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Bond, who died in December, made some of the most original films in British cinema history – particularly the unsettling films he and Arden made together in the 1960s and 70s

The death of Jack Bond in December last year brought an end to one of the most remarkable, and remarkably undervalued, chapters in British cinema. Bond is perhaps best known for the Pet Shop Boys movie It Couldn’t Happen Here, released in 1988; but that was just one pitstop in an unusually shaped career that took the form of, if not two halves, two distinct sections that in retrospect appear subtly intertwined.

Bond’s commission from the Pet Shop Boys stemmed from earlier work on The South Bank Show, particularly an episode about Roald Dahl in which the author encounters characters from his books – and in fact much of Bond’s career was occupied by what are essentially arts documentaries, albeit highly unconventional ones.

Documentaries often seek to uncover a single truth, but Zackary Drucker’s Enigma presents something far more potent: a story about two truths, two lives, and two radically different strategies for survival. The film introduces us to a pair of women whose paths allegedly began at the same revolutionary Parisian cabaret, Le Carrousel, in the 1950s.

On one side stands April Ashley, the pioneering model who lived a life of radical transparency, becoming a celebrated activist for trans rights. On the other is Amanda Lear, the glamorous disco queen and artist’s muse, a woman who has spent a lifetime wrapping her origins in a thick cloak of mystery. Enigma does not just recount their histories; it places them in direct dialogue, exploring the profound power each woman found in controlling her own narrative in a world that sought to write it for them.

The Price of an Open Book...

The Hollywood Insider Enigma Documentary by HBO & Max

With stunning archival footage and intimate storytelling, ‘Enigma’ reclaims the legacy of April Ashley, Amanda Lear, and the underground icons of Le Carrousel. Zackary Drucker’s 2025 documentary 'Enigma', which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and is now streaming on Max, is a skillfully composed portrait of two pivotal figures in trans history: Amanda Lear and April Ashley. More than just a biographical recounting, 'Enigma' is a deep and emotional journey of identity, survival, and the definitions of truth in the public eye. Through these two icons, whose life trajectories both intersect and diverge dramatically, Drucker unearths the complex realities for these individuals who paved the way for future generations. Subscribe to The Hollywood Insider’s YouTube Channel, by clicking here. Limited Time Offer – Free Subscription to The Hollywood Insider Click here to read more on The Hollywood Insider’s vision,...

Best known for the groundbreaking “beat couture” of her albums Avant Gold, Totem, and Alt Mode, New York City-based avant-pop singer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Ryat is making a triumphant return with her new song “End of the Road.” The track and accompanying music video are part of her first solo project in over a decade.

“It was 3 a.m. at a jazz club when I hopped up on a grand piano and wrote this tune in one sitting,” Ryat tells Slant. “I was calling out to a higher power, trying to reclaim my desire to be a performer again. It was literally how I was feeling in the moment, every last word.” If the club’s owner hadn’t been recording her performance, “End of the Road” might have been lost forever.

“It’s been a long, long time since I’ve dabbled on the heartstrings of this dream,” Ryat sings on the track,...

El director Luis Buñuel con una cámara de cine | Getty Images París 1929. El año de las piedras.

Siempre me ha parecido mejor la idea de incendiar un museo que la de abrir un centro cultural o fundar un hospital. – Luis Buñuel, Mi último suspiro.

En la historia del arte, muchos de sus estandartes han labrado en mármol experiencias que se sustentan en arenas movedizas. En Mi último suspiro, memorias del genio calandino redactadas en colaboración con el guionista francés y amigo personal Jean-Claude Carrière, Luis Buñuel narra cómo acudió a la proyección de su primer cortometraje, Un perro andaluz, con los bolsillos cargados de piedras.

Luis Buñuel (izquierda) y Jean-Claude Carrière (derecha) | MoMA

Aquel junio de 1929, se reunieron en torno al cinematógrafo de los parisinos Studio Des Ursulines algunos de los intelectuales más ilustres de París, entre los que estaban Pablo Picasso y varios miembros del incipiente movimiento surrealista, con...

From Jean Seberg’s sideswept pixie cut to Jean-Paul Belmondo’s aviators, Jean-Luc Godard’s “Breathless” has become more fashionable in today’s cultural imagination for its iconic looks and images than for how the jump-cut-pioneering renegade feature collapsed cinematic hierarchies as we knew them in 1960. That makes one of the greatest films of all time, and the standard bearer of the French New Wave, ripe for discovery for a younger generation — and fresher still for the older ones well familiar with it.

