Offscreen
A Field in England
An unlikely group decides to flee the civil war in the middle of the English countryside. Hallucinogenic mushrooms will turn their escape into a different kind of trip. A psychedelic pilgrimage directed by Ben Wheatley (Kill List, Sightseers), the forerunner of a renewal in English cinema.
Altered States
Research scientist Eddie Jessup (William Hurt) believes other states of consciousness are as real as everyday reality. Using sensory deprivation, then adding powerful, hallucinogenic drugs, he explores these altered states... and endures experiences that make madness seem a blessing.
Animation Maestro Gisaburo Sugii
Gisaburo Sugii’s career covers the entire span of modern Japanese animation. In this fascinating portrait of the animation veteran, Masato Ishioka demonstrates how the Japanese animation industry developed in Disney's shadow, to finally grow into its own as an international cultural phenomenon.
Blue Ruin
Dwight touches rock bottom after his parents’ murder. Homeless, he lives in a rusty car on the side of the road. When he hears the killer has been released from prison, revenge becomes him. This intelligent, ambiguous thriller made a splash during awards season – don’t miss it!
Bunny Lake is Missing
A young single mother tries to pick up her daughter, Bunny Lake, after her first day of school. But to her horror, the child has gone missing and nobody seems to remember her existence. A psychological thriller directed by the masterful Otto Preminger.
Camille 2000
Under the wing of a rich baron, the beautiful Marguerite has a penchant for young lovers and decadent orgies in her opulent villa. She sets her sights on a handsome bachelor who refuses to play by her rules. A pop-art ode to the erotic whimsy of the 60s.
Cineketje
The program consists of episodes from the legendary TV-series ('70) Roobarb & Custard, short films Woolly Wolf and Woolly Town by the well-known animation artist Vera Neubauer and the latest stop-motion films from the independent animation studios Second Home Studios. For kids of all ages.
Clouds of Glory
An idiosyncratic two-part mini-series on the relationship between poet William Wordsworth and his beloved sister Dorothy, and the battle with laudanum faced by his friend and fellow poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Long considered lost, (re)discover this TV drama for the first time on the big screen.
Computer Chess
On the eve of a computer chess tournament, a group of geeks meet up in a hotel to size up the programs they’ve toiled over for the occasion. Andrew Bujalski, the godfather of mumblecore, takes us back in time with this funny and oddly surreal film.
Conference: Imagining the Past - Day One
The international conference Imagining the Past: Ken Russell, Biography and the Art of Making History seeks to show how Russell’s work helps us to understand how cinema (re)constructs narratives about ourselves and the past.
Conference: Imagining the Past - Day Two
The international conference Imagining the Past: Ken Russell, Biography and the Art of Making History seeks to show how Russell’s work helps us to understand how cinema (re)constructs narratives about ourselves and the past.
Consuming Spirits
Chris Sullivan spent 15 years creating this superb animation film through which he scrutinizes the slums in the heart of America. From the Bukowskian ugliness of pockmarked figures, senile mothers and drifting drunkards surfaces astounding beauty.
Crimes of Passion
By day, Joanna (Kathleen Turner) is a prim fashion designer. At night she becomes China Blue, a kinky hooker on the streets of LA. But when she finds herself being stalked by a fanatical preacher (a truly over-the-top performance by Anthony Perkins), her depraved double life threatens to explode.
Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde
Robert L. Stevenson’s classic tale gets an unexpected twist – because when Dr. Jekyll drinks that infamous potion, he turns into a gorgeous yet deadly femme fatale! An excellent Hammer horror classic with sharp camera work and Martine Beswick in a starring role.
Frankenstein must be Destroyed
Baron Frankenstein is once again working with illegal medical experiments. He forces a young doctor and his fiancée Anna to help kidnap the mentally sick Dr. Brandt, and perform the first brain transplantation ever. Fifth and best film in the Hammer series on the mad scientist.
