Cult Classics
Ultimately a collection of the unclassifiable, these original and ground-breaking cult classics exude pure style however obscure, offbeat or controversial.
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The Tales of Hoffmann
Based on Jacques Offenbach's opera, The Tales of Hoffmann takes viewers through three fantastical stories, regaled to us by narrator E.T.A. Hoffman who revisits the tales of his three loves; Olympia, an animated doll, Giuletta the Venetian courtesan, and Antonia, a singer's daughter hidden away f...
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Friendship's Death
Friendship (Tilda Swinton) has been sent to Earth on a peace mission. Heading for MIT, she inadvertently lands in Amman, Jordan during the 1970 ‘Black September’ war and is ushered to safety by journalist Sullivan (Bill Paterson). Holed up in a hotel as the conflict rages outside, the pair enter ...
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Max mon amour
When British diplomat Peter Jones (Anthony Higgins) suspects his wife (Charlotte Rampling, playing it totally straight) of infidelity, he is stunned to discover that the ‘other man’ is a chimpanzee. On a whim, he invites his hairy rival to move into the luxurious family home – more out of curiosi...
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Dreams That Money Can Buy
Dadaist Hans Richter attempts to bring the European avant-garde to the masses, with this story about a man who discovers he has the power to create dreams, and sets up a business selling them to others.
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Orgies of Edo
Legendary Toei director Ishii’s politically incorrect moral lessons paint a trio of tales of tragic heroines caught up in violence, sadomasochism, incest and torture. Told in anthology style by an impassive physician (Teruo Yoshida), the first story follows Oito (Masumi Tachibana), an innocent yo...
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Perversion Story
George Dumurrier (Sorel), a doctor based in San Francisco, is accused of murdering his wife (Marisa Mell) to solve his extramarital and financial affairs. When he and his lover run into her doppelgänger Monica at a high-class strip club, he is both shocked and beguiled, but desperate to uncover t...
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Holy Motors
Traveling the Parisian streets by limousine, Monsieur Oscar (Denis Lavant) is kept to a strict schedule of appointments by his driver (Edith Scob). Altering his physical appearance and identity as easily as another man might change his socks, Oscar makes contact with strangers, family members, bu...
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The Appointment
Unable to attend his daughter’s violin recital, suburban father Ian (Edward Woodward, The Wicker Man) is haunted by a series of prophetic nightmares that seem to foresee a looming tragedy. Are dark forces gathering to be unleashed upon him?
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Delicatessen
Jeunet and Caro's endlessly inventive and wildly enjoyable post-apocalyptic black comedy, about a sinister butcher and the circus clown who becomes his nemesis.
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Entertaining Mr Sloane
Joe Orton’s delicious tale of suburban perversity, in which a lascivious landlady and her gay brother attempt to seduce the titular tenant, who happens to be a psychopath, was first staged in 1964 and adapted for the BBC in 1968. Two years later Douglas Hickox directed this feature film version, ...
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Blind Beast
Blind Beast is a grotesque portrait of the bizarre relationship between a blind sculptor and his captive muse, adapted from a short story from Japan's foremost master of the macabre, Edogawa Rampo (Horrors of Malformed Men). An artist's model, Aki (Mako Midori), is abducted by Michio (Eiji Funako...
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Irreversible
Irreversible is perhaps one of the cruelest films ever made. Marcus (Vincent Cassel) and Pierre (Albert Dupontel) set off on a blind rage of revenge after the former’s girlfriend Alex (Monica Bellucci) is raped. The twist is that their revenge spools out in reverse. Noé structured his notorious s...
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A Snake of June
Rinko (Asuka Kurosawa) and Shigehiko (Yuji Kotari) are a strange couple, whose physical mismatch (she a lithe beauty, he an overweight, balding, obsessive-compulsive neurotic) is reflected in the complete lack of intimacy between them. They connect as human beings, but they live more like friends...
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Sitcom
When the father of a stereotypical middle-class French family brings home a pet rat, he triggers a surge of orgies, incest and murder within his prim and polished suburban home. François Ozon (Swimming Pool) displays hints of Luis Buñuel and John Waters in his anarchic takedown of the middle-clas...
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Vampyres
Attempting to satisfy their insatiable lust for blood, two beautiful bisexual vampires roam the English countryside, luring motorists back to their stately pile, to enjoy fine wine, and engage in unspeakably bloody sex acts. Meanwhile, unwitting holidaymakers nearby twitch their caravan curtains....
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The Tenth Victim
Marcello Mastroianni is the victim and Ursula Andress the hunter in Elio Petri’s sexy ‘60s sci-fi, which predates The Hunger Games, Battle Royale, et al, with its depiction of a televised assassination spectacle, The Big Hunt.
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Dead Ringers
David Cronenberg's multi-award-winning psychological thriller exploring the bizarre lives of identical twins Elliot and Beverly, both played by Jeremy Irons. Both world-renowned gynaecologists, the twins share everything from their clinic to their women, until they meet Claire (Geneviève Bujold)....