Capital Celluloid 2018 - Day 290: Fri Oct 26

Malpertius (Kumel, 1971): BFI Southbank, NFT2, 6.05pm


This 35mm screening is part of the Fantastique: The Dream Worlds of French Cinema season at BFI Southbank. Full details here. The film is also being shown on November 21st. Details here.

Time Out review:
A fresh-faced blond sailor (Mathieu Carrière) is shanghaied from a '20s port full of sleazy bars and art-nouveau mansions, and held captive in the endless corridors of a crumbling Gothic pile called Malpertuis: we don't discover why until the end, in a denouement as outrageous and devastating as any ever filmed. Harry Kümel elaborates the mystery like a master, drawing much of his design and composition from Surrealist painting (Magritte, de Chirico), and weaving serpentine patterns from the intrigues between the many characters. Welles is at his most mountainous as the house's patriarch; Hampshire is a revelation, playing three contrasted women.

Tony Rayns

Here (and above) is the trailer.

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