A documentary about the first century of pornographic cinema, including extracts from pornograhic films and animated movies. In order to show the evolution of this genre, the film is divided in several parts: "Une préhistoire clandestine" ('a clandestine prehistory'), "Le temps de la libération" ('freedom time'), "L'age d'or du X" ('heyday of porno'), "L'explosion de la vidéo" ('the multiplication of videos') and "Les nouvelles tendances" ('the new tendancies').
Director Mohsen Makhmalbaf claims to have never seen a movie before making his first film. Doubtful as it sounds, this boast matches perfectly with the controversial artist's personae.
BEAUTIFUL FUNERALS is a hand-painted double-step-printed film composed of 1) dense blackness variously punctuated by brilliantly colored jewel/flower-like shapes AND 2) interruptive white sections which are fuzzily dotted with blurred whites and criss-crossed by black "brushstrokes" and hard-edge straight black and white lines.
Isolated in the bell tower of Notre Dame, Quasimodo longs to experience the world beyond the cathedral walls, despite the wishes of his stern guardian, the Judge of Paris Claude Frollo.
Jerry, a small-town Minnesota car salesman is bursting at the seams with debt... but he's got a plan. He's going to hire two thugs to kidnap his wife in a scheme to collect a hefty ransom from his wealthy father-in-law. It's going to be a snap and nobody's going to get hurt... until people start dying. Enter Police Chief Marge, a coffee-drinking, parka-wearing - and extremely pregnant - investigator who'll stop at nothing to get her man. And if you think her small-time investigative skills will give the crooks a run for their ransom... you betcha!
Filmmaker Ernesto Rimoch looks at the potent combination of love and ambition in this film about a couple who's so happy their daughter is marrying into a rich clan that they throw the best wedding ever, even if they can't afford it.
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Have you watched A Century of Pleasure: History of Hardcore Cinema yet? What did you think about it?
