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1922, 1979, and now 2024. The movie that was a legally distinct, non-copyright infringing version of Bram Stoker’s Dracula has had an impact for over 100 years now. The 1922 version is the one that most people think of not only when the name Nosferatu is said, but when people discuss silent horror films in general. At the other end of the spectrum, we have one of the year’s most hotly anticipated horror films with Robert Eggers releasing only his 4th film on Christmas day that will be his own very unique take on the property. Lost in that shuffle is the 1979 version from famed German director Werner Herzog with his best friend/muse/psychopath actor Klaus Kinski. It isn’t talked about nearly as much and is unique and different enough from the first film that it deserves its own revisit.

The whole reason that 1922’s Nosferatu is the way that it is,...

Vinegar Syndrome‘s October releases include The Tenant, Corpse Mania, and Shanks on 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray along with The Ghost Dance, Mind Benders, Dial D for Demons, and Forgotten Gialli: Volume 7 on Blu-ray.

Here’s everything you need to know…

From maverick director Roman Polanski comes one of the most unusual and unsettling studio thrillers of the 1970s: The Tenant. Adapted from Roland Topor’s cult novel, Polanski casts himself in the lead, offering a uniquely demented and outrageously funny performance, and is supported by Melvyn Douglas (The Changeling), Shelly Winters, and Isabelle Adjani (Possession).

Featuring cinematography by two-time Oscar winner Sven Nykvist (Cries and Whispers) along with an original score by acclaimed composer Philippe Sarde (La Grande Bouffe), Vinegar Syndrome presents the 4K Uhd debut of The Tenant, newly and exclusively restored in 4K from its original camera negative and featuring a wide array of new and archival...

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Apartment 7A is a psychological horror thriller film directed by Natalie Erika James who also co-wrote the film with Christian White and Skylar James. Based on the 1967 novel titled Rosemary’s Baby by author Ira Levin, the Paramount+ film serves as a prequel to the iconic 1968 film by Roman Polanski. Apartment 7A is set in 1965 in New York City and it follows the story of a young dancer who rents a room from an elderly couple after suffering from a serious injury that ends her career. Apartment 7A stars Julia Garner, Dianne West, Kevin McNally, Jim Sturgess, Marli Siu, Rosy McEwen, Amy Leeson, Scott Hume, and Andrew Buchan. So, if you loved the psychological horror, edge-of-the-seat thrills, and compelling characters in Apartment 7A here are some similar movies you should check out next.

Rosemary’s Baby Credit – Paramount Pictures

Rosemary’s Baby...

Fernando Arrabal’s Viva la Muerte is a mostly autobiographical account of the filmmaker’s youth during the Spanish Civil War that intermingles with disturbingly surreal dreams and fantasies. This alienation effect is rendered all the more unsettling since Arrabal opts to shoot the imaginal sequences on heavily color-filtered video, aligning them with Nam June Paik’s avant-garde video art. Another sort of alienation may stem from some unsimulated violence against animals, in particular a jaw-dropping scene in a slaughterhouse that combines the in-your-face verité of Georges Franju’s Blood of the Beasts with the dynamic writhing of Isadora Duncan.

Viva la Muerte opens at the end of the war, with a jeep full of fascist soldiers declaring the titular phrase and vowing to kill half of Spain’s population if that’s what it takes to cleanse the nation from the pernicious influence of atheism and communism. Young Fando (Mahdi Chaouch) looks on,...

From The Video Archives Podcast, writer/director Roger Avary and writer/producer Gala Avary discuss a few of their favorite movies with Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Taxi Driver (1976)

Star Wars (1977)

Matinee (1993)

Dune (1984)

Terror On A Train a.k.a. Time Bomb (1953)

Licorice Pizza (2021)

Batman (1989)

Yentl (1983)

Nuts (1987)

Spaceballs (1987)

Die Hard (1988)

Top Gun (1986)

Cocksucker Blues (1972)

Mijn nachten met Susan, Olga, Albert, Julie, Piet & Sandra (1975)

Straw Dogs (1971)

The Godfather (1972)

A History Of Violence (2005)

Day Of The Dolphin (1973)

Babylon (2022)

Puss In Boots: The Last Wish (2022)

Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (2022)

Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

Rock ‘n’ Roll High School (1979)

Carrie (1976)

Indictment: The McMartin Trial (1995)

Blow Out (1981)

The Matrix (1999)

Pulp Fiction (1994)

Killing Zoe (1993)

A Clockwork Orange (1971)

The Tenant (1976)

Dr. Strangelove (1964)

Bugsy Malone (1976)

Phantom Of The Paradise (1974)

The Muppet Movie (1979)

The Rules Of Attraction (2002)

The Sound Of Music (1965)

Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory (1971)

Giant (1956)

The Andromeda Strain (1971)

Babe (1995)

Time Bandits...

