Capital Celluloid 2018 - Day 144: Sat Jun 2

Outrage (Lupino, 1950): BFI Southbank, NFT3, 8.40pm


This 35mm screening, which is part of the Ida Lupino season (full details here), is also being shown on Tuesday June 5th, when it will be accompanied by an introduction to the season by Geoff Andrew. You can find the details of that evening's presentation here.

New York Times review:
“Outrage,” a Hollywood movie from 1950, looks intimately, painfully, and analytically at what we now know to call rape culture. Lupino approaches the subject of rape with a wide view of the societal tributaries that it involves. She integrates an inward, deeply compassionate depiction of a woman who is the victim of rape with an incisive view of the many societal failures that contribute to the crime, including legal failure to face the prevalence of rape, and the over-all prudishness and sexual censoriousness that make the crime unspeakable in the literal sense and end up shaming the victim. Above all, she reveals a profound understanding of the widespread and unquestioned male aggression that women face in ordinary and ostensibly non-violent and consensual courtship. Her movie is about the experiences of one young woman and, yes, about the experience of all women. The emotional power and political vision of “Outrage” arise as much from Lupino’s inspired images as from the wise and insightful script and the delicately controlled yet freely expressive performances—not the work of great actors but of attentive and sensitive ones who have the benefit of Lupino’s discerning direction. It’s a haunting, infuriating movie—and it’s not available on DVD or, to the best of my knowledge, on streaming services. Lupino is among the greats, and her directorial career is sadly under the radar.
Richard Brody

You can read a fuller review of the film by Brody here and his video essay on the movie via the link here.

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