Dante Isn’t Just Severe

The Scheherazade-style comedy DANTE ISN’T JUST SEVERE (1967) dir. Joaquim Jorda & Jacinto Esteva started off as an anthology project involving five directors but most of the shorts became their own separate projects. The stories were as follows: BARCELONA 66 by Antoni de Senillosa Very little is known about this film as Senillosa retired from

Camille Keaton in Italy boxset

I am thrilled to learn that Vinegar Syndrome is releasing a Blu-ray boxset of Camille Keaton’s Italian films. Keaton is most famous for starring in the rape-and-revenge film Day of the Woman (better known as I Spit on Your Grave). But before that film, she had a brief film career in Italy where she appeared

Observation on ‘Justine’ in Melancholia (2011). (19/10/2020)

“For several days together she wept the sweetest tears in the home of her protectors and then, so unaccountably that the cause of it was not to be discovered, her mood changed. She became sad, troubled, dreamy. Sometimes she wept in her friends’ company, and could not herself have said what was the reason for

Gilded Cages and Untamed Beasts in Fifty Shades of Grey (2015)

I still recall the hype and backlash Sam Taylor-Johnson’s Fifty Shades of Grey received when it was released back in 2015. I was familiar with the novel but had trouble finishing it. Colour me surprised when the trailer for the movie came out and it looked visually gorgeous. Unfortunately, I didn’t watch it during its premier,

The Architecture of Inner Madness: Esquizo (1970) dir. Ricardo Bofill

Ricardo Bofill is primarily known today as one of Spain’s most renowned architects. His most famous buildings include the Xanadu and La Muralla Roja (Jess Franco fans will recognise these two buildings in many of Franco’s films). Lesser known are his contributions to the Escuela de Barcelona. He wrote the dialogue for Vicente Aranda’s Brillante

Las Vampiras (1974) dir. Jess Franco

“There exists an uninhabited island near Istanbul, where lie the ruins of an old palace. Old legends say that in that house, there lived a foreign Princess condemned to Hell and damnation by her husband, a great Sultan. Locked in a golden cage surrounded by female slaves, the beautiful prisoner was expected to die slowly