Nicolas Cage's casting as Dracula in the upcoming comedy horror film Renfield has excited many. But following the trailer's release, Nicholas Hoult's forthcoming performance in the titular role has stoked much excitement. In anticipation of Renfield's release, and after 100 years of Dracula movies, here is a look at each actor who has played Renfield.

In Bram Stoker's seminal 1897 Gothic novel Dracula, R. N. Renfield is an inmate in Dr. John Seward's lunatic asylum. He is observed to eat insects and birds, believing that he could achieve immortality by consuming their lives. It is later revealed that Renfield is under the power of Count Dracula himself, who bestowed this form of vampirism upon him. Numerous incarnations of the Renfield, Dracula's fly-eating madman, have served the Count over the decades, but only those who appear in Dracula movies have been included for this list.

Related: Renfield Can Resurrect The Dark...

French helmer Bertrand Mandico has achieved a cult following for his gender-bending sensorial surrealist visions, with more than 20 short films and two feature films completed to date.

His first feature, “The Wild Boys,” about five wealthy adolescent boys sent to a tropical island, all played by actresses, premiered in Venice. It won the Louis-Delluc 2018 prize for best first film and topped Cahiers du Cinéma’s 2018 list of Top 10 films.

His sophomore feature “After Blue (Dirty Paradise),” is a sci-fi western, again primarily with a female cast, including Mandico’s fetish actress Elina Löwensohn. It had its world premiere at Locarno in 2021, where it won the Fipresci prize, followed by its North American premiere in Toronto’s Midnight Madness sidebar, and U.S. premiere in the Fantastic Fest, where it won Best Film. It won the Special Jury Prize at Sitges.

The helmer is now completing post-production on his third feature,...

Nicholas Hoult is set to star in Universal’s “Renfield,” a monster movie centering on Dracula’s notorious lackey.

Chris McKay, the filmmaker behind “The Tomorrow War” and “The Lego Batman Movie,” is directing and producing “Renfield,” which serves as an origin story for Dracula’s unhinged henchman. Based on an original script by Robert Kirkman, the screenplay will be written by Ryan Ridley (“Rick and Morty”).

In Bram Stoker’s 1897 horror novel “Dracula,” R.M. Renfield was an inmate at a lunatic asylum. He was thought to be suffering from delusions that compelled him to eat live creatures in the hopes of obtaining immortality, until it’s later revealed that he’s under the influence of one Count Dracula. Though plot details for the upcoming movie have been kept under wraps, the vampire-adjacent tale is said to take place in the present day.

In prior onscreen adaptations of “Dracula,...

With readers turning to their home viewing options more than ever, this daily feature provides one new movie each day worth checking out on a major streaming platform.

The world of René Laloux’s 1973 animated classic “Fantastic Planet” (now streaming on HBO Max) is populated by humans known as Oms and giant blue aliens called Draags, who steal Omns and raise them as pets. The Omns lucky enough to escape Draag oppression live in fear on the planet Ygam, and every so often a group of them are slaughtered by Draags that wish to control the Om population. If the broad strokes of that storyline sound familiar, it’s because the allegory at the heart of “Fantastic Planet” remains as urgent as ever 47 years after the film world premiered at Cannes and won the Grand Prix.

Laloux cowrote the “Fantastic Planet” script with Roland Topor, a French illustrator and writer...

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit the interwebs. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.

Aferim! (Radu Jude)

Leave it to a Romanian director to make a movie that best expresses the dangers of the dyed-in-the-wool mindset of modern America. Culled partly from historical documents, Aferim! is a twisted history lesson whose messages transcend its insular time period of 19th-century Romania. Its story concerns Constable Costandin (Teodor Corban) and his son, Ionita (Mihai Comanoiu), who chase after a wanted Gypsy slave...

Every week we dive into the cream of the crop when it comes to home releases, including Blu-ray and DVDs, as well as recommended deals of the week. Check out our rundown below and return every Tuesday for the best (or most interesting) films one can take home. Note that if you’re looking to support the site, every purchase you make through the links below helps us and is greatly appreciated.

