Every February, Spectacle throws a bone to the lonesome and heartsick to combat the nauseating pink-and-red onslaught of Cupid’s holiday. This year, we’re adding a sub(human)-series of films about men whose behavior is so egregious and intertwined with their clinical depression that they go beyond “toxic” to exclusion zone levels of danger. Frankly, these dudes suck. Yet we can’t help but perhaps empathize with them on a few points…
BAJO EN NICOTINA
(LOW IN NICOTINE)
Dir. Raúl Artigot, 1984.
Spain. 79 min.
In Spanish with English subtitles.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5 – 10 PM
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21 – 7:30 PM
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 23 – 7:30 PM
After Spectacle’s 2023 screenings of the ethereal Spanish folk horror classic EL MONTE DE LAS BRUJAS (THE WITCHES MOUNTAIN), we are pleased to present the return of Raúl Artigot to the goth bodega with the filmmaker’s final work, BAJO EN NICOTINA.
Based on the novel El ángel triste (“The Sad Angel”) by Spanish author, screenwriter, and film critic/academic Carlos Pérez Merinero, the film follows the life of Carlos, a cinephile whose ambition in life is limited to sitting in front of his television. With no other concerns than eating, shaving, and fornication, he’s happy to lead an insignificant life and eager to watch his movies in peace. His addiction to laziness and non-commitment is complicated by an overbearing girlfriend and the annoyingly loud tenants next door. What extreme measures will Carlos take to achieve tranquility with his TV set?
Special thanks to Alfred Giancarli and Cristina Fernández Álvarez for subtitle translation, and to Benjamin Pequet for technical assistance.
NATURAL ENEMIES
Dir. Jeff Kanew, 1979.
United States. 100 min.
In English.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5 – 7:30 PM
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 15 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21 – 10 PM
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26 – 7:30 PM
Hal Holbrook (ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN, RITUALS, FLETCH LIVES) stars as Paul Steward, a husband, father, and magazine editor living in Connecticut. He’s beyond depressed—stuck in a loveless marriage, unable to even recognize the three children he despises, and going through the motions at a job he no longer has any interest in. Full of anger and feeling ripped off by life, he finds a new obsession in a possible way out of his doldrums: murder-suiciding his whole family.
Unrelentingly bleak and cynical, NATURAL ENEMIES is based on the 1975 book of the same name by Julius Horwitz and directed by Jeff Kanew, who would go on to bring further nonconsensual sexual encounters to the screen in 1984’s REVENGE OF THE NERDS. Paul’s wife Miriam is played by Louise Fletcher, aka Nurse Ratched from ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST, here on the other side of the mental healthcare coin as a manic-depressive victim of shock treatment.
Shot on location in Connecticut and New York City, NATURAL ENEMIES pulls no punches in its depiction of the bridge-and-tunnel commuter’s depression. Unlike Kubrick’s sexier portrayal of an upper-class Manhattan marriage falling apart, there are no flashy metaphorical secret societies—just everyday malice and discontent. However, like in Kubrick’s film, there’s still some group sex.