In Michel Auder’s Cleopatra, Viva is the queen, shrieking with an authority different from the languorous speech patterns she had perfected in Warhol’s films. The (newly invented) snowmobile substitutes for horses; the industrial setting of a factory becomes a showplace of armaments, and the whole Egypt section takes place in upstate New York. The streets and parks of Rome, where Waldon lived at the time, are the staging ground for his role as Caesar.
rarefilmm | The Cave of Forgotten Films Posts
Listen, America! documents the personalities and texture of the 60’s from this unique perspective of foreknowledge. A tapestry of mass riots and individual confessions, naked body-painted orgies and militant Underground organizing makes Listen, America! a singular evocation of its time. Exuberant in the shadow of what is to come, the film shares a poignant complicity with its contemporary audience.
“Uncle” Moses is a wealthy garment store owner in the Lower East Side. He lords his wealth and its attendant power over the neighborhood, dispensing noblesse oblige and conducting casual affairs with numerous women. When he falls in love with the beautiful young daughter of one of his employees, he discovers what it is like to be beholden to another person.
Fake, follows three young men—Ber, Po, and Soong—roommates in Bangkok who are each at different stages of navigating love and relationships. Ber is consumed by the pain of a breakup, Po hides his vulnerability behind his womanizing ways, and Soong dreams of finding “the right one” without knowing what that really means. Their lives take an unexpected turn when all three become infatuated with the same woman, unaware of each other’s pursuit. As their stories overlap, the film paints a portrait of youthful longing, heartbreak, and the fragile line between friendship and rivalry.
A bored bisexual millionaire picks up a young destitute street artist and whisks her away to her villa in Saint Tropez. They meet a dashing local architect and both fall for him, setting in motion a ménage à trois of deception and betrayal.
Dario Argento meets the Marquis de Sade as sexploitation guru Norifumi Suzuki plunges us into a maelstrom of torture, secret masochistic desires and blasphemous rites. A young woman enters a convent to investigate the mysterious death of her mother. She soon discovers a smorgasbord of vice as she’s abused by lecherous archbishops, a lesbian mother superior and a line of fellow nuns ready to whip her (in the film’s most deliriously over-the-top scene) with rose-thorns.
When Elena Sandoval returns from Mexico to her family’s ranch in California, she hopes to bring new ideas to modernize their business. Her plans, however, spark conflict with relatives who cling to tradition. Romance, rivalry, and cultural clashes unfold, leading to a spirited mix of comedy, music, and misunderstandings before harmony is restored.