If the best way to criticize a movie, as Cahiers du Cinéma critic Godard once said, is to make one, then director Richard Linklater’s answer to making a tribute to “Breathless” might instead be to not quite criticize but certainly to subvert the tropes of movies about moviemaking. His black-and-white “Nouvelle Vague,” itself a meticulous recreation of a movie made in 1959 with all the celluloid, Academy-ratio crackle and pop,...

In addition to Spain’s strong presence in Cannes’ competition sections this year, the country has numerous high-profile titles looking to woo buyers at the Marché du Film. Below, we look at some of the most intriguing titles set for this year’s market.

“Away,” Gerard Oms

Produced by Zabriskie Films (Spain) and Revolver Amsterdam (Netherlands), “Away” is a Spanish-Dutch co-production shot entirely in the Netherlands. It employs a naturalistic and neorealist tone to portray the story of a Spanish immigrant adrift in Northern Europe. The film stars Spanish A-lister Mario Casas.

Sales: Latido Films

“Deaf,” Eva Libertad

Berlin’s Panorama Audience Awardwinner “Deaf,” produced by Distinto Films, Nexus CreaFilms and A Contracorriente Films, addresses motherhood through the lens of the deaf community. It is one of the first Spanish features to fully center the experience of a deaf woman, starring Álvaro Cervantes and Libertad’s sister Miriam Garlo. The...

At the beginning of Frank Herbert's 1965 novel "Dune" -- set in the distant, distant future -- Duke Leto Atreides, the ruler of the ocean planet of Caladan, is assigned the task of overseeing the distant desert world of Arrakis by the Padishah Emperor, Shaddam IV. Arrakis is particularly valuable to the galaxy, as it is the only known source of the spice Melange, a consciousness-expanding psychedelic substance that grants humans the skills they need to travel through deep space. Arrakis had previously been overseen by House Harkonnen, a wicked and greedy clan of hedonists, and House Atreides seemingly promised a more benevolent rule and gentle hand when overseeing spice production. The Atreides and the Harkonnens have long been bitter rivals.

Of course, Shaddam IV has a scheme of his own, and only assigned House Atreides to Arrakis for reasons of treachery. It seems that Duke Leto Atreides was becoming...

The zoologist, now aged 97, is about to unveil Time Flower, his fantasy-fuelled film in which he pursues a woman called Ramona – who gave such a brave performance leaping off the bonnet of a car that he proposed to her

In the opening scene of Time Flower, a surrealist film by the zoologist Desmond Morris, a woman is lying facedown on the ground, clutching the grass with manicured hands and shaking her head. She is about to start running across a Wiltshire moor in elegant black heels, chased by Morris in a shirt and tie, her eyes wide, her lipstick dark, the angle of the shot emphasising her perfect, parted, panting mouth. Just before she trips and falls, a wild rabbit will stare straight at the camera – and flee.

This 10-minute black-and-white film, which Morris made in 1950 while he was a 22-year-old student at Birmingham University, has lain untouched in his archive for nearly 75 years.

There have been many memorable music videos over the last few decades, but for many, still the undisputed champ would be Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” The iconic video, directed by John Landis in 1983, changed the game for the artform, creating a vibrant, haunting world that was part music video, part horror movie. It’s still a favorite for many of us who grew up in the 80s, and it’s seemingly always finding new fans with each passing generation. Jackson was a force in plenty of notable videos in his time, but one that has escaped most people’s notice is the one we’re going to focus on today: “Ghosts.” It’s fairly surprising how under-the-radar this video has been since its debut in 1996 considering the names involved with it. And while part of its low profile could certainly be attributed to the controversies that have swirled around the pop singer for years,...

If someone were to build a machine that could create the perfect comedian for late-night television, it might spit someone out like John Mulaney. Born in Chicago in 1982, one of the first glimmers he had of his eventual hunger for the limelight was watching Ricky Ricardo perform with his band on reruns of “I Love Lucy” and both embracing and mocking that old-world sense of showmanship has been part of his charm ever since.

During his youth, Mulaney would also spend time watching archived episodes of “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson” at the Museum of Broadcast Communications, likely finding inspiration in Carson’s mix of childlike playfulness and debonaire affect. Whereas most stand-ups of his generation perform in casual threads, Mulaney is known for regularly donning a suit in both his specials and appearances, perhaps a nod to Carson or his own way of recognizing the importance of formality...

Exclusive: Art becomes fiction as René Magritte, Salvador Dalí and their peers give the whodunnit genre a surreal makeover in This is Not A Murder Mystery. Deadline can share an exclusive new image from the series, which is produced by Belgium-based indie Panenka.

Hans Herbots, whose directing credits include The Serpent and Paris Has Fallen helmed all six eps. “We wanted to elevate the genre and give it a twist,” he tells Deadline. “This story, this universe, offered a lot of a lot of opportunity to do that.”

