Episode Collection: Exploitation + New French Extreme

Mondo Cane + Twentynine Palms

Mondo Cane + Twentynine Palms

A tour through exploitation and the new french extremity lands on a definitive world episode. Mondo Cane turns out to be more of the exploitation landscape than many realize. Twentynine Palms is THE film to coin the term New French Extremity – or the movie being talked about, anyways. First up – all around the world, there’s free footage! Take a gander and royalty free documentary clips unlikely to be seen anywhere else! Cutting room floor material too hot for no one! Twentynine Palms brings the new french extremity to America. Everyone talks about the ending of Twentynine Palms, but what actually happens in the runtime of this film? Michael presents his most dubious theory of man. How Twentynine Palms earned the name New French Extremity. Where does the new french extreme go from here? Continue reading

Man From Deep River + In My Skin

Man From Deep River + In My Skin

Exploitation meets the New French Extremity. Surprisingly little skin will be eaten in this not-exactly-cannible double feature. Is it Man from Deep River, The Man from Deep River, Sacrifice!, Il paese del sesso selvaggio, or The Land of Wild Sex? Why not all? In My Skin, a beautiful and weird film by writer / director / actress Marina de Van. See the Sea gets another namecheck, people really need to find See the Sea. For fans of Lucky Mckee’s May, In My Skin (or Dans Ma Peau in French) talks about some weird stuff. Continue reading

Blacula + Pola X

Blacula + Pola X

Wrestling with the history of exploitation film. Film is wonderful worker exploitation is bad, and adding race makes everything more complicated. Can we still celebrate the art of those who were exploited? Film as historical documents. The additional context provided by Horror Noir. French Extreme was not a planned movement! How the New French Extremity came to be by accident. French extreme films still call for directors to make work that is very much their own. New French Extremity became horror because horror directors starting making New French Extremity. Cinéma du look and what France considers an “over-stylized film.” Leos Carax is Mr. X. Introducing real sex: unstimulated sex in French brings on a wave of actual sex acts captured between actors on film. Finally, the bleak truth of human existence is confronted in one of Alice’s favorite all-time scenes. Continue reading

The Wild Angels + Baise-moi

The Wild Angels + Baise-moi

The second chapter of the Exploitation + New French Extremity journey. This times, files that can be viewed around the world! Fortune smiles upon Double Feature as a theme of freedom and rebellion ties the parallel film movements together. The Wild Angels as a biker exploitation arthouse film. Roger Corman was a filmmaker’s producer…kind of! The many notable directors and writers that came from the Corman camp. Baise-moi as a misunderstood entry in what would later become known as The New French Extreme. The developing trend in French extremity toward unstimulated sex. What is Baise-moi actually about? Continue reading

Marihuana + Criminal Lovers

Marihuana + Criminal Lovers

American Exploitation and The New French Extremity. Want a better understanding of these movements? Start here! Take a deep dive on the entirety of two misunderstood subgeners in this multi-part series, beginning now with Marihuana and Criminal Lovers. The complete who, what, where, when, why of exploitation. Feigned outrage as a cover to enjoy smut. Exploitation films seek to ride a wavelength of some conversation already in the public. They’re looking to hitch themselves to the zeitgeist. Whether they deliver or not, they will become a mile marker on the evolutionary path of various tropes and stories. Future writers will see them in their younger influential years or even just walk by the posters and they’ll become part of the mixture that makes up mainstream tellings of similar stories. Also by being an early form of independent cinema Continue reading