Please delete.
Please don’t delete.
I wanna know, too… anybody?
most of those titles aren’t pastiche or genre pieces but full fledged auteur-driven filmmaking IMO. I thought coming in this thread I would have to defend the merit of something universally discussed as “trash cinema” like Last House on the Left or I spit on your grave…I’m also from Canada(Toronto) and Showcase along with Late night CityTV blue movies(RIP!), TVO, and Bravo helped me gain appreciation for the surreal and bilwidering world of cinema and If I could speak French I would name a few French Canadian channels that frequently showcased hard to find gems!
BTW Water drops on Burning Rocks is a Fassbinder play. RECOGNIZE! :D
Are you interested in films that depict hardcore sexual acts, a la Shortbus? Or Cinemax After Dark equivalent Soft Core porn, which cobble together a lackluster story as a sleeve for the main thing they really want to show: the sex.
Were it the latter, there are plenty of films from Brown Bunny, Pola X, Salo, etc. Or you can delve into the beautiful 70s with films such as Deep Throat or Alice in Wonderland: An X-Rated Musical Fantasy or my personal favorite The Telephone Book (one of my favorite movies of all time).
I’d also recommend a fabulous book by Linda Williams, titled Screening Sex. A wonderful book, albeit a little low on recommendations. It’s what introduced me to the world of “trash cinema” as you call it, or as I call it the Underground X-Rated movement.
TRAAG-1, I certainly agree with you. Those films are indeed auteur-driven pieces and I myself would not claim them to be “trash.” I used the term lovingly, in a John Waters sort-of-way. :)
Water Drops on Burning Drops itself turned me on to Fassbinder when I found out the screenplay was based on one of his works, and it is through that film I discovered Querelle… which I know many dislike, but I personally find it to be one of his best.
Glad to hear someone else had the same introduction to surrealistic cinema.
Glemaud, that’s not exactly it. I would not really place Shortbus alongside those others, although I can see why you would think that. I find it rather hard to describe the certain feeling I’m looking for. TRAAG-1 hit the nail on the head, but I suppose that’s because he also had the pleasure of growing up with the same content available on the same channels.
Brown Bunny and Pola X are more like it. Salo lacks the free-flowing joy and camp that the others take ecstacy in. The playfulness.
Watch Satan’s Children (1975) and try to make sense of it. It’ll at least corrupt your sense of good taste.
boomstickplease
Sorry for the rather peculiar topic title, but I thought it would garner some attention (and hopefully the attention of those users knowledgeable or otherwise interested in the area of film about to mentioned.)
I have fond memories of growing up, as most of you likely do. I’ve heard Cinemax/“Skinamax” mentioned in a lot of cinephiles’ (or otherwise closet perverts’) nostalgic ramblings of their childhood. Staying awake past midnight, adults unaware, and viewing content otherwise unheard of. Often erotic in nature, but perhaps not only titillating due to the nudity but by their unabashed nature and otherworldly feels.
In my childhood, this channel was SHOWCASE, a Canadian cable channel who’s schedule on Friday and Saturday nights would act as a portal into another dimension of film. They would play the queerest of titles, often unheard of – at least to the average viewer. The works explored sexual tendencies explicit in nature, curiosities of the body, transmogrification of young adolescents, violence and carnage of the mind. Each felt akin to one another, as if picked for some psychosexualtrash filmfest.
The Fluffer, Fat Girl, Water Drops on Burning Rocks, Criminal Lovers, Freeway, Nico and Dani, A Summer Dress, Kids, Gummo, The Doom Generation, The Living End, Desperate Living, Beefcake…
Just some of the many titles that melded together to create this pastiche genre. I wouldn’t exactly know what to call such a genre, or even if there is any connection between those films – just a lingering feeling, bound by my own nostalgia. I need to feed this craving, this craving for my childhood once more.
I came across John Water’s Movies That Will Corrupt You and was reminded, that’s what first triggered this. But 13 films is simply not enough, and so I beg and plead and demand of you;
if you could continue this wondrous celebration of trash cinema, which film would be in episode 14, episode 15… even episode 16? Will I be able to satisfy my need for more cum-drenched, sweaty-bodied filth?
The prevalent theme in these films were intense sexuality cloaked in carnage or surrealism. Explorations of the male body and beauty of the human form.