“This is not a pipe” is the wording below Magritte’s famous 1929 picture ‘The Treachery of Images’ and This is Not A Murder Mystery features the iconic Belgian artist and several of his surrealist peers.

In fact, the series absolutely is a murder mystery – as Series Mania attendees will see, with the drama in the Coming Next From Belgium section. It was commissioned by Vrt,...

This Sunday, “CBS News Sunday Morning” offers its usual eclectic mix of interviews, cultural insights, and in-depth reporting. From the world of high-profile media to the intricacies of constitutional law and the surreal landscapes of Salvador Dalí, the program covers a lot of ground. Jane Pauley sits down with Graydon Carter, the man who once […]

CBS News Sunday Morning March 23: Graydon Carter, Jake Gyllenhaal, Denzel Washington...

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

All We Imagine as Light (Payal Kapadia)

Following up her enigmatic, beautiful debut A Night of Knowing Nothing, Payal Kapadia shows an entirely different register with her dazzling Cannes Film Festival Grand Prize winner All We Imagine as Light. Luke Hicks said in his review, “Writer-director Payal Kapadia isn’t interested in the flashy world of Mumbai that gets so much global attention. Per its opening soundscape, All We Imagine as Light means to bask in the luminescence of life found among India’s lower classes, which means acknowledging the inequality and socio-economic injustice that defines their everyday as much as it means showcasing their intrinsic glow and dogged refusal to let the inalienable love, beauty, and camaraderie of existence be taken from them.

The obsessed stalker lurks outside the layer of her favorite sparkling movie star. Her drive is strong; her mission is to never cease until she wins his famous heart, fulfilling her cinematic fantasy and making everything right in the world. One day, her annoying and invasive tactics actually work, causing the movie star to accept her invitation, and off they go to a cafe or something. He sat her down, looking deep into her soul with his dreamy eyes, and proceeded to just complain about how awful his life was. Boring her with negativity until every ounce of fangirl vanished into the cold wind. Destroying her fairy tale fantasy with nothing but his bizarre and brutal truth. And I guess for some, that’s what it is like to watch Robert Pattinson in a movie nowadays. Too many popcorn munchers had locked this man’s career in a vampire-shaped coffin,...

On Wednesday March 12 2025, History broadcasts Pawn Stars!

Leggo My Death Star Episode Summary

The upcoming episode of “Pawn Stars,” titled “Leggo My Death Star,” promises a mix of art, history, and unique collectibles. Fans of the show can look forward to some interesting items coming into the shop, along with the usual banter and negotiations that make the series so entertaining.

In this episode, Chumlee surprises everyone with a bold offer on a Salvador Dalí lithograph that features the work of Pablo Picasso. This rare piece of art is sure to spark lively discussions among the team as they weigh its value and significance. Chum’s enthusiasm for the unusual may lead to an unexpected twist in the deal.

Additionally, a seller brings in recordings of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s famous Fireside Chats. These historical recordings provide a glimpse into a pivotal time in American history and could attract the...

Hollywood’s Most Unpredictable Star Robert Pattinson Is Back With Mickey 17! (Photo Credit – Facebook)

Robert Pattinson isn’t your typical Hollywood star, and honestly, that’s what makes him so fascinating. While many A-listers craft a pristine, almost untouchable image, the Mickey 17 actor leans into the bizarre, the awkward, and sometimes, the outright absurd.

Robert Pattinson’s Fear Of Horror Films

Let’s take The Batman star’s relationship with horror films as a starter. Rather than casually watching them like any other actor who might be asked about the genre, Pattinson admits they left him so rattled that he once found himself perched on a sofa, gripping two kitchen knives for protection.

Then there’s the infamous stalker story. While most celebrities would call security at the first sign of unwanted attention, Pattinson supposedly took his stalker to dinner. According to him, after enduring an entire meal where he did nothing but complain,...

“If you don’t care about money and you just want to do something cool, you can do it.”

When Richard Linklater thinks back on the Austin Film Society (Afs), now celebrating its 40th anniversary, it all boils down to that. A powerful example of creating something cool that you love and then the money might come later, Afs has given over $2.7 million in grants to filmmakers and boasts 20 acres of studio space with its Austin Studios — where productions have created 37,000 jobs and over $2.6 billion of economic impact for Austin.

On the evening of March 6, Afs will be celebrating its 40th anniversary at the annual event it hosts, the Texas Film Awards, which also touts 25 years of inducting Texans from the film and TV world into the Texas Film Hall of Fame.

In terms of swank and style, Afs has come a long way. But according to its founder, Linklater,...

