Lust & Intrigue: Erotic Thrillers
Programmed by: Brian McKendry and Olivia Wilke
At a time when media is becoming increasingly sanitized and asexual, it does the mind and body good to look back on an era of cinema gripped by ravenous lust and deep intrigue. This series encompasses a collection of varying degrees of sensual, refined, and tawdry erotic thrillers from the height of their popularity. With a focus on arthouse, some studio, and international output, this selection of films aim to reconfigure what defines an “erotic thriller” by offering a comprehensive view of the genre's interpretations. Few have captured the complex intricacies of overwhelming want, as well as the turmoil that slithers its way into the lives of those who lust, than the auteurs whose work is presented here.
Crash (1996)
David Cronenberg · 100m · 35mm
After suffering a life-altering car crash, a commercial producer (James Spader) becomes entangled in a subculture of individuals sexually aroused by motor collisions. Explosively controversial at the time of release, David Cronenberg’s Crash has since found its audience. A prescient depiction of the entanglement of human body and modern machine, there has yet to be another film so redeemed by the turn of the century.
Thursday, January 16th 9:45 PM · Saturday, January 18th 8:00 PM
In The Cut (2003)
Jane Campion · 119m · 35mm
Frannie (Meg Ryan), an NYC writing professor, begins an affair with Detective Malloy (Mark Ruffalo) when a young woman turns up dead in her garden. Tensions rise as the motives of the men around her, as well as her own, become muddled. At the time of release, Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post aptly referred to In The Cut as “a Looking for Mr. Goodbar for the post-9/11 age.”
Thursday, January 23rd 9:30 PM · Saturday, January 25th 4:00 PM
Boarding Gate (2007)
Olivier Assayas · 106m · 35mm
Sandra (Asia Argento) is a former sex worker now working for an import-export company. She becomes entangled in oscillating power plays between a former client (Michael Madsen) and the couple who now employs her (Carl Ng and Kelly Lin). With a fierce, grounding performance at the center, Olivier Assayas’s Boarding Gate is a thriller dressed in muted sleaze and neo-noir tendencies.
35mm print from the Chicago Film Society collection at the University of Chicago Film Studies Center.
Thursday, January 30th 9:30 PM · Friday, January 31st 9:30 PM
Fear (1996)
James Foley · 97m · DCP
16-year-old Nicole (Reese Witherspoon) falls for 23-year-old David (Mark Wahlberg) in a club. Despite the age gap, his charm wins over her family — except her father Steven (William Petersen), who suspects David might not be as charming as he seems ... Sleazy and brutal, Fear is a vulgar depiction of romantic possession and psychotic masculine fixation.
Thursday, February 6th 9:30 PM
The Adjuster (1991)
Atom Egoyan · 102m · 35mm
An insurance man (Elias Koteas) and his film-censor wife (Arsinée Khanjian) live in an unfinished suburban development. He sleeps with his clients, she watches porn for both pleasure and business. One day they meet Bubba, who wants to make a movie in their home. Quietly discomforting, The Adjuster slowly reveals itself to be a voyeuristic thorn stuck in your side.
Print courtesy of the Academy Film Archive.
Thursday, February 13th 9:30 PM
Exotica (1994)
Atom Egoyan · 104m · 35mm
In this groundbreaking melange of memory, lust, and loss, a cast of characters drift through a Canadian strip club called Exotica. Francis (Bruce Greenwood) is plagued by his past and has a strange, obsessive connection to Christina (Mia Kirshner), a dancer. Her jealous lover, the club’s MC Eric (Elias Koteas), is suspicious of Francis’s intentions and plans intervention. Atom Egoyan’s Exotica is an elliptical, soulful narrative labyrinth.
Print courtesy of the Academy Film Archive.
Thursday, February 20th 9:30 PM
After Dark, My Sweet (1990)
James Foley · 114m · 35mm
After he escapes from a mental hospital, a former boxer finds himself workings for a widow, fixing up the neglected estate of her deceased husband. When she convinces him to become involved in a kidnapping, he hasbegins to have second thoughts. According to Roger Ebert, After Dark, My Sweet “...remains one of the purest and most uncompromising of modern films noir. It captures above all the lonely, exhausted lives of its characters.”
Thursday, February 27th 9:30 PM
American Gigolo (1980)
Paul Schrader · 117m · DCP
Julian (Richard Gere) is a gigolo. His services come with a high price tag and he lives a life of luxury in L.A. Julian takes pleasure in his work. After a chance meeting, he quickly becomes involved with a politician’s wife, Michelle (Lauren Hutton). When a client turns up dead, Julian suspects he is being framed. An anti-Pretty Woman, American Gigolo is a study of the intersections of loneliness, materialism, and love.
