Paul Verhoeven

Higher Power: Paul Verhoeven’s Benedetta and the Legacy of Nunsploitation

The pear of anguish is a medieval torture instrument, whose spoon-like metal segments spread at the turn of a screw in its centre. Also known as the “choke pear” because it was often applied to the victim’s mouth, it could be inserted into any orifice.
Read More

Festivals | Rome, Around the World

By Celluloid Liberation Front Given the disastrous and shapeless state that has characterized the Rome Film Festival since its unfortunate inception, it was not hard for Marco Mueller and his team to come up this year with something less vapid than what preceded. At the same time it was unthinkable that the festival’s identity and…
Read More

The Decade in Review | Olivier Père

Russian Ark by Alexander Sokurov (2002) The last great master, in the Viscontian sense of European cinema. And one of the great digital artists, endowing digital with a Proustian impact. His films raise issues about preservation (of History, Art) and memory. I could equally well cite his magnificent film The Sun. Black Book by Paul…
Read More