Embrace of the Serpent (Ciro Guerra)

With its focus on the effects of exploration by white men on foreign lands, Ciro Guerra’s Oscar-nominated Embrace of the Serpent will inevitably be compared to Werner Herzog’s stories of savage nature, and while Guerra is investigating some of Herzog’s most well trodden themes, the chaos of man exists in the background, while the unspoiled sit front and center here. Embrace of the Serpent centers on two explorers, separated by decades in time,...

Cult filmmaker to appear in conversation at film festival.

Chilean filmmaker and artist Alejandro Jodorowsky is to be awarded with a Pardo d’onore at the 69th Locarno Film Festival (Aug 3-13).

As well as screening a selection of his films and the award ceremony on the Piazza Grande, Jodorowsky will also participate in a conversation open to all festival-goers.

As son of Russian immigrants exiled in Chile, Jodorowsky began his artistic career as a puppeteer, poet and theater director. At 23, he moved to France and joined Marcel Marceau’s mime troupe, and five years later founded - alongside Roland Topor and Fernando Arrabal - the performance art movement Panique, which aimed to counter the mainstreaming of surrealism.

Jodorowsky subsequently moved to Mexico, where, over the next 17 years, he created avant-garde theater de Mexico, and directed Fando And Lis (1968), El Topo (1970), The Holy Mountain (1973) and Santa Sangre (1989), films which made him a cult filmmaker around the world...

René Laloux's marvelous animated Sci-fi tale is still in a class of its own, mainly because the creative level of its imagination is so high. Who would have thought that limited animation could look this good? The designs are by the impressive artist Roland Topor. Fantastic Planet Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 820 1973 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 72 min. / La plènete sauvage / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date June 21, 2016 / Starring Jennifer Drake, Eric Baugin, Sylvie Lenoir, Jean Topart, Jean Valmont (voices). Original Drawings Roland Topor Character and Scene Animation Josef Kábart, Josef Váňa Original Music Alain Goraguer Written by Roland Topor, René Laloux from the novel Oms en série by Stefan Wul Produced by Simon Damiani and André Valio-Cavaglione Directed by René Laloux

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

What a fine introduction to an excellent movie. The animated Sci-fi tale Fantastic Planet played frequently in Los Angeles in the middle 1970s, but I...

“Deprived of lessons, I decided to run away.”

Fantastic Planet plays this weekend (June 17th and 18th) at The Tivoli at midnight as part of their Reel Late at the Tivoli midnight series.

I saw the 1973’s French/Czechoslovakian masterpiece Fantastic Planet at the Kirkwood Cinema when it was new. There was a string of adult animated movies in the early 1970’s, Ralph Bakshi et al, many of which have become perennial cult classics. Rene Laloux is the French director of Fantastic Planet and Roland Topor was the animator. The drawings, which were highly artistic and complex, payed tribute to Terry Gilliam, though not as humorous, the “head” styles of “Yellow Submarine,” and even to Bakshi himself, with the anthropomorphisms and even the occasional nudity.

Fantastic Planet is a story of one human “Om” (French for “man”) named Terr, who loses his mother in the beginning of the movie, is taken care by aliens who become his captors. He then escapes from his alien captor family known as “Traags” to a race of humans. With his device of intellectual “Traag” knowledge in his head, he passes that knowledge to the other Oms and frees them from the captivity of the merciless “Traags.”

But if you like animation that is “different,” you may appreciate Fantastic Planet which was a grand prize winner at the Cannes Film Festival and regularly played on USA’s “Night Flight” program 20 years ago (“Night Flight” program was a late-night cable show that specialized in rock videos and cult films). In age where directors can literally do and put anything on screen achieving the desired ‘wow’ factor has become an increasingly rare thing. Laloux didn’t have 3D or CGI at his disposal in 1971; just some extremely talent cartoon artists a seriously funky score and some extremely crazy ideas and today Fantastic Planet still manages to impress. While it may be easy to dismiss Fantastic Planet as some post Hippy movement nonsense complete with psychedelic imagery barely concealable political allegories and very much a product of its time it remains a compelling and indeed visionary oddity. Check out Fantastic Planet when it plays midnights this weekend at The Tivoli and see how fantastic it is.

Fantastic Planet screens this weekend (June 17th and 18th) at The Tivoli at midnight as part of their Reel Late at the Tivoli midnight series.

The Tivoli’s located at 6350 Delmar Blvd., University City, Mo. Admission is a mere $8!