“Pawn Stars” is back with an exciting episode titled “Leggo My Death Star,” airing at 8:00 Pm on Wednesday, March 12, 2025, on the History Channel. This episode promises a mix of art, history, and collectibles that will keep fans on the edge of their seats.

In this episode, Chum surprises everyone with a surreal offer on a Salvador Dalí lithograph featuring Pablo Picasso. The unique blend of these two iconic artists is sure to spark some lively discussions among the team. Chum’s bold move could lead to a fascinating negotiation, showcasing the unpredictable nature of pawn dealing.

Meanwhile, a seller walks in with historical recordings of Fdr’s Fireside Chats. These recordings hold significant value, and the team will need to assess their worth carefully. The rich history behind these chats adds an intriguing layer to the episode, highlighting the importance of preserving the past.

Rick and Chum also get...

Last Updated on March 3, 2025

For years, Awesome Art We’ve Found Around The Net has been about two things only – awesome art and the artists that create it. With that in mind, we thought why not take the first week of the month to showcase these awesome artists even more? Welcome to “Awesome Artist We’ve Found Around The Net.” In this column, we are focusing on one artist and the awesome art that they create, whether they be amateur, up and coming, or well established. The goal is to uncover these artists so even more people become familiar with them. We ask these artists a few questions to see their origins, influences, and more. If you are an awesome artist or know someone that should be featured, feel free to contact me at any time at theodorebond@joblo.com.This month we are very pleased to bring you the awesome art of…...

Notable as it is for evoking a kind of cosmic banality, writer-director Bruno Dumont’s anti-space opera The Empire runs into same the pitfall as many parodies of its kind. However intriguing its premise may be, the film becomes tedious in practice, as what few homegrown ideas it has to offer lack for substantial development. Built almost entirely on the very tropes that it sets out to undermine, The Empire mainly succeeds at hollowing out itself.

A present-day fishing village in Northern France would seem to be an unlikely battleground for a galactic conflict between good and evil, and it’s this incongruity of setting and story that forms a basis for The Empire. The 1s and the 0s, as the opposing forces call themselves, must take human form to properly exist. On the 0 side, there’s the fisherman Jony (Brandon Vlieghe), father to the Wain—a toddler destined to...

Paris-based Pulsar Content has boarded “The Velazquez Mystery,” narrated by Cannes and Venice best actor winner Vincent Lindon, which also marks the directorial debut of renowned French producer Stéphane Sorlat.

The third part of a doc feature trilogy — following José Luis López Linares’ “Bosch: The Garden of Dreams” and his “Goya, Carriere and the Ghost of Buñuel” — “The Velazquez Mystery” explores multiple questions raised by the painter.

One is how Velázquez could be so admired by great painters — “the only great painter in history,” said Salvador Dalí — but remain so often on the margins of collective memory.

Quoting Pablo Picasso, Francis Bacon and Dalí, “The Velazquez Mystery” plumbs his genius. “Velázquez was a double genius, from a technical point of view, but also how he changed the rules, putting himself inside the paintings and creating labyrinths of meaning,” Sorlat told Variety.

“Guided by the symbolic thread of water, a metaphor for movement and reflection,...

For practically the past century, Disney has crafted some of the most beloved films on the big screen. Utilizing animated artistry and brilliant visual storytelling, The Walt Disney Company has enchanted and delighted entire generations.

That said, as much as we adore our favorite princesses and cartoon characters, there's something truly remarkable when the artists and filmmakers have free reign, resulting in some delightfully bizarre features. Disney+ has nearly the entire filmography of the animation studio and then some, but here are our picks for just how weird things can get at the house of mouse.

Fantasia (1940)

What better way to begin this list than with Disney's first art house film? Presented in "Fantasound" in 1940, Walt Disney's concert feature blended famous pieces of classical music with animation magic. Although this combo resulted in iconic sequences like "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," it also gave the artists permission to experiment.

Look at the visuals of "Toccata in Fuge,...

Stephen King's delightfully screwed-up stories have been getting the big screen treatment since 1976, but not a single adaptation over the past 49 years looks quite like "The Monkey." That's likely because none of those other movies had Oz Perkins, the creative horror mastermind behind movies like the trippy Nicolas Cage-starrer "Longlegs" and the terrifying slow-burn "The Blackcoat's Daughter," behind the camera. Perkins is clearly suited to the absurdity of the King short story, which was featured in his 1985 book "Skeleton Crew." In the latest issue of Empire magazine, the filmmaker draws direct parallels between the story's cursed toy and his own strange, tragic family life.

Perkins tells the outlet that "The Monkey" actually already had a "very serious script" when he joined the project, one provided by James Wan's Atomic Monster production company. "I felt it was too serious, and I told them: 'This doesn't work for me,...