Gothic
Lord Byron and his fellow Romantic poets gather at a secluded mansion. A demonic séance plunges them into a sex and opium-fuelled nightmare world. Russell delivers some of his weirdest and nastiest imagery in this recreation of the fateful night that inspired the writing of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
Her
A somewhat dorky loner begins an intense romantic relationship with his computer. This highly original sci-fi drama is a striking rendering of modern society, individualist to the point where relationships take place via the seclusion of interposed screens. The latest from the director of Being John Malkovich and Adaptation, Spike Jonze.
Horror Hospital
A young hippie decides to take some down time at Dr. Storm’s Health Hotel, a seemingly peaceful and isolated community retreat. He will quickly realize that his only reason for being accepted there is to play guinea pig to Dr. Storm’s sickening experiments.
Journey to the Far Side of the Sun
A group of scientists discovers a new planet hidden behind the sun. A team of explorers is sent to investigate, but they have no idea what awaits them. A film by the crew behind cult shows Thunderbirds and Cosmos 1999.
Killer's Moon
Four violent mental patients escape their institution during an experimental LSD treatment and break into a motel where an entire busload of nubile schoolgirls is staying. One of the sickest British exploitaition movies ever made!
L'étrange Couleur des Larmes de ton Corps
The filmmakers behind Amer bring us an exercise in style which takes its cues from 1970’s Italian cult films. The viewer is swept into a highly sensual experience amidst an oppressive atmosphere, punctuated by a rhythm that is as intoxicating as it is enthralling.
Les Rencontres d'après Minuit
A young couple and their transvestite maid prepare a sex orgy with the usual suspects: the slut, the star, the stud and the adolescent. This colourful tribute to 70s genre films was one of Cahiers du Cinéma's main picks for 2013.
Lisztomania
One of Russell’s most outrageous films: an audacious, vulgar, freewheeling fantasy about the life of pianist Franz Liszt, rock star, circa 1840. Featuring Roger Daltrey as the composer, a cryogenic Viking and machine-gun wielding robot Nazis, a finale out of Flash Gordon and Ringo Starr as the pope.
Live Soundtrack: Oaïstern
Come discover a forgotten genre of cinema which was a favourite in the 1910s: the baguetti western. The Oaïstern collective from Marseille dusts off the first European westerns, shot in the Camargue, which will be accompanied live in an authentic atmosphere recreated by the Indiens de la Plaine.
Live Soundtrack: Segundo de Chomon
Exhilarating, colourful musicians LouisLouis (B) and Truna (ES) translate into live music the giant frogs and phantasmagorical madness of Segundo de Chomon, the Spanish arch-rival of Méliès. Worlds colliding majestically and the chance to experience a journey into intertemporal lunacy.
Mahler
Robert Powell stars as Mahler, the great Jewish romantic from 19th-century Vienna, drafting enormous symphonic works in the midst of rising antisemitism. An excursion into the cinema of pantheism, mixing lyrical tableaux and comic fantasy that adds up to a stirring, dream-like experience.
Master Class: Radley Metzger
Pornographic films may often be dismissed as quick and cheap, but the oeuvre of Radley Metzger, characterised by opulent production design and exquisite photography, proves otherwise. Learn from the master of erotic cinema how to shoot a nude scene in a hundred different camera positions!
Night on the Galactic Railroad
As the village celebrates its annual star festival, young Giovanni turns to a lonely hilltop for solace. Once there, he comes across a magical train. Along with his friend Campanella, Giovanni embarks on a fantastic voyage into the recesses of the Milky Way. A masterpiece of Japanese animation.
Number 10 Blues, Goodbye Saigon
After accidentally killing a Vietnamese man, a Japanese expat in Saigon goes on the run in a war-ravaged country. This film, shot in 1975, was unfinished and considered lost for many years. Finally completed last year, it is a treat to behold.
One Million Years B.C.
Cavemen compete against dinosaurs in this prehistoric adventure movie, where even Raquel Welch’s curve-hugging fur bikini gets overshadowed by the action. With stop-motion effects by the uncomparable Ray Harryhausen, this super entertaining movie hits all the spots for a matinee showing!
