Malevolent (2002) John Terlesky, Lou Diamond Phillips, Edoardo Ballerini, Kari Wuhrer, Crime, Drama, Thriller

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Detective Jack Lucas is racing to clear his name, when he’s framed for a series of murders. A maverick cop under routine investigation for a job-related shooting, Jack finds himself being set up as the prime suspect in an escalating killing spree. Sliding deeper into trouble and with few clues to go on, Jack desperately teams with exotic dancer Jessica, who may hold the key to the motive behind the mystery. With time running out, he must do whatever it takes to put all the pieces together and prove his innocence before the real killer pulls off the perfect crime.
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Radio Arrow (1998) Luciano Ligabue, Stefano Accorsi, Luciano Federico, Alessio Modica, Drama

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Popular Italian rock star Luciano Ligabue made his directorial debut with this Italian drama based on Fuori e dentro il borgo, his collection of autobiographical short stories about growing up in small-town Italy of the ’70s. DJ Bruno reflects on the past, a small circle of friends, and the hopes of their generation. At the group’s core is Freccia, a heroin user until Marzia steps in to help him kick the habit. As expected, Iena marries and settles down, while unhappy Boris is a victim of his own cynicism, and Tito is driven to violence by his dysfunctional family. An older bartender listens to the group’s woes and dreams. Along with a guitar score and a closing-credits song by Ligabue, tunes of the time include ones by Iggy Pop, Roxy Music, and David Bowie. Shown at the 1998 Venice Film Festival.
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The Pleasure / Il piacere (1985) Joe D’Amato, Andrea Guzon, Gabriele Tinti, Marco Mattioli, Drama, Erotic

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Italy in the early 1930s. To the elderly aristocrat Gerard Villeneuve, all that is left of Leonora, the love of his life, are a number of erotic tape recordings. Leonora led a double life as respectable wife and mother of two, and as a whore at the local brothel. Now, after her death, her children Ursula and Edmund pass under the tutelage of Gerard. Having not seen them for many years, he is utterly bewildered by Ursula’s uncanny likeness to her mother. While Gerard’s mistress Fiorella takes care of the sexual needs of Edmund, Ursula follows the last instructions of her mother. In the process, she uses the legacy of her mother’s recordings to get into the mindset of her relationship with Gerard. Is Gerard ready to find his lost love Leonora again…in the likeness of her very daughter?
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Il solco di pesca (1975) Maurizio Liverani, Martine Brochard, Gloria Guida, Alberto Terracina, Comedy, Drama, Erotic

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This movie centers around a group of people that are both very Italian-Catholic and the same time oversexed and jaded European bourgeosis from the late “dolce vita” era. The main protagonist is a former priest who has become bored to the point of impotence by the easy availability of beautiful women. He misses the shame of the priesthood which made sex somehow more enjoyable, and this somehow leads to his strange fascination with photographing asses . He gets involved with a sexy married woman (Martine Brochard), but he is more interested in her virginal maid (Gloria Guida)–or, to be more specific, in the maid’s ass. The woman’s husband meanwhile, a hilariously pretentious actor, discovers the affair. Strangely, he is not angry at his wife’s infidelity but depressed that she was so indiscreet, and he too takes solace in his maid’s ass.
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The Devil-Doll (1936) Tod Browning, Lionel Barrymore, Maureen O’Sullivan, Frank Lawton, Sci-Fi, Horror

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Paul Lavond was a respected banker in Paris when he was framed for robbery and murder by crooked associates and sent to Devil’s Island. Years later, he escapes with a friend, a scientist who was working on a method to reduce humans to a height of mere inches (all for the good of humanity, of course). Lavond however is consumed with hatred for the men who betrayed him, and takes the scientist’s methods back to Paris to exact painful revenge.
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Night of 1,000 Sexes / Mil sexos tiene la noche (1984) Jesus Franco, Lina Romay, Daniel Katz, Carmen Carrión, Horror, Thriller, Erotic

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Franco at his finest – somebody get this film on DVD now! This obscure Golden Films production got to pop the Franco-cherry on my new movie projector. It was just the right choice! Lina Romay, chubby like she just walked out of an Anders Zorn-painting, plays Irena (Female Vampire flashbacks, anybody?) who’s part of a kind of hypnosis nightclub act with the magician Fábian. He’s not a very nice guy and uses his hypnotic powers to use poor Irena as an instrument of vengeance, sleeping with and killing off his enemies. Or is the whole set up just part of her nightmares? An unusually good, hypnotic (in both meanings of the word) sleaze flick that really shows what Franco can achieve with extremely limited resources – some hotel rooms, a handful of actors (the same old faces that’s in all films from this period), a film camera and some re-used Daniel White music. Man, I really love this stripped down Golden Films stuff when it’s done right and this films is much closer in spirit to, say, Macumba Sexual than Mansion of the Living Dead. Parts of the film are almost delirious. There’s a thick, intimate atmosphere and interesting experimental photography. Some scenes are almost bordering on the poetic, for example we have a beautifully shot long kiss filmed through a glass door, bathing in sunlight. Say what you want about Lina’s acting capacity but here she gives all she’s got, somewhat reprising her roles in Female Vampire and Doriana Gray. Even though the story itself is more similar to Nightmares Come at Night. Highly recommended!
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11 Days, 11 Nights (1987) Joe D’Amato, Jessica Moore, Joshua McDonald, Mary Sellers, Drama, Romance, Erotic

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Female writer who as part of a book project has slept with 99 men . Her 100th unsuspecting “victim” is an American architect who she first seduces on a New York ferry and then begins a very hot and semi-kinky affair with despite the fact he’s due to be married in 11 days (and 11 nights). A love lust triangle soon develops between the writer, the architect, and the latter’s bride-to be
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