A Facebook invite for the event can be found Here

https://www.facebook.com/events/518490438354451/

The Tivoli’s website can be found Here

Here’s the midnight line-up for the next few weeks:

June 24 and 25th: Troll 2

July 1st and 2nd Jaws

July 8th and 9th Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (Miyazaki)

July 15th and 16th Rear Window

July 22nd and 23rd Akira

The post Fantastic Planet – Midnights This Weekend at The Tivoli appeared first on We Are Movie Geeks.

Above: Polish poster for Young Törless (Volker Schlöndorff, West Germany, 1966). Design by Kazimierz Krolikowski (1921-1994).

Since Volker Schlöndorff’s newest film, Diplomacy, is opening in New York next week (full disclosure, I work for the distributor) I thought I’d take a look back at the posters for the 25 or more films he has made over he past half a century. Though I quickly discovered that from the late 80s onwards there is little of note (Palmetto, anyone?), I have found some gorgeous posters from the first twenty years of his career, when Schlöndorff was one of the most important directors of the New German Cinema. What is striking is the wide variety of looks given to some of his films, most particularly the international posters for his breakout success The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum which he co-directed with his then-wife Margarethe von Trotta (though shame on the French...

Nosferatu the Vampyre

Written and directed by Werner Herzog

Germany, 1979

Before he filmed his eccentric version of what makes a bad lieutenant, and before he fictionalized his documentary about Dieter needing to fly, Werner Herzog in 1979 wrote and directed a full-fledged remake of a silent film classic. His Nosferatu the Vampyre, an exceptionally faithful take on F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu from 1922, recalls the original in story, tenor, and potency. Not matter the subject, Herzog frequently manages to endow the mundane and banal with qualities of inherent peculiarity; here, working specifically within the horror genre, his capacity for the uncanny is as intoxicating as ever.

In a contemporary documentary about the making of the film, included as part of the newly released Blu-ray, Herzog declares Murnau’s picture to be “the most important film ever made in Germany.” That’s quite a statement, certainly a debatable one, but it is nevertheless...

With Nosferatu the Vampyre (aka Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht), Werner Herzog's allegiance to F.W. Murnau's 1922 silent feature Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens makes it even more intriguing than it would be were it wholly original. Murnau's film is striking for its imagery to the point it owns what may be the most iconic horror villain of all-time, even for those that have never seen the movie, as Max Schreck's spindly figure rises from the shadows as Graf Orlok (a variation on Bram Stoker's "Dracula"). Murnau's Nosferatu, however, can be a bit of a challenge to get through, even at 94 minutes, while Herzog's adaptation brings new life to the story, with frequent nods to the original and more than enough to make it all his own. Herzog, of course, was able to make his film without worry over the rights to Stoker's novel as it had entered...

For many reasons, Werner Herzog’s 1972 vampire tale “Nosferatu the Vampyre” is a classic effort in the prolific filmmaker’s body of work, not least of which because it features Klaus Kinski, Herzog’s legendary muse and tempestuous collaborator, at his most tranquil and genuinely creepy. “It was clear there would never be a vampire of his caliber ever again,” Herzog said of Kinski at L.A.’s Cinefamily last night, where the little-seen German language version of the film begins a weeklong 35mm run today. “I do not need to see the vampire films of the future. I still know Kinski will be the best, at least for four or five centuries.” Co-starring Bruno Ganz, Isabelle Adjani, and Roland Topor, Herzog’s re-interpretation of F.W. Murnau’s 1922 silent classic is rife with the director’s trademarks: surreal landscapes and environments scored to Popol Vuh, an uneasy relationship with nature,...

By Lee Pfeiffer 

The year 1979 was a good one for vampires, cinematically speaking. John Badham's version of "Dracula" premiered starring Frank Langella in the film version of his Broadway hit, George Hamilton had a surprise success with the spoof "Love At First Bite" and German director Werner Herzog unveiled his remake of the classic German silent horror movie "Nosferatu: The Vampyre". The original version by director F.W. Murnau is still regarded by many as the greatest horror movie ever made. Indeed, the mere sight of the film's star Max Schreck (who was as eerie in real life as he was on screen) is enough to give you nightmares. Herzog's version was not only the best of the vampire films released in 1979, it is a fitting homage to the Murnau classic. Working with a relatively extravagant budget, Herzog produced a film that is eerie and unsettling. He refrains from going for quick shocks,...

