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John and Laura Baxter are living in Venice when they meet a pair of elderly sisters, one of whom claims to be psychic. She insists that she sees the spirit of the Baxters' daughter, who recently drowned. Laura is intrigued, but John resists the idea. He, however, seems to have his own psychic flashes, seeing their daughter walk the streets in her red cloak, as well as Laura and the sisters on a funeral gondola. Nicolas Roeg’s thriller, evoking an aura of menace throughout, has a sexual honesty that is startling even today.
Tarantino’s assured debut is visceral and funny, evoking Stanley Kubrick's THE KILLING with a fractured, time-jumping narrative about robbery and betrayal among thieves. Six men, all professional criminals, are brought together by a shadowy mastermind to carry out a jewellery heist. None of them know each other. Each is given a code name, so that if one is caught he cannot divulge the identities of the others or the man who hired them. The heist goes ahead smoothly, but on the way out the police ambush them. The surviving members of the team meet up at the designated rendezvous – a disused warehouse – and this is where the drama really begins. In an atmosphere of mutual distrust, each one tries to analyse what happened. One of them is a traitor, but who is it?
21.50Culture Shock: Dedicated to bringing you the best in cult and genre films.
Quentin Tarantino Season: In the lead up to Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, released Wed 14th Aug, we look back at some of Quentin's best films.
When James Fox's gangster on the run hides out from ex-colleagues in a Notting Hill basement he intrudes upon a reclusive pop star (Mick Jagger) brooding in drug-bolstered exile with his sexual camp followers (Anita Pallenberg, Michelle Breton). In the initial confrontation each recognises something of himself in the other and with Fox waiting vainly for his chance of escape as retribution closes in, all borders between reality and fantasy – and sexual and psychic barriers – break down. Unique, psychedelic and kaleidoscopic, establishing Roeg at a stroke as a major and inimitable talent in British cinema in the 70s.
To some it’s a flashy, gratuitously violent triumph of style over content; to others it’s the film that confirmed Tarantino as one of the most distinguished and talented contemporary American directors. Unquestionably it’s one of the most influential films of its time. PULP FICTION is a superbly written, complex, ultra-violent, almost unbearably tense and often hilarious thriller with an outstanding cast and some surprising performances, most notably from John Travolta. Drawing his inspiration from the lurid low-life characters found in the cheap yellow-paged crime novels of the 1930s and ’40s, Tarantino weaves together three tales of small-time criminal life in Los Angeles.
20.00Culture Shock: Dedicated to bringing you the best in cult and genre films.
Quentin Tarantino Season: In the lead up to Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, released Wed 14th Aug, we look back at some of Quentin's best films.
One of Nicolas Roeg’s most elliptical, not to say intractable, films, in which he takes his cross-cutting, kaleidoscopic style to its furthest limits. A simple story by Walter Tevis, about a disorientated alien visitor (Bowie) trying to get back to his own planet, is transformed into a dense extravaganza - part road movie, part corporate thriller, part sci-fi fantasy.
Firmly stamped with Tarantino's trademark visual flair, hip dialogue, supreme soundtrack and cool stars, JACKIE BROWN is also his most mature and emotionally satisfying work. Brilliantly adapted from Elmore Leonard's novel RUM PUNCH, the film stars ’70s icon Pam Grier as an airline stewardess who, caught smuggling cash by the Feds, is offered the chance to save herself by leading them to Ordell Robbie (Samuel L. Jackson), the arms dealer she works for. With the help of a sympathetic bail bondsman (an Oscar-nominated Robert Forster), she comes up with a bold, almost foolhardy plan to play the violent Ordell off against the determined cops and walk away with a fortune.
Brilliantly adapted from Elmore Leonard's novel Rum Punch, the film stars '70s icon Pam Grier as an airline stewardess who, caught smuggling cash by the Feds, is offered the chance to save herself by leading them to Ordell Robbie (Samuel L. Jackson), the arms dealer she works for.
With the help of a sympathetic bail bondsman (an Oscar-nominated Robert Forster), she comes up with a bold, almost foolhardy plan to play the violent Ordell off against the determined cops and in doing so walk away with a fortune.
Influenced by the '70s chic, colourful characters, pumped-up music and non-stop action that were hallmarks of classic Blaxploitation films, Tarantino has imbued JACKIE BROWN with his distinctive touch.
But the real success of the film lies in the masterful performance of Pam Grier as a strong woman with the ability to take retribution on the men who challenge her.
20.00Culture Shock: Dedicated to bringing you the best in cult and genre films.
Quentin Tarantino Season: In the lead up to Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, released Wed 14th Aug, we look back at some of Quentin's best films.
After surviving a bullet in the head on her wedding day, The Bride, aka Black Mamba (Uma Thurman), a former assassin, emerges from a coma and swears revenge on her old boss and his deadly squad of trained killers (played by Lucy Liu, Daryl Hannah, Vivica A Fox and Tarantino regular Michael Madsen).