David Lynch, the visionary filmmaker who died Thursday at 78, months after revealing he had been diagnosed with emphysema as a lifetime smoker, was such an essential figure in the history of cinema that he had his own adjective: Lynchian. The term describes works that share characteristics with some of his most memorable creations.

Lynch’s work was unmistakable. “I loved David’s films. Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive, and Elephant Man defined him as a singular, visionary dreamer who directed films that felt handmade,” Steven Spielberg, who cast Lynch to play John Ford in The Fabelmans, said in the aftermath of his friend’s death. It’s a sentiment shared widely on social media over the last several hours.

In movies like 1986’s Blue Velvet, 1997’s Lost Highway, and 2001’s Mulholland Drive — not to mention the 1990s ABC TV drama Twin Peaks — Lynch portrayed a mundane America of seemingly pastoral splendor undercut by stupefaction and terror.

David Lynch, the writer-director whose films and TV series including Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive and Twin Peaks portrayed a seemingly bucolic America, only to reveal it as teeming with the mysterious and macabre, has died. He was 78.

Lynch’s death was announced on his Facebook page:

“It is with deep regret that we, his family, announce the passing of the man and the artist, David Lynch. We would appreciate some privacy at this time. There’s a big hole in the world now that he’s no longer with us. But, as he would say, ‘Keep your eye on the donut and not on the hole.’ … It’s a beautiful day with golden sunshine and blue skies all the way.”

In August, he revealed that he was suffering from emphysema after many years of smoking and that he couldn’t leave home for fear that he would get Covid-19.

Nobody...

The Fall is a 2019 short film from Jonathan Glazer and the themes and style present in his feature-length movies are all present in this disturbing and unnerving short. Major movie directors don't always dabble in short films, but when they do, they bring all their on-set talent, understanding of film language, and ability to convey emotions and ideas effectively and easily. Whether it's Denis Villeneuve directing Next Floor or Martin Scorsese doing The Big Shave, these directors prove they don't need 90+ minutes to make something worthwhile.

Jonathan Glazer's 2019 short, The Fall, is a 7-minute film (5 without credits) that is set in a forest late at night. A man wearing a mask somewhere between a Salvador Dalí mask and a Michael Myers mask is clinging to the top of a tree while a mob of similarly masked individuals shake him off. Once they do, they take his photo, put a noose around his neck,...

“When your house catches on fire, the first thing you do is call a lawyer,” Camille Meyer famously said on “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.”

The opulent home of Kelsey Grammer’s ex-wife was destroyed in 2018, the last time Los Angeles was ravaged by wildfires, and the aftermath aired on Bravo. Meyer was dryly referring to legal battles with her insurance companies, but there’s another step many in her position take before calling in the attorneys: dispatching private firefighters.

Firefighters “for hire” are par for the course when it comes to multimillion-dollar spreads erected in and around L.A., and in at least six surrounding states, according to expert Don Holter. These services surely have been engaged during the unprecedented and devastating wildfires currently burning in Southern California.

Communities like Malibu and the Pacific Palisades — virtually wiped off the map this week, in the case of the latter...

Paris-based Indie Sales has acquired international rights to Leonora Carrington biopic LeonoraIn TheMorning Light about the English surrealist artist who died in 2011

Directed by filmmaking duo Lena Vurma and Thor Klein, the 1930s-set film follows Carrington as she rebels against society’s expectations, mingles with iconic figures including André Breton and Salvador Dalí in Paris and has a whirlwind love affair with Max Ernst before fleeing to Mexico during the war.

Indie Sales will launch the film at Unifrance Rendez-Vous with French Cinema in Paris later this month.

The film is based on Elena Poniatowska’s best-selling book Leonora and...

Paris-based Indie Sales has acquired international rights to Leonora Carrington biopic LeonoraIn TheMorning Light about the English surrealist artist who died in 2011

Directed by German filmmaking duo Lena Vurma and Thorsten Klein, the 1930s-set film follows Carrington as she rebels against society’s expectations, mingles with iconic figures including André Breton and Salvador Dalí in Paris and has a whirlwind love affair with Max Ernst before fleeing to Mexico during the war.

Indie Sales will launch the film at Unifrance Rendez-Vous with French Cinema in Paris later this month.

The film is based on Elena Poniatowska’s best-selling book Leonora...

The first iteration of Popeye the Sailor, literary classics by Dashiell Hammett and William Faulkner, Alfred Hitchcock’s first sound film, and songs like “Singin’ in the Rain” and “Tiptoe Through the Tulips” are among the copyrighted works that will enter the public domain on Jan. 1.

As the calendar turns on New Year’s Day, thousands of copyrighted works across literature, film, and music from 1929 become open to fair use. This year’s slate also includes the French comic icon Tintin, Disney’s still-iconic The Skeleton Dance short (38 million views on YouTube!

