Author: Ben Tuttle

MASTERS OF ITALIAN EXPLOITATION: RUGGERO DEODATO

Posted on by Ben Tuttle

MASTERS OF ITALIAN EXPLOITATION: RUGGERO DEODATO

This September Spectacle presents three underseen gems by the godfather of Italian shock and sleaze Ruggero Deodato!

CUT AND RUN

CUT AND RUN
(Inferno in Diretta)
Dir. Ruggero Deodato, 1985.
Italy. 90 min
In English

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1 – 10 PM
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15 – 10 PM
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24 – Midnight
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 30 – Midnight 

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Miami, 1984. At the scene of a grizzly murder, news reporter Fran Hudson discovers a connection between a Jonestown survivor and a TV executive’s missing son. The lead sends her deep into the madness of the jungle and face-to-face with Colonel Brian Horn’s cult-like cannibal army.

CUT AND RUN serves as the final film in Ruggero Deodato’s cannibal trilogy following LAST CANNIBAL WORLD (1977) and CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST(1980). After his first two films were condemned for their depictions of genuine animal cruelty, Deodato appears to have taken pity on his audience (which is to say that no animals were harmed in the making of this film). However, CUT AND RUN is hardly a ride on Disney’s Jungle Cruise; this film is the coked-up loved child of APOCALYPSE NOW (1979) and ZOMBI 2 (1979).

The film began its life as a script written by Wes Craven, but his version never saw the light of day. Deodato eventually picked up the project and cast longtime Craven collaborator Michael Berryman, hot off the set of HILLS HAVE EYES PART 2 (1984). Berryman is joined by genre all-stars Richard Lynch, Lisa Blout, Barbara Magnolfi, and Karen Black.

THE WASHING MACHINE

THE WASHING MACHINE
(Vortice Mortale)
Dir. Ruggero Deodato, 1993.
Italy. 86 min
In English
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3 – Midnight
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 5 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 9 – Midnight
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 30 – 7:30 PM 

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Detective Stacev is called to investigate after three sisters discover a dismembered pimp in their washing machine. However, when the body goes missing, everyone’s a suspect. The detective puts it all on the line to untangle a web of secrets, seduction, and subterfuge or risks being left out to dry.

Don’t let the title fool you, THE WASHING MACHINE is not a killer appliance movie. Produced during the height of the erotic thriller boom of the late 80s and early 90s, THE WASHING MACHINE applies a typical giallo story to an erotic thriller framework. The result is a bizarre masterpiece dripping in questionable motivations, immoral characters, and insane twists. Accompanying the on-screen madness is an electrifying soundtrack by Goblin keyboardist, and longtime Deodato collaborator, Claudio Simonetti.

DIAL: HELP

DIAL: HELP
Dir. Ruggero Deodato, 1988.
Italy. 94 min
In English
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 2 – Midnight
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10 – Midnight
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17 – Midnight
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 30 – 10 PM 

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A psychic finds herself tapping into the “energy” of a deceased phone operator. She also finds that her friends soon begin dying mysteriously. An investigator determines to track down the cause.

Rounding out our trio of Deodato films is this extremely wacky English language supernatural thriller, based on a story by frequent Argento collaborator Franco Ferrini (PHENOMENA, OPERA, DEMONS, DEMONS 2). It follows a British model (Charlotte Lewis) after her recent arrival in Rome. A psychic presence begins to stalk her as a series of grisly and increasingly bizarre telephone related murders occur. Bursting with over the top 80’s absurdity, creative FX, and a perfectly dated ‘funky’ soundtrack.

CLEARCUT

Posted on by Ben Tuttle

 

 

CLEARCUT
Dir. Ryszard Bugajski, 1991
Canada. 100 min

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1 – 7:30 PM
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 16 – 10 PM
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24 – 7:30 PM
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 – 5 PM

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Peter Maguire (Ron Lea) is a white lawyer from Toronto, representing an unspecified indigenous tribe in rural Canada against an encroaching paper mill’s thirst for profit. Maguire is unsuccessful in keeping the company from building a road and clear-cutting their way through the tribe’s land, but his frustrations only manifest as platitudes and fantasies of revenge. That is, until the arrival of Arthur (Graham Greene), a mysterious native, who kidnaps the mill’s owner and drags both him and Maguire into the forest to enact the lawyer’s once empty threats. As the Wisakedjak—a trickster of indigenous folklore—Arthur’s unrelenting violence is doled out with a sardonic stoicism. His actions upon the mill’s owner mimicking the treatment of the trees and land by the loggers and paper mill.