Looking back at 2011 on what films moved and impressed us it becomes more and more clear—to me at least—that watching old films is a crucial part of making new films meaningful. Thus, our end of year poll, now an annual tradition, which calls upon our writers to pick both a new and an old film: they were challenged to choose a new film they saw in 2011—in theaters or at a festival—and creatively pair it with an old film they also saw in 2011 to create a unique double feature. Many contributors chose their favorites of 2011, some picked out-of-the-way gems, others made some pretty strange connections—and some frankly just want to create a kerfuffle. All the contributors were asked to write a paragraph explaining their 2011 fantasy double feature. What's more, each writer was given the option to list more pairings, with or without explanation, as further imaginative...

TorontoFilm.Net reports that the Tiff Bell Lightbox run of director Roman Polanski's "Carnage", opens Friday December 30, 2011.

Tiff will also host a retrospective looking back at specific films during Polanski's career, tracing the recurring themes that have shaped his vision.

"Roman Polanski" runs December 17 - December 25, 2011, including special screenings of the features "Knife in the Water", "Cul-de-sac", "Chinatown", "Repulsion", "The Tenant", "Rosemary's Baby", and "The Ghost Writer" :

"...In a career spanning more than fifty years, Roman Polanski has firmly established himself as one of the contemporary masters of cinema with his nerve-wrackingly suspenseful and darkly comic portraits of cruelty, violence, claustrophobia and madness.

"Often confining his characters within suffocatingly cloistered locations—a sailboat on a lonely lake, a crumbling castle, an isolated beach house and a succession of ominous apartment houses—Polanski observes with cynical, diabolical glee as the thin pretenses of civilization are quickly stripped away in the face of human vanities,...

Note: This is the second article in this series of posts. Click here to see the first entry.

Every year I spend the majority of the month of October watching as many horror movies as I possibly can. So I decided to take it upon myself to list off the greatest horror movies ever made. I felt the need to break up the list into several categories. You see, usually when people ask me for recommendations of what horror films they should see, they still have some idea of what sub genre they are interested in watching. So as appose to having one big jumbled list, I’ve broken it down to help with those looking for recommendations in a specific area. Please Note: by the end of the month, the last entry in this series will include a list of what I think are without a doubt, the 31 greatest horror movies ever made.

It is kind of thrilling to see that the ever-exemplary U.K.-based Eureka!/Masters of Cinema label is so bullish on the Blu-ray disc format. July and August were big Blu-ray months for the label, seeing the releases in that format of two titles previously unavailable from the label: Jia Zhangke's The World and Kon Ichikawa's The Burmese Harp—and two high-definition updates of previous Eureka!/Moc releases: Shohei Imamura's Vengeance Is Mine and Rene Laloux's La planete sauvage.

All of these releases are highly noteworthy, but my selection of the Laloux film for this review is not entirely arbitrary. First off, there's the matter of the material upgrade in and of itself. The standard-def edition of La planete sauvage, a.k.a. Fantastic Planet, spine number 34 in the Eureka!/Moc series, released in 2006, was created from an interlaced master. The DVD was nonetheless very beautiful. Created at...

La Planète Sauvage (Fantastic Planet)

Blu-Ray, Eureka

While many directors actively pursue movie careers, some just fall into them. Such people are always worth keeping an eye on as they often deliver something unusual. Director René Laloux's path to film-making is one no one else is likely to follow. Already a keen artist, he worked in a hospital for the mentally ill when a short animated film he made with the patients as art-therapy found its way on to French television. From there he embarked on more ambitious shorts before making this, his first feature in 1973, which won the special jury prize at Cannes. Set in an unspecified time, the human race (called Oms) have been taken to a faraway planet where they are treated as pets and/or pests by giant, blue-skinned humanoid creatures (the Draags). Our hero, Terr, is gifted to a Draag child and given a humiliating doll-like costume.

By George D. Allen

Recently, I wrote an article for the Movies Unlimited home blog, MovieFanFare, offering my quickly selected picks for 10 “desert island” movies, those films which, were I forced to choose, I felt (in those moments writing the article, anyway) I would be carting along with me to enjoy during my eternal vacation/banishment on said remote locale.

Now, monsterfans, wipe those memories of Stephen King’s gruesome short story “Survivor Type” from your mind and assume all of your other creature comforts are as normal as they could possibly be (so that you don’t have to worry about minor concerns like hacking off your own body parts for food!), and pick those 10 masterworks of the horror genre you’re going to be forced to live with for the rest of your days. I completed my own “Rorschach test” in this regard below. It was tough. I...

