graphic horrors, soft-pornography and historical drama. Loosely based on authentic records, this sordid tale of religion and power will delight lovers of extreme Italian exploitation cinema.

jenkins


jenkins

so Paul Morrissey's Blood for Dracula is being released on 4K during Severin's midyear sale, and the nature of the physical media game has shifted such that it "debuts Saturday, June 26 at 11:59:59 PM EST and will ONLY be available for the remainder of the sale."

jenkins

followed by VS's announcement:

QuoteWe know this announcement is a bit unusual, but due to the plethora of rumors and misinformation currently circulating online, we felt we should put all the conspiracies to bed and formally confirm that YES, we are going to release FLESH FOR FRANKENSTEIN in Real 3D & 4K UHD, under exclusive, worldwide, license from its director and copyright holder, Paul Morrissey.
Our release, which has been newly scanned in 4K from the original, 35mm over-under, Stereoscopic camera negative (which has never been accessed for any other home video edition) is being restored by the 3-D Film Archive, LLC and looks absolutely stunning. It will be released later this year.