Erotic Thrillers: Part 1 – The Dawn of the Eighties

by Cláudio Alves

Mainstream cinema feels more sexless than ever. Even at the height of the Hays Code's second coming, sex had a place of pride in Hollywood, often sublimated into insinuation to avoid censorship. There's art to horniness, to making the camera a conduit of erotic reverie or a purveyor of desire, want itself synthesized as form. Sexual films can also be rich texts, telling us much about the times when they were made, the culture that created them, and the audiences that either embraced or repudiated the movie. Whether prurient or intellectual, there are many ways to engage with erotic cinema, especially when carnal craving collides with violence, and annihilation that goes beyond the ecstasy of an orgasm.

Erotic Thrillers is the theme of one of the Criterion Channel's latest collections, released right in time for the You Must Remember This podcast's new season - "Erotic 90s". After tackling the 80s last year, Karina Longworth is heading into a new decade, and we're going along for the ride. For the next few weeks, we'll explore all films in the Criterion program, taking a journey from 1980 to 1996. Let's begin the adventure with a Hitchcockian riff full of fucked-up notions of gender, a postmodern neo-noir, and an unlikely message picture… 

Click to read more ...

Introducing... Matty Walker / Kathleen Turner

by Nathaniel R

We thought that a nice subversive way to end our 1981 retrospective party would be to focus on the year's most memorable beginning.

A lot of very famous actors began their big screen careers in 1981 including (but not limited to) Ben Affleck, Kim Basinger, Kevin Costner, Tom Cruise, Jeff Daniels, Holly Hunter, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Bill Nighy, Alfred Molina, Kenneth Branagh, Demi Moore, Sean Penn, and Meg Ryan. Some of those debuts were quite promising. Others gave no clear sign of a superstar to come, just the site of an unknown actor with the ink not yet dry on their SAG card.  But the year's most exciting debut, hands down, belonged to Kathleen Turner. She was the only one of them to emerge fully formed right out of the gate; a movie star merely waiting at the bar for her filmography to arrive.  Risking the ghosts of both Lana Turner (figuratively) and Barbara Stanwyck (literally) for your debut and coming out the other side without remotely suffering from the comparisons is an all time flex...

Click to read more ...

Vintage '81

We're having a little 1981 party for the first week of May so let's give the year some overall context before the Supporting Actress Smackdown hits on the weekend of May 8th. 

The year's two biggest blockbusters competed for Best Picture

Great Big Box Office Hits:
Raiders of the Lost Ark was the year's true behemoth, grossing twice as much as its nearest rival On Golden Pond. The Best Picture winner Chariots of Fire was a sleeper hit and that year's James Bond picture  For Your Eyes Only was also hugely popular (though that's no surprise with 007). But otherwise audiences were mostly drawn to comedies in 1981: Arthur (with Dudley Moore), Stripes (with Bill Murray) The Four Seasons (with Carol Burnett) and Cannonball Run (with Burt Reynolds) were all the rage.

Oscar favourites / theories and other cultural touchstones of 1981 after the jump...

Click to read more ...

Streaming Roulette, August: Serenity, Red Sea Diving Resort, and two major 1981 classics

As is our practice we've selected a handful of titles and frozen the films at utterly random moments without cheating (whatever comes up comes up!). It's our way of previewing new titles streaming each month. So what should you queue up for AUGUST 2019 ?(★ means we recommend catching them.) Please do let us know if you're dying to discuss any of the films and maybe we'll write about one or two of 'em  You rarely tell us but we'll try if you do.

[COUGHING]

Jackie Brown (1997) ★  on Netflix
Is De Niro coughing to distract you from Once Upon a Time ...  in Hollywood for a minute? He's got a new trailer out and that would like a little attention, too. On the couch is Bridget Fonda giving what is easily one of her top two performances (the other one is in a little seen 80s movie called Scandal). We should probably see this particular Quentin Tarantino flick again. Beyond Fonda's perpetually baked surfer girl I don't personally remember much about it except for that  Rashomon inspired scene in the mall, and Pam Grier and Robert Forster being a fine match in the two central roles.

[HEAVY BREATHING]

Body Heat (1981) ★  on HBO
Nice wedding ring shot. That ain't her husband...

Click to read more ...

Movies to Make You Hot (& Sweaty)

by Seán McGovern

If summer is making you all hot and bothered (and sticky and sweaty), you should crank your movie watching up to your body heat. What are your favourite films set in the long, hot summer? My suggestions after the jump, cool off in the comments...

Click to read more ...