to Crinkle their Wrist, Perfumed Splendour

Nov 26, 2023

0h 5m

★ 0.0

A Ballad of Darkness

Overview

An omnium-gatherum of film, poem, and song excerpts contextually juxtaposed in an attempt to explore masculinity, alienation, and identity in a post-industrial society.

Genres

Drama

Documentary

Production Companies

An Open Heartbeat

to Crinkle their Wrist, Perfumed Splendour Trailers

Cast

Young Brian (archive footage)

George Webster

Cosmo Vitelli (archive footage)

Ben Gazzara

Commander Bruno Forestier (archive footage)

Michel Subor

Philip Winter (archive footage)

Rüdiger Vogler

Charles (archive footage)

Antoine Monnier

Frank Booth (archive footage)

Dennis Hopper

Georges Laurent (archive footage)

Daniel Auteuil

Witek Długosz (archive footage)

Bogusław Linda

Ghost Dog (archive footage)

Forest Whitaker

Caravaggio (archive footage)

Nigel Terry

Giovanni currently lives a dreary life of near non-stop work. At school, his peers ridicule him incessantly, and his employer at work is distant and cold. As his isolation from society becomes unbearable, he suddenly finds himself on a train heading far away from his miserable home. Accompanied by Campanella, an acquaintance from school, Giovanni embarks on a journey that will define the rest of his life.

3.5

The Wild and the Naked

Nov 21, 1962

Paulette, a nude model from France, has recently settled in the United States with her husband, a photographer. After dropping her husband off at his studio, she goes to work posing for a nudie photographer. During a break from the photo session she falls asleep and dreams that she visits a night club, goes hitch-hiking, and is chased through the woods and along a riverbank by a crazed would-be rapist who ties her up. She is rescued by a handsome man and is later chased by an ape. The handsome man is temporarily abducted by four naked native women who drag him into the river and dance to rock 'n' roll music.

6.4

He Was a Quiet Man

Nov 23, 2007

An unhinged office worker who planned to go on a shooting spree at his workplace struggles with his newfound status as a hero after he ends up stopping a shooting spree instead.

7.5

After Hours

Sep 13, 1985

Desperate to escape his mind-numbing routine, uptown Manhattan office worker Paul Hackett ventures downtown for a hookup with a mystery woman.

9.0

Forests

May 14, 2022

In a dark, ambiguous environment, minuscule particles drift slowly before the lens. The image focuses to reveal spruce trees and tall pines, while Innu voices tell us the story of this territory, this flooded forest. Muffled percussive sounds gradually become louder, suggesting the presence of a hydroelectric dam. The submerged trees gradually transform into firebrands as whispers bring back the stories of this forest.

No Image Available

4.5

The Alchemistic Suitcase

Jan 1, 2009

A nervous and unsettling young boy takes a mysterious old suitcase across London... to a twisted and surreal conclusion.

9.0

Kejsaren

Feb 24, 1979

Before World War II, Swedish workers had to deal with low wages, scarce work, and the extensive importation of foreign labor, particularly for the purpose of breaking strikes. This did not make foreigners of any stripe very popular, and those from "guest worker" countries were particularly disliked. In this film, set in 1938, a half-Polish boy goes to Poland in search of his mother, runs into financial and psychological difficulties there, and is sent back to a Swedish mental hospital. In another story, an unfortunate woman suffers a miscarriage and ends up at the asylum where the Polish boy is being kept.

6.5

Big Bang Love, Juvenile A

Feb 11, 2006

An unknown future. A boy confesses to the murder of another in an all-boy juvenile detention facility. More an exercise in style than storytelling, the story follows two detectives trying to uncover the case. Homosexual tension and explosive violence drives the story which delivers some weird and fascinating visuals.

6.9

The Eve of Ivan Kupalo

Dec 25, 1968

Petro is a modest farmhand living in an impoverished village in some unspecified long-ago era. He wants to marry the lovely Pidorka, but her stern father won't hear of it. The mischievous demon Basavriuk, offers a deal, enticing Petro into crime for the sake of fortune. Based on Nikolai Gogol’s short story “The Eve of Ivan Kupala” (“St John’s Eve”) and Ukrainian folk tales.

6.5

The Doom Generation

Oct 20, 1995

Jordan White and Amy Blue, two troubled teens, pick up an adolescent drifter, Xavier Red. Together, the threesome embarks on a sex- and violence-filled journey through a United States of psychos and quickie marts.

6.2

Try Seventeen

Sep 10, 2002

Teenager Jones has opted not to go to college and is instead renting a room in a boarding house to work on his writing skills. Soon, Jones finds himself dividing his time between two women: a young actress named Lisa and a photographer named Jane. After Jane's ex-boyfriend arrives to help her recover from a car accident, Jones begins to understand just how much he cares for her.

8.3

Apocalypse Now

May 19, 1979

At the height of the Vietnam war, Captain Benjamin Willard is sent on a dangerous mission that, officially, "does not exist, nor will it ever exist." His goal is to locate - and eliminate - a mysterious Green Beret Colonel named Walter Kurtz, who has been leading his personal army on illegal guerrilla missions into enemy territory.

7.0

Land Without Bread

Dec 1, 1933

An exploration —manipulated and staged— of life in Las Hurdes, in the province of Cáceres, in Extremadura, Spain, as it was in 1932. Insalubrity, misery and lack of opportunities provoke the emigration of young people and the solitude of those who remain in the desolation of one of the poorest and least developed Spanish regions at that time. (Silent short, voiced in 1937 and 1996.)

8.1

Taxi Driver

Feb 9, 1976

A mentally unstable Vietnam War veteran works as a night-time taxi driver in New York City where the perceived decadence and sleaze feed his urge for violent action.

7.8

Donnie Darko

Jan 19, 2001

After narrowly escaping a bizarre accident, a troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a large bunny rabbit that manipulates him to commit a series of crimes.

0.0

Retrógrado

Jul 11, 2024

No overview available.

7.6

Blue Velvet

Sep 19, 1986

The discovery of a severed human ear found in a field leads a young man on an investigation related to a beautiful, mysterious nightclub singer and a group of psychopathic criminals who have kidnapped her child.

5.4

The Broken

Nov 15, 2008

The life of a successful radiologist spirals out of control when she sees the spitting image of herself driving down a London street. While attempting to uncover who the imposter could be, she stumbles into a terrifying mystery that her family and closest friends are somehow involved in, leaving her with no one to trust.

7.0

Inland Empire

Dec 6, 2006

As a Hollywood actress begins to adopt the persona of her character in a film, her world becomes nightmarish and surreal.