Lost Reels All Day Film Event: Women on the Edge, Cinema Museum, 12.30pm-10.30pm
12:30pm: Butterfly Kiss (1995) dir. Michael Winterbottom + Q&A with producer Julie Baines
A one-of-a-kind serial killer lesbian love story set in the anonymous
motorways and service stations cafés of Northern England. A heady
cocktail of road movie, psychodrama, black comedy, and religious
allegory as we follow unpredictable schizophrenic Eunice (Amanda
Plummer) wandering through petrol stations in search of a mysterious
woman named Judith. Miriam (Saskia Reeves), her hard of hearing and
hopelessly in love companion, joins her on the road, becoming her lover,
caretaker, and murderous assistant. Compared to Thelma and Louise and Natural Born Killers,
Michael Winterbottom’s debut feature is a dreamlike, downbeat British
film – a jarringly uncomfortable ride through a British landscape rarely
travelled.
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2.50pm: Safe (1995) 35mm dir. Todd Haynes
A Todd Haynes masterpiece about middle-class suburban housewife Carol
(Julianne Moore), who contracts a mystery illness and gradually
descends into sickness and possibly madness. Described by Haynes as a “horror movie of the soul,” Carol’s
unexciting passionless existence is disrupted when she becomes
increasingly afflicted by the sounds, odours, and chemical substances of
her contemporary Los Angeles life. Haynes tracks her degeneration in
calmly distanced, perfectly composed scenes, recalling the work of
Stanley Kubrick. In Safe, everything is open to interpretation.
The ambiguous nature of Carol’s affliction and lack of concrete
solutions slowly increase our uncertainty and horror.
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6pm: Girlfight (2000) 35mm dir. Karyn Kusama + online Q&A with Karyn Kusama
Karyn Kusama’s debut feature follows a rebellious Latina teenager (a
star-making turn for Michelle Rodriguez) who channels her aggression
into boxing. It successfully combines urban social drama, romance,
coming-of-age, and sports action to create a rewarding, uplifting, and
emotionally satisfying whole. Inner-city locations and boxing sequences are shot with gritty
authenticity, based on Kusama’s own experiences. The performances are
first rate, particularly Rodriguez (who at times resembles a young
Brando) and Jaime Tirelli as her trainer and surrogate father, Hector.
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8.30pm: Kissed (1996) 35mm dir. Lynne Stopkewich + Guest Introduction
A hauntingly beautiful and breathlessly romantic film about necrophilia is a tricky proposition, but that’s exactly what writer-director Lynne Stopkewich delivers. The film concerns a young woman, Sandra (Molly Parker) who is fascinated by death. As a child she dances around the bodies of dead animals and as an adult studies biology, taking a job at a funeral home to be near the recently deceased. She studies embalming, eventually consummating her forbidden passion. Sharing her secret with Matt (Peter Outerbridge), they embark on a doomed romance. Kissed is filled with jaw-dropping surprises among them a squirm-inducing embalming session with her creepy mortician boss.
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