D’AMORE SE VIVE
(WE LIVE OF LOVE)
dir. Silvano Agosti, 1984
93 mins. Italy.
In Italian with English subtitles.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 4 – 10PM
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 13 – 5PM
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 19 – 5PM
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24 – 10PM
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 26 – 3PM w/REMOTE DIRECTOR Q&A! (This event is $10.)
First broadcast on Italian television and never officially released in the United States, D’AMORE SI VIVE is an object lesson in the art of the conversational (not to be confused with “talking head”) documentary.
Consistently audible behind the camera but never appearing onscreen, director Silvano Agosti conducts wide-ranging interviews about love and its manifestations with: a priest’s daughter who was unable to orgasm until long after she got married, a precocious (and frequently hilarious) eight-year-old boy, a middle-aged ex-sex worker, and two trans women with radically different life stories. Out of hundreds of candidates, these interviewees were chosen for their unique observations on love and sex, as well as their willingness to open up to Agosti, resulting in harrowing, unpredictable and moving results. Agosti is a fearless interloper, and his talent for probing into desire, trauma, denial, repression, family and fantasy – as well as to receive criticism in return – makes for an intense viewing experience, guaranteed to get under your skin in a matter of minutes (if not seconds.)
“I screened D’AMORE SI VIVE at Teatro Regio in Parma, which is the shrine of official culture. And when I left the theater I was met by the DIGOS [the General Investigations and Special Operations Division of the Italian police]. A gentleman from the police force told me, ‘Mr. Agosti, your film is under arrest.’ I offered him a DVD of the film and I told him, ‘Well, if it has to be kidnapped, kidnap it.’ ‘We are not allowed. You must hand it over to us.’ Curiously and fortunately, the judge had seen the film twice in theaters and considered it to be an important film. I always operate from within a kind of catalyst that some people, in bad faith, refer to as ‘provocation,’ but that I prefer to define as ‘stimulation.’ As Vladimir Mayakovsky said: ‘Cinema is an athlete. Cinema is the bearer of ideas. Cinema modernizes literature but cinema is sick. The industry threw a handful of gold coins in its eyes, skilled entrepreneurs with tearful or violent stories deceive people.'” – Silvano Agosti, in conversation with Adelita Husni Bey
Please be advised: this film contains a disturbing reference to suicide, as well as a historically controversial scene where a minor is asked about masturbation. Viewer discretion is advised.
ANTES, O VERÃO
(BEFORE, THE SUMMER)
dir. Gerson Tavares, 1968
80 min. Brazil.
In Portuguese with English subtitles.
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 6 – 7:30PM
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10 – 7:30PM
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 22 – 10:00PM
Special thanks to Cinelimite, Rafael de Luna Freire, & Rodrigo Tavares.
THE SCAR
(แผลเก่า)
dir. Cherd Songsri, 1977
133 mins. Thailand.
In Thai with English subtitles.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 5 – 7:30PM
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 13 – 7:30PM
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17 – 7:30PM
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 26 – 5PM
Taking place largely in the Thai rice paddies of the 1930s, Cherd Songsri’s screenplay follows Kwan (Sorapong Chatree) and Riam (Nantana Ngaograjang), two young farmers descended of warring tribal chiefs. Instead of permitting her to keep seeing Kwan, Riam’s father sends her to Bangkok where she is sold into slavery, only to be adopted by an sympathic yet controlling aristocrat who transforms her into a surrogate daughter, complete with western-style clothes and an arranged, or at least heavily suggested, fiancee. The inevitable return of Riam to her home village means seeing Kwan again, reigniting the unrequited flame of teenage love, and setting off a chain of events that can only end in tragedy.
THE SCAR was the highest grossing film in Thai history upon its 1977 release, and occasioned a remake in 2002; pulse-pounding, saturated in color and sweeping in scope, it’s an unabashedly emotional epic comparable to those of David Lean or Sergei Bondarchuk. These will be THE SCAR’s first public screenings in the United States since the Thai Film Archive premiered their 4K restoration at the Museum of Modern Art in 2020.
Special thanks to Kong Rithdee and Sanchai Chotirosseranee (Thai Film Archive.)
ABERRATION
dir. Tim Boxell, 1997
93 min. New Zealand.
In English.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 1 – 7:30PM
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 19 – MIDNIGHT
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 25 – MIDNIGHT
The wildest snowed-in creature feature from New Zealand that you’ve never heard of, ABERRATION follows a woman named May, hiding out in a remote cabin for unknown reasons, who has a meet-cute with a nature field researcher investigating the strange extinction of small animals and insects in the area.
ABERRATION feels like a particularly gnarly made-for-TV movie (and we mean that as a compliment), jumping between romantic comedy and good ol’ fashioned splatter. ABERRATION also features an extremely Nineties soundtrack by Plan 9 and a few wild shifts in tone.
OLIVIA
(aka A TASTE OF SIN)
dir. Ulli Lommel, 1983
85 min. United States.
In English.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 5 – MIDNIGHT
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 8 – 10PM
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 11 – MIDNIGHT
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 27 – 7:30PM
An offbeat highlight in the fascinating career of Fassbinder collaborator / exploitation auteur Ulli Lommel (THE BOOGEYMAN, THE DEVONSVILLE TERROR), OLIVIA finds a distinctive blend of slasher, erotic thriller and straightforward sleaze, seasoned with touches of semi-surrealism.
As a child, Olivia (Suzanna Love) witnessed the murder of her streetwalking mother at the hands of an angry john. As an adult, her mother’s ghost demands Olivia avenge her death by seducing and slaying men! While disposing of a body near the London Bridge, Olivia meets a friendly American who aims to dismantle and move the bridge to Arizona — setting off a series of increasingly strange events, and a lot more bloodshed.
SUKKUBUS – DEN TEUFEL IM LEIB
dir. Georg Tressler, 1989
80 min. Germany.
In German with English subtitles.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 1 – 10PM
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 4 – MIDNIGHT
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 12 – MIDNIGHT
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17 – 10PM
SUKKUBUS tells the story of three cattle herders living in isolation in the Alps, sworn to a life of piety as they tend to their flock. As ‘baser’ instincts and temptations take hold on a drunken night, they build a makeshift sex doll.
During their encounter, the sex doll takes on a life of its own and soon begins to hunt the men, one by one.
Easily the horniest (and weirdest) movie about herdsmen ever to come out of Germany, Spectacle is proud to present a beautiful remaster of this new Anti-Valentine Classic.
Special Thanks to Mondo Macabro.
Content warning: sexual assault, dead cow butchery