Film director and producer who worked with Salvador Dalí and the Pet Shop Boys

The Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dalí refused to cooperate with anyone wanting to make a film about him – until 1965, when he was finally persuaded to agree by the British director Jack Bond. Like Dalí, Bond, who has died of a stroke aged 87, brought an idiosyncratic style to his work. He was sometimes likened to Ken Russell, another a graduate of BBC arts documentaries, for his wild imagination.

Invited to tea with Dalí at the St Regis hotel in New York, the artist’s winter home, Bond was asked why he wanted to make a film. “My intention would have been to mentally take an electric drill and get inside your head to destroy you and your subconscious and your ego once and for all,” he replied. Dalí’s manager dropped the teapot, but Dalí said: “We will make a film,...

While The Bold and the Beautiful’s Hope Logan has been through the emotional wringer over the years, her portrayer, Annika Noelle, has also faced some tough challenges. In 2021, she revealed that she suffered two miscarriages, and subsequently, in 2023, she announced that she and her previous fiancé split over the emotional toll those losses took. Now, she’s got some great news about her latest relationship.

Forward the Future

In February, Noelle shared the happy news that she and actor John Patrick Amedori were an item. Fast forward to the present where Noelle informed People that the two were engaged. The outlet shared some amazing exclusive photos of the happy couple, and Noelle gushed, “I am constantly in awe of his talent. He is so multifaceted, plus he makes me laugh. He’s a keeper.”

Amedori has been acting since 2000 when he appeared in the films Almost Famous and Unbreakable.

by Chad Kennerk

Images courtesy of Silents Synced

In explaining montage, or ‘assembly’ as he liked to refer to it, Alfred Hitchcock once explained the Kuleshov Effect or, as Hitch called it, ‘pure cinematics’; the juxtaposition of imagery to create different ideas. In the same way, comparison and contrast of music and image have been used practically since the origins of film language to create additional meaning. What would the shower scene in Psycho be without Bernard Herrmann’s strings? Jaws wouldn’t be nearly as ominous sans John Williams’ iconic ‘da-dum…da-dum.’ In the same spirit, Silents Synced reimagines film score by pairing classic silent films with the music of contemporary artists. Specifically designed for independent movie theatres, the new event cinema series kicked off in the US with an appropriately released October pairing of the Radiohead albums Kid A and Amnesiac with F. W. Murnau’s 1922 symphony of horror,...

Every so often, a TV show goes completely off the rails, delivering an episode so strange, it feels like we’ve slipped into another dimension.

Whether it’s a surreal musical interlude, a trippy black-and-white homage, or a storyline that still has fans scratching their heads, these episodes broke the mold, giving us unforgettable — and often baffling — moments.

They pushed characters into uncharted territory, twisted the show’s usual format, and left us all wondering, “Did that really just happen?”

(ABC/Screenshot)

Some of these episodes were bold experiments; others felt like fever dreams that somehow made it through the writer’s room.

While they’ve since faded into TV history, their weirdness sticks with us, reminding us of a time when TV wasn’t afraid to take a risk.

From supernatural crossovers to unsettling dream sequences, here’s a look back at the wildest, strangest, and most unexpected episodes...

Nft jokes aside, Futurama is still very much beloved by its dedicated fans. The show, which simply refuses to stay dead, is returning for at least two more seasons on Hulu, and is now the subject of a fancy new coffee-table book, for those art lovers with disposable incomes who enjoy the antics of Dr. Zoidberg more than the fashions of Tom Ford and/or the gloopy clocks of Salvador Dali.

The Art of Futurama includes early concept art and sketches, as well as interviews with the creatives behind the show. It also boasts an introduction from creator Matt Groening, who revealed that childhood trauma played a role in Futurama’s origin.

No, not the trauma of saying goodbye to your fossilized canine best friend forever.

Groening’s intro begins with a lengthy description of how he was terrified of robots as a child, thanks to movies like The Phantom Creeps,...

Eve Babitz, the “dowager groupie” who wrote Slow Days, Fast Company and was known for her relationships with the likes of The Doors’ frontman Jim Morrison and Steve Martin, and Joan Didion, the author of Play It As It Lays and The White Album, who wrote Barbara Streisand and Kris Kristofferson’s A Star Is Born, are unquestionably two of Los Angeles’ most-revered writers.

A new book – Didion & Babitz written by Lili Anolik – highlights the relationship between the pair, helped by the author unearthing scores of previously unseen letters.

The book, which published today by Simon & Schuster’s Scribner, also explores their contrasting relationship with Hollywood (the town) and Hollywood (the industry).