Roman Polanski's slavishly faithful adaptation of Roland Topor's novel should have helped cement it in place as an important and often referenced work in the horror genre. But like so many subtler efforts The Tenant was long ago lost in the white noise. It isn’t just that Topor's novel is emotionally complex enough to escape easy genre labels, but that the fate of its primary character Trelkovsky is resolutely irresolvable. What seems like a simple, straightforward tale of mental disintegration, shifts underfoot until the reader feels themselves toppling off whatever assumptions seemed secure. The end result is an impact every bit as unpleasant as it is profound.

Trelkovsky is a young man in urgent need of a place to live. Coming upon an apartment in the city he moves in only to discover that what should have been a godsend is a living nightmare. Harassed by...

By Michael Atkinson

Like a missing-link hominid stepping out of the jungle, famous photographer William Klein emerges on 21st century DVD as the great bullgoose Art Film-era satirist we never knew we had. Hallowed for his still images and his documentaries, the Paris-based Klein also made three furiously hostile lampoons that were nominally released, ignored and then forgotten. Until now, you could only find "Who Are You, Polly Maggoo?" (1966), "Mr. Freedom" (1969) and "The Model Couple" (1977) in scruffy bootlegs from pro-am vendors like Pimpadelic Wonderland . and given the movies' paucity of reputation, you would've had little reason to do so. A busy '60s shutterbug for the French Vogue, Klein more or less fell in with the Left Bank New Wavers (Resnais, Demy, Marker, Varda) and the Panic Movement (Fernando Arrabal and Roland Topor both show up in "Polly Maggoo"). But his perspective was New Yawk pugilistic, his humor was mercilessly...

Cleverly mixing animation, puppetry and actors in beastly costumes, director Henri Xhonneux and co-writer and creature designer Roland Topor have created a bizarrely original work that pushes cinematic boundaries, as well as good taste, to the limit.

Making its American theatrical premiere at Film Forum, "Marquis'' may turn off some of the more prudish viewers, but the bulk of the art-house crowd is sure to be willingly drawn in to this naughty, bawdy, wacky world. Its lascivious nature and blend of highbrow and sophomoric humor will undoubtedly earn "Marquis'' a cult following.

Set in the Bastille prison of 1789, and based on the writings of the Marquis de Sade, the film revolves around Marquis, an aristocratic canine and his best friend, Colin, who also happens to be his penis. Marquis has been imprisoned for defecating on a cross. To keep his mind sharp, he engages in philosophical and sexual discussions with the constantly erect Colin.

It's an interesting twist on buddy pictures as Marquis and Colin prove to be an uneasy alliance. Sure, they're close, but they disagree on some very important issues. Colin wishes Marquis would act more and talk less when it comes to sex. He wants action, and eventually suffers a minor head injury after convincing Marquis to have intercourse with a sexy section of their prison cell wall.

Elsewhere, fellow inmates Lupino, the dog-faced ex-police chief, and Piganou, a one-legged porker, plan their escape. Aiding them is Juliette, a hot filly who happens to be involved in a sadomasochistic relationship with the head rooster, the Governor of the Bastille. She believes that her lover, Lupino, is destined to lead the Revolution. With her painful hold on the governor she hopes to expedite matters.

Practically every scene is rife with one sexual connotation, or act, after another. Ambert, that dirty rat prison guard, constantly begs Marquis to make love to him. Even Colin is hesitant on that front. Justine, a real heifer, is raped by the king, violently milked by Ambert and lustily desired by Colin.

Some of the visuals are a bit potent but always impressive. Colin, in particular, with his tiny facial expressions, is a real pleasure to watch. Though restricted in movement, his vocal discourses along with his animated eyes and mouth make his character a real standout.

The story line here truly takes a back seat to the brilliantly conceived imagery on the screen. In fact, the story line really doesn't matter at all. The wild action and ribald interplay between these amazingly diverse characters would be a treat no matter what premise brought them all together.

"Marquis'' definitely takes risks, but without risks there can be no reward. Fortunately, the rewards here are plenty.

MARQUIS

Y.C. Alligator Film/Constellation Production/Tchin Tchin Production

Director Henri Xhonneux

Writers Henri Xhonneux, Roland Topor

Designer of original creatures-art director

Roland Topor

Director of photography Etienne Faudet

Music Reinhardt Wagner

Color

In French with subtitles

Cast:Bien De Moor, Gabrielle Van Damme, Philippe Bizot, Bernard Cognaux, Olivier Dechaveau, Pierre Decuypere

Running time --83 minutes

No MPAA rating

(c) The Hollywood Reporter...