SPOTLIGHT ON CANNES 2021: IN COMPETITION — BENEDETTA —Paul Verhoeven
Look for “Benedetta” to set the croisette on fire! The film was scheduled to premiere at Cannes 2020, but was…
BDSM
DOUBLE LOVER — CANNES 2017
France’s ever-reliable and prolific auteur François Ozon (“Swimming Pool”) confirms his place as an inventive filmic storyteller with a precise…
Maîtresse — THE CRITERION COLLECTION
BDSM, Capsules Blog, Criterion Collection, Erotic, FOUR STARS, French Cinema, Podcast, sex, Sexploitation
Fetish aficionados will find much to admire in Barbet Schroeder’s groundbreaking depiction of a BDSM dungeon ruled by Bulle Ogier’s…
THE SIX KINKIEST MOVIE SEX SCENES
One man’s kink is the same as a woman’s in the big bad world of BDSM. Films from William Friedkin,…
EATING RAOUL — THE CRITERION COLLECTION
BDSM, Black Comedy, Capsules Blog, Criterion Collection, sex, SHOCKTOBER!, Transgressive Cinema, Video Essay
Writer/director Paul Bartell plays a (possibly closeted gay) L.A. wine collector with plans to open a restaurant with his hot-to-trot…
FAT GIRL — THE CRITERION COLLECTION
BDSM, Capsules Blog, Criterion Collection, Cult Film, Feminist Cinema, FIVE STARS, French Cinema, sex, Sexploitation, Transgressive Cinema, Video Essay, Women Filmmakers, Women's Cinema
“Fat Girl” is an understated picture that doesn’t shy away from any of the ambitious thematic heights that Breillat fearlessly…
FLESH FOR FRANKENSTEIN — THE CRITERION COLLECTION
Commonly referred to as “Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein” (what on Earth could be better?), Paul Morrissey directed “Flesh for Frankenstein” with…
THE HANDMAIDEN — CANNES 2016
BDSM, Cannes Film Festival, Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Erotic, FIVE STARS, Korean Cinema, LGBTQ, Porn, sex, Video Essay, Women's Cinema
Korean filmmaker Park Chan-Wook delighted critics and festival audiences in Cannes with his erotic BDSM-tinged period drama of conspiracy and…
ELLE — CANNES 2016
BDSM, Cannes Film Festival, Capsules Blog, FIVE STARS, Literary Adaptation, Psychological Thriller, sex, Sexploitation, Transgressive Cinema, Video Essay, Women's Cinema
Paul Verhoeven’s “Elle” is a diabolically gleeful black comedy brimming with sly social commentary. It is a perfect film. The…
PERSONAL SHOPPER — CANNES 2016
BDSM, Cannes Film Festival, Capsules Blog, Criterion Collection, French Cinema, LGBTQ, ONE STAR, Psychological Thriller, Women's Cinema
Olivier Assayas’s Personal Shopper drew boos from French locals at Cannes who didn’t appreciate the psychological thriller. Cole Smithey.
THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY
BDSM, Capsules Blog, Erotic, Film, Porn, sex, Sexploitation, Social Satire, THREE STARS, Transgressive Cinema, Women's Cinema
Neither entirely frustrating nor satisfying, here is an enjoyable erotic film populated with only women. As such, it affords the…
REFORM SCHOOL GIRLS — CLASSIC FILM PICK
Although critically scorned and criminally overlooked, co-writer/director Tom Desimone’s punk rock-inspired indie sexploitation flick has it all. Cole Smithey.
BITTER MOON — CLASSIC FILM PICK
BDSM, Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Erotic, FIVE STARS, sex, Social Satire, Transgressive Cinema, Video Essay
A be-all-and-end-all example of erotic drama, Roman Polanski’s co-written adaptation of Pascal Bruckner’s novel is fraught with romantic and sexual…
NYMPHOMANIAC VOLUME II
The decision to split Lars von Trier’s epic erotic journey into two parts is one of the worst cinematic travesties…
NEKROMANTIK 2 — CLASSIC FILM PICK
BDSM, Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Exploitation, FOUR STARS, German Cinema, Horror, Satire, sex, Sexploitation, SHOCKTOBER!, Transgressive Cinema
In the brainwash of modern ideologies it seems apropos that Jörg Buttgereit’s follow-up to his banned 1987 horror film “Nekromantik”…
PANDORA’S BOX — THE CRITERION COLLECTION
BDSM, Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Criterion Collection, FIVE STARS, LGBTQ, Pre-Code, Silent, Social Satire, Video Essay, Women's Cinema
Eastern European-born Georg Wilhelm Pabst was a socially driven filmmaker of the silent era dedicated to exploring and exposing social…
ILSA: SHE WOLF OF THE SS — CLASSIC FILM PICK
BDSM, Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Cult Film, FIVE STARS, sex, Sexploitation, SHOCKTOBER!, Video Essay, War, War Fantasy, Women's Cinema
Don Edmonds’s 1975 classic “Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS” is one of the most outrageous additions to the sexploitation…
INHERENT VICE — NYFF 2014
There’s no way to sugarcoat it; Paul Thomas Anderson has made two duds in a row. Cole Smithey.
THE ZERO THEOREM
Terry Gilliam’s further slide down the stairs of filmic entropy is best summed up by an oft-repeated phrase by his…
WETLANDS
Challenging and provocative, co-writer/director David Wnendt’s nervy adaptation of Charlotte Roche’s long-presumed unfilmable popular novel breaks new cinematic ground. Mapping…
COLE SMITHEY’S CLASSIC CINEMA