Didion wrote a slew of screenplays with her husband, John Gregory Dunne, including the aforementioned A Star Is Born, 1971’s The Panic In Needle Park, which starred Al Pacino, 1981’s True Confessions, which starred Robert De Niro and Robert Duvall,...

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

Daaaaaalí! (Quentin Dupieux)

At the time of year where every other film is a biopic chasing prestige respectability, we are lucky to have Quentin Dupieux, the prolific, serious-minded, silly filmmaker perfectly positioned to take a sledgehammer to the genre. His second 2023 feature has been described as a “real fake biopic” of Salvador Dalí but is best understood as a return to the heightened analysis of cinematic storytelling à la 2010 breakthrough Rubber––a movie which increasingly looks like the rare weak spot in a filmography equal-parts playful and thoughtful. – Alistair R. (full review)

Where to Stream: VOD

Daddio (Christy Hall)

Daddio, written and directed by Christy Hall, is a two-hander that bristles with energy from the start. A young professional (Dakota Johnson) steps...

In Jonathan Demme's 1991 thriller "The Silence of the Lambs," FBI cadet Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) finds several interesting and shocking clues while examining a dead body that had been fished out of Elk River in Clay County, West Virginia. Most prominently, large diamond patterns have been sliced out of the skin of the victim's back -- though to what end, Starling hasn't yet determined. More curiously, the pathologist finds a cocoon lodged in the victim's throat. It's too delicate to have fallen in accidentally, meaning someone shoved it in there deliberately. 

Later, Starling takes the cocoon to a pair of entomologists (Paul Lazar and Dan Butler), hoping to learn more about it. The entomologists carefully dissect the cocoon and find it to be the species acherontia styx, better known as the death head moth (although it should have been more accurately described as the lesser death's head hawkmoth). The insect is easily recognizable,...

Note: The following story contains spoilers from “Grotesquerie” Episode 7.

“Grotesquerie” star Micaela Diamond always knew Episode 7 was going to be a challenge. Even by the wild standards of this FX show from Ryan Murphy, Jon Robin Baitz and Joe Baken, “Unplugged” is on an entirely different level.

“Episode 7 is like if ‘Fatal Attraction’ was directed by Luis Buñuel except it’s ‘Grotesquerie’ and Max Winkler is just a genius,” Diamond told TheWrap of the game-changing installment.

After six episodes spent investigating a serial killer known only as Grotesquerie, Lois (Niecy Nash-Betts) finally uncovered that the killer was none other than Father Charlie (Nicholas Alexander Chavez). As everyone around her celebrated, Lois couldn’t shake the feeling that the case hadn’t been fully solved. That’s when she zeroed in on her partner in solving the crimes, Sister Megan (Diamond). As the pair made dinner together, Lois slowly outlined her theory,...

The immortal image of a blade slicing a woman's eye, intertwined with clouds crossing through the moon exemplifies the immense contributions of Luis Buuel's landmark avante-garde film, Un Chien Andalou to the world of cinema. A surrealist picture formed with the help of Salvador Dali himself, Un Chien Andalou is devoid of any traditional plot, made in such a way that nothing would make sense a series of images that postulate a dreamlike quality and has become the most famous short film of all time. Critics and moviegoers alike are still debating on its true meaning, but that's what makes it so special. It means absolutely nothing, and everything at the same time, presenting a cinematic experience that every lover of the movies must go through at least once in their lifetimes.

Filmmaker Quentin Dupieux has earned a reputation for crafting surreal comedies that turn expectations upside down. His movies embrace absurdity and unexpected twists. With Daaaaaalí!, Dupieux set out to create a “fake biopic” about the legendary Spanish artist Salvador Dali.

The film stars Anaïs Demoustier as journalist Judith, who’s assigned to interview the eccentric Dali. But capturing the famously shape-shifting artist proves challenging. Dali is portrayed by multiple actors throughout, with his age changing randomly.

Dupieux crafts Daaaaaalí! as more of an homage than a straightforward biopic. It celebrates Dali’s surrealist spirit rather than claiming to be the definitive telling of his life. The director draws from Dali’s fascination with dreams and the subconscious through Daaaaaalí!’s experimental storytelling.

This review will analyze how Daaaaaalí!’s narrative structure comments on traditional biopic tropes and self-mythologizing artists. It will also explore Dupieux’s surreal approach and discussion of reality,...

A popular anime empire and a beloved manga both hit screens in North America this weekend, with The Outrun starring Saoirse Ronan, five actors playing surrealist artist Salvador Dali, and a trio of thought provoking docs new on the specialty circuit this weekend.