Tarantino’s first feature for six years after JACKIE BROWN, KILL BILL marked a welcome return from one of American cinema’s most visually inventive and zeitgeist-attuned filmmakers. Married to the director’s love of the minutiae of popular culture (there are a number of neat gags revolving around Charlie Brown, cereal and the hippest brands of trainers) is an indulgence of his love of the samurai genre, incorporating some stunning martial arts set pieces featuring choreography courtesy of the CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON team. In her Bruce Lee tracksuit, Thurman (for whom Tarantino wrote the part) makes a feisty heroine with Liu perhaps her most notable foil.
In KILL BILL: VOL. 2, as The Bride continues her vengeful assault on the four assassins who left her for dead, she inches ever closer to her ultimate goal of laying waste to her former employer – and the man who ordered the hit on her – Bill (David Carradine). Bringing some of the peripheral characters from the first instalment to the fore, KILL BILL: VOL. 2 is another bravura, adrenalin-inducing exercise in genre filmmaking.
18.15Culture Shock: Dedicated to bringing you the best in cult and genre films.
Quentin Tarantino Season: In the lead up to Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, released Wed 14th Aug, we look back at some of Quentin's best films.
After the screening, there will be a recorded Q&A with director Nick Broomfield hosted by Jools Holland.
Marianne & Leonard - Words of Love is a beautiful yet tragic love story between Leonard Cohen and his Norwegian muse Marianne Ihlen. Their love began on the idyllic Greek island of Hydra in 1960 as part of a bohemian community of foreign artists, writers and musicians. The film follows their relationship from the early days on Hydra, a humble time of ‘free love’ and open marriage, to how their love evolved when Leonard became a successful musician. It was on Hydra in 1968 that director Nick Broomfield, then aged 20, first met Marianne Ihlen. Marianne introduced him to Leonard Cohen’s music and also encouraged Nick to make his first film and was an enormous influence on him. Marianne and Leonard's was a love story that would continue for the rest of their lives. Along the way we learn of the tragedy that befell those that could not survive the beauty of Hydra, the highs and lows of Leonard’s career, and the inspirational power that Marianne possessed. Marianne and Leonard died three months apart.
Featuring one of the most gripping opening scenes in recent memory and a breakout performance from Christoph Waltz as SS Colonel Hans ‘Jew Hunter’ Landa, Tarantino’s epic alternative history of the Second World War is bold, bloody and wildly entertaining. Set in Nazi-occupied France, the film tracks the converging fates of a marauding gang of American soldiers led by Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt), and Shosanna (Melanie Durant), a vengeful Jewish orphan living under an alias in Paris.
“Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds is a big, bold, audacious war movie that will annoy some, startle others and demonstrate once again that he’s the real thing, a director of quixotic delights.” – Roger Ebert
20.00Culture Shock: Dedicated to bringing you the best in cult and genre films.
Quentin Tarantino Season: In the lead up to Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, released Wed 14th Aug, we look back at some of Quentin's best films.
Tarantino’s first period western stars Jamie Foxx as freed slave turned bounty hunter Django. Aided by German gunslinger Dr King Schultz (Christoph Waltz), Django sets out to rescue his wife from brutal Mississippi plantation boss Calvin Candle (Leonardo DiCaprio). Django’s campaign of cold-blooded revenge is shot through with the director’s trademark black humour, sparky dialogue and visual flair, and features a star-studded cast at the top of their game. A cinematic treat from breathless start to brutal finish.
20.00Culture Shock: Dedicated to bringing you the best in cult and genre films.
Quentin Tarantino Season: In the lead up to Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, released Wed 14th Aug, we look back at some of Quentin's best films.
Based on Nicholas Pileggi’s book Wiseguy, Martin Scorsese’s mob-movie masterpiece marked a revival of Hollywood interest in gangsters and gangsterdom. It chronicles three decades of a life in crime, following Brooklyn youngster Henry Hill’s graduation from petty criminal to big-time thief. Widely regarded as one of the greatest films in the crime genre, this is essential viewing for any movie fan.
A legendary warrior's stolen magic sword becomes the centerpiece of epic, intertwining love stories, set against the breathtaking landscapes of ancient China.
Inspired by the serialised matinee action films Steven Spielberg loved as a child, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK became one of the defining action/adventure films of its day and remains a hugely enjoyable movie experience.
Harrison Ford, fresh from his propulsion to super-stardom through the STAR WARS series, embodied the reluctant yet capable adventurer Indiana Jones, a serious and scholarly archaeology professor who is hired by the US government to track down the Ark of the Covenant ahead of their Nazi rivals.
The action set-pieces, tongue-in-cheek humour, impressive production values and a sheer love of cinema make RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK an irresistibly enjoyable big-screen treat.
Paul thomas Anderson reunites with several of his Boogie Nights stars in this ensemble drama comprised of six interwoven stories dealing with parents, children, love and lonliness. An epic mosaic of several interrelated characters in search of happiness, forgiveness, and meaning in the San Fernando Valley.
