Paul Bartel

Paul Bartel directed this film version of a performance art piece by O-Lan Jones, Andrea Stein, and Jim Turner, who play Tina, Pam, and Scotty — three grown-up kids who have spent the last thirty years sealed off in a backyard family bomb shelter. A prologue explains what happened: in 1963, when John Kennedy is assassinated, a typical middle-class family from Anaheim retreat to their backyard bomb shelter, afraid that the commies are coming. In 1993, they are still there — even Mom and Dad, who have since died, but the bones are laid out nicely on their bed. The brother and two sisters, in worn-out clothing, amuse themselves by playing silly little games (something called “Egyptian Fantasy” with Ken as the Pharaoh), engaging in absurd rounds of role playing (Tina as a high-school tease), and hurling senseless rebukes at one another (“I can’t hear you. I’ve got a set of encyclopedias up my butt” ).Read More »

Start with Psycho, then throw in some raunchy footage Hitchcock could have never gotten away with in 1960. Private Parts is an excellent black comedy/horror film by cult director Paul Bartel (The Naughty Nurse, Death Race 2000). The main actress is pretty cute… an added bonus (and she gets naked!).Read More »

Un Ange follows the encounter of a prostitute, Fae, and a world-famous athlete, Thierry.Read More »

Variety review :
“Is Gallic helmer Jean-Stephane Sauvaire hooked on violence? Almost everyone appearing in his documentary “Carlitos Medellin” was dead by the time it was edited, while his fictional “Johnny Mad Dog” headlined a murderous child soldier. Next to these earlier offerings, the violence in “Punk” seems relatively mild, though the rage and frustration fueling its teenage protagonist fairly explode off the screen. Released in France as a TV movie under another title, this vibrant evocation of the contemporary European punk scene impresses, but looks oddly, unavowedly time-warped, as if unfolding in punk’s ’70s/’80s heyday, considerably lessening distrib possibilities.Read More »