Psychomania
A gang of psychotic motorcyclists decide to make a pact with Satan, who will give them eternal life if they accept to lose their current one first. Freshly undug from their graves, zombie bikers are out to start their reign of terror in the neighborhood.
R100
An average family man secretly joins an S&M club which promises surprise visits from professional dominatrixes. When they begin showing up at his workplace, at home and on every street corner, he tries every which way to put an end to the madness. The latest comedy from the director of Big Man Japan and Symbol.
Raw Meat (aka Death Line)
An inspector enquires over mysterious disappearances, which include that of an important politician within the tunnels of the London metro. The always awesome Donald Pleasence plays an audacious cop who fights against a family of troglodyte cannibals.
Salome's Last Dance
Russell’s extremely outlandish and visually startling adaptation of the notorious Oscar Wilde play, a fetishist retelling of the John the Baptist and Salome story from the Old Testament, with a few dollops of sexually perverse imagery thrown in for good measure.
Savage Messiah
Henri Gaudier is a young Parisian sculptor of enormous talent but prone to rash, exuberant behavior. He begins a platonic but emotionally intense relationship with Sophie Brzeska, a cultured Polish woman 20 years his senior, whose air of intelligent refinement positively impacts his life and work.
Score
Meet Elvira and Jack, a sophisticated couple who enjoy sharing their bed during their many forays into the world of swinging. To further spice up their lives, they go after a seemingly prudish couple who are about to surprise them both. All taboos fly out the window in this beautifully shot erotic drama.
Shortscreen
For the annual Shortscreen programme, Offscreen and online magazine Kortfilm.be selected seven Belgian short films that fit the Offscreen criteria: original, unusual, bizarre and surprising. The films will be introduced by the filmmakers!
Slave Girls
An adventurer stumbles on a mysterious statue in the jungle which takes him back in time. He finds himself in a prehistoric society where women warriors have the upper hand. However, two gangs are constantly in each other’s hair: the blondes and the brunettes. Let the camp fest roll!
The Bed Sitting Room
Directed by Richard Lester (The Beatles’ A Hard Days Night and Help!), this is an utterly weird and offbeat look at post-nuclear-holocaust England in the British absurdist comedy tradition of the Goon Show and Monty Python.
The Belladonna of Sadness
A series of tragic events drives a young woman into the world of witchcraft. A psychedelic, Art Nouveau-bred showing of hyperviolence and unbridled sexuality throttling to the tempo of a jazz-rock beat in a unique hallucinatory experience.
The Big Small Screen - Years 1962-1965
Ken Russell made a name for himself during 1960s by directing a series of iconoclastic TV dramatizations of the lives of famous composers and dancers. On Friday March 21 at Cinema Rits we present a small selection of his early work, which set new standards in documentary filmmaking.
The Big Small Screen - Years 1965-1966
Ken Russell made a name for himself during 1960s by directing a series of iconoclastic TV dramatizations of the lives of famous composers and dancers. On Friday March 21 at Cinema Rits we present a small selection of his early work, which set new standards in documentary filmmaking.
The Boy Friend
Fashion icon Twiggy makes her screen debut in this colourful tale of theater hopefuls with stars in their eyes. An affectionate screen adaptation of Sandy Wilson’s London/Broadway stage hit, which director Russell turns into an extravagant homage to the kaleidoscopic stagings of Busby Berkeley.
The Damned
An American tourist makes a stopover in a small British port where he fixates over a beautiful local. After fighting with her brother, the lovers hide in a cave where they discover strange children enrolled in a top secret military program. A Hammer sci-fi wonder!
The Devils - The Original "X" Version
In 17th-century France, Father Grandier uses his powers to protect the city of Loudun from destruction at the hands of the establishment. Soon, he stands accused of the demonic possession of Sister Jeanne, whose erotic obsession with him fuels the hysterical fervour that sweeps through the convent.
The image
In this psycho-sexual drama, a writer finds himself in a sadomasochistic triangle with an old friend and her young slave. In this adaption of Catherine Robbe-Grillet’s novel L’image, Metzger pulls all stops, resulting in a powerfully suggestive and otherworldly film.