With a screenplay based on the novel A Dream Like Mine by M.T. Kelly, Bugajski’s film places white liberal pacifism in the cross hairs, and questions if violence is necessary and moral in the face of capitalism, the state, and environmental destruction. The answers, and the difference between right and wrong, may not be so… CLEARCUT.

UR-MUSIG

Posted on by Ben Tuttle

UR-MUSIG
Dir. Cyrill Schläpfer, 1993
Switzerland. 107 min

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 1 – 7:30 PM
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7 – 10 PM
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13 – 7:30 PM
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27 – 7:30 PM
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 29 – 7:30 PM

Meaning “Primitive Music”, UR-MUSIG is a journey into the world of traditional Swiss folk music. Presented without comment or narration, the film focuses on the sounds of Central Switzerland and Appenzellerland; such as yodeling, the alpine blessing, the ringing of cowbells, and more. Visually augmented by the lush, gorgeous landscapes of the Alps as seen in every season of the year, each more staggeringly beautiful than then the next. Showcasing the inherent relationship between the film’s subjects’ musical expression and the land in which it inhabits. The film has gained a cult reputation after screening as a continuous Sunday matinee for 2 years in Zurich.

BAPHTA: M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN

Posted on by Ben Tuttle

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24 – 7:30 PM
ONE NIGHT ONLY!

BAPHTA is a bi-monthly multimedia comedy show that celebrates legendary film directors with monologues, characters, and short videos. Special guests are invited to put their spin on these visionaries of the seventh art.

This month’s installment focuses on the enigmatic writer/director M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, Signs, Unbreakable, Stuart Little)

Join BAPHTA as we explore the nuances of M. Night’s films. There will be spooks, capes, capers, a touch of the supernatural, Bruce Willis, and a surprise twist ending!

This month we welcome:

Lucy Augustine (The Ravishing of Lol Stein)

Spike Einbinder (Los Espookys on HBO)

Hayden Maxwell (Only the Best for Hayden Maxwell)

Devon Walker (Comedy Central)

Our October installment will focus on the enigmatic writer/director M. Night Shyamalan (THE SIXTH SENSE, SIGNS, UNBREAKABLE, STUART LITTLE).  We will dive deep into Shymalan’s body of work and will definitively decide whether he is the reigning master of suspense and supernatural or merely a charlatan.

Join us as we bring the sleepy suburbs of Philadelphia to Brooklyn for one night only. There will be spooks, capes, capers, a touch of the supernatural, Bruce Willis, and a surprise twist ending!

BURNING FRAME: A Monthly Anarchist Film Series

Posted on by Ben Tuttle

CALLING ALL LEFTISTS! The past few years have been a whirlwind: exhausting, invigorating, and ripe with potential. It’s tremendously difficult, when in the thick of it, to pause, reflect, or even find a moment to catch a breath. Especially when “it” refers to the rise of fascism on a global scale, with any number of future cataclysms hovering just over the horizon. But we digress.

Join us, then, for a series that asks: if not now, when? Come for great works of radical political filmmaking, stay for the generative discussions, or even just to gossip and gripe. The hope isthat this forum for authentic representations of successes, defeats, and the messy work of political action, will be thrilling, edifying, and maybe even inspire your next organizing project. To butcher the title of a great film for the sake of a moderately applicable pun: “Throw away your dogma, rally in the cinema.”

SOVIET PROPAGANDA: ANIMATED SHORTS
Dir. Dziga Vertov, et al., 1924–55
USSR. 85 min

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 5 – 7:30 PM

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“From 1924 to perestroika the USSR produced 41 animated propaganda films. Their target was the new nation and their goal was to win over the hearts and minds of the Soviet people. Anti-American, Anti-British, Anti-German, Anti-Capitalist, Anti-Fascist, some of these films are as artistically beautiful as the great political posters made after the 1917 revolution which inspired Soviet animation… The films feature some astounding animation techniques from stop-motion to paper cutout animation to impressively intricate puppetry. Includes interviews with the directors and commentary by the leading Soviet film scholars.”

“The animated film was another weapon in the Totalitarian war of ideas. In a Soviet Union where over a hundred languages were spoken, moving pictures communicated ideas better than words. Animated cartoons were also ideal to teach small children. The influential power of film is undisputed, even here.”

Text by Glenn Erickson