The Lair of the White Worm
Russell uses Dracula author Bram Stoker’s final novel as the basic springboard into a surreal, campy and dark-humored tale concerning a bizarre cult and a series of sacrificial murders in honor of an ancient pagan god. He also manages to pack in enough phallic imagery to make a Freudian's head swim.
The Lickerish Quartet
Metzger’s masterpiece has an aristocratic family fall head over heels for the lead actress in an erotic film. When they invite her to their sprawling Italian villa, the gorgeous blonde proceeds to seduce every last one of them, bringing to life each of their own personal fantasies.
The Miracle of Life
A living placenta searches for its place in a hostile society, as it is raised as a human, a christian, a soldier. Described by the director’s duo as a bio-ethical horror movie for the whole family, this student project turned full-scale body-horror comedy is homegrown Belgian surrealism at its most trashy .
The Music Lovers
Russian composer Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky (Richard Chamberlain) struggles against his homosexuality. He marries in order to obtain social acceptance, but unfortunately chooses a nymphomaniac (Glenda Jackson) whom he cannot satisfy. A lavish film filled with brilliant music moments.
The Opening of Misty Beethoven
In this pornographic version of Pygmalion, a renowned sexologist solicits a low-ranking prostitute in order to turn her into a world-class sex goddess. A light comedy which has become a porno-chic classic.
The Private Afternoons of Pamela Mann
Pamela's husband employes a private detective to investigate her sexual infidelities. The first hard core film made by Metzger, under the alias "Henry Paris" was instantly acclaimed as a breakthrough achievement – its witty screenplay, stunning cinematography, and expert direction.
The Reckoning
After the death of his father in a quarrel, a London golden boy tries to reconnect with his Irish roots in the slums of Liverpool. Crazy for revenge, he decides to honor his father’s memory by executing his killer.
The Shout
A fascinating, puzzling, and elusive tale of a mental patient who can kill with a shout. Starring Alan Bates, John Hurt and Susannah York, the Polish director of Deep End turns the quintessential symbols of Englishness as cricket, church organs and cottages into something completely alien.
The Squeeze
Following his divorce, inspector Jim Naboth withers under the crushing weight of depression and alcoholism. But when his daughter and ex-wife are kidnapped, he snaps out of his funk. This time, it’s personal!
The Tale of Genji
An elegant adaption of a classic Japanese novel, narrating the experiences of a young aristocrat in the imperial palace. Raised motherless, Genji’s need for maternal tenderness forces him to seek out in tragic romantic encounters an unattainable ideal of love.
The Wicker Man
When a young girl mysteriously disappears, Police Sergeant Howie travels to a remote island to investigate. But this pastoral community is not what it seems, as the devout Christian detective soon uncovers a secret society of wanton lust and pagan blasphemy... The cult classic finally in its definitive version!
Tommy
The musical odyssey of a deaf, dumb and blind kid that makes it to pinball champion, rock star and the new Messiah of a religious cult. Ken Russell transforms The Who's classic concept album to a purely sensory experience which can best be described as an LSD version of Jesus Christ Superstar.
Valentino
Ballet-dancer-turned actor Rudolf Nureyev stars as Rudolf Valentino, the adored silent screen actor of early Hollywood. The film begins at his funeral in 1926 and backtracks to his glory-days when the former ballroom dancer used his good-looks and charm to become one of the first male screen idols.
Village of the Damned
The inhabitants of a small country village become victims of bizarre phenomena. Children with white hair and telepathic powers decide to take the reins in this perennial horror classic.
Why Don't You Play in Hell?
The Fuck Bombers, a guerilla film-crew, manage to film the bloody clashes between two yakuza gangs. Sion Sono, the enfant terrible of Japanese cinema, offers an energetic, off-the-chain and ultra violent ode to the genre film.
Women in Love
Glenda Jackson garnered an Oscar for her role in this adaptation of D.H. Lawrence’s classic novel. Russell captures the author's radical and uncouth thoughts about love and marriage in 1920s England and shocks 1970s England with a nude wrestling scene between manly men Alan Bates and Oliver Reed.
Offscreen photostream