Also noting Columbia Pictures’ Saturday Night from Jason Reitman, which rocked its opening last week, expands in NY and LA and adds ten new markets for 21 locations total before going wide Oct. 11. The film, based on the true story of what happened behind the scenes in the 90 minutes leading up to the first broadcast of Saturday Night Live in 1975, debuted to $270k at five theaters in NY/LA for a terrific $54k per theater average.

Moderate releases: Sony Pictures Classics’ Saoirse Ronan-starring and Nora Fingscheidt-directed drama The Outrun hits 508 screens. After a decade away in London, 29-year-old Rona (Ronan) returns home to the Orkney Islands. Sober but lonely,...

Good Golly, It’s Dali: Dupieux Dreams Surreal in Distinctive Biopic

It seems surrealism’s pioneer Salvador Dali is experiencing something of a culturally concentric resurgence as a cinematic subject, granted his most appropriately thematic rendering yet in Quentin Dupieux’s Daaaaaali!, the second feature this year from the idiosyncratic director, who is also kinda sorta delivering his first biopic. Arriving shortly after Mary Harron’s shockingly stilted Daliland, featuring Ben Kingsley as the iconic artist, Dupieux formulates his own expectedly original rendering, presenting something more along the lines of Portrait of an Artist as a Difficult Man. Much like Todd Haynes did with Bob Dylan, a revolving door of actors portray Dali, sometimes switching freely in scenes dealing with carefree anachronisms regarding his life and work.…...

Afternoons of Solitude.Ernest Hemingway’s Death in the Afternoon (1932), his book of reportage on bullfighting, was received skeptically by some critics upon its publication. When reviewing it in The New York Times, R. L. Duffs contended that the work’s long-winded spiritualism was at odds with the writer’s habitually lapidary prose. Catalan director Albert Serra is also a self-described admirer of the sport; it repels some even while it mesmerizes others with its peculiar mixture of artful pageantry and shocking gore. His new nonfiction film Afternoons of Solitude (2024) eschews the Hemingway-esque temptation to dress up in philosophical garb a spectacle that, at its core, stems as much from crude, irrational impulses as it does from the desire to touch the sublime through a proximity to violence. In Afternoons, whose title professes its affinity for Hemingway’s rendering of tauromaquia, Serra follows the Peruvian bullfighter Andrés Roca Rey, observing...

Time Travel! Alternate Dimensions! Sex! Murder! Wardrobes! These are the elements of Yannis Veslemes’ psychologically Lovecraftian mind-bender She Loved Blossoms More. A pure late-night slice of madness like Tilman Singer’s Luz (2018) or Ben Wheatley’s In The Earth (2021), She Loved Blossoms More lives on a plane of existence where logic is elusive. A movie that’s best enjoyed late, late at night. It lives in those moments just before falling asleep where reality is slowly peeled away to reveal an ethereal otherworld that can be molded like a piece of clay into any hideous shape you desire.

Using an antique wardrobe as a conduit for their experiments, three brothers attempt to bring their mother back from the dead. Or, at the very least, bring her to their present from a time in her past when she was still alive. The experiments have not been going well but they know...

In a scene near the end of Quentin Dupieux’s Daaaaaalí!, Judith (Anaïs Demoustier), a French journalist assigned to interview Salvador Dalí, is riding the bus, in the doldrums after the latest failure to capture her mercurial subject on film. The facial hair of the man seated across from her reminds her of Dalí’s iconic mustache, and after Judith aks him if it’s an intentional homage, he retreats behind his newspaper. The front-page headline reads, “Barista Lets Off Steam on Paris Bus”—a reference to the insult that Judith’s producer (Romain Duris) calls her—with a photograph of Judith below. Dupieux then cuts to a reverse shot of her that begins as a perfect match of the photo, one of countless flourishes of dream logic in the film that subvert conventional cinematic handling of time and space.

That there are almost as many actors portraying Dalí as...

This week on The Anime Effect: Rock band Flow shares a message to fans as they celebrate their 20th anniversary as a band, plus the latest news about Dragon Ball Daima and Yu-Gi-Oh! games. Episode 31 of The Anime Effect is now available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and anywhere else you listen to your podcasts! If you're waiting to watch the video episode, it'll be live on Crunchyroll and YouTube at 7 p.m. Et. Listen or Watch on: Episode 31 Summary In this week's episode, Nick, LeAlec and Leah share their deepest, darkest secrets, but also talk Spy x Family movie news, Dragon Ball Daima updates and Yu-Gi-Oh! game announcements, plus more! Then, Leah and LeAlec interview iconic band Flow, known for their work on opening themes for Naruto and Dragon Ball Z , and discuss tour life, their favorite foods to get outside of Japan and which anime characters they relate to the most.

"Now it's sublime." Music Box Films has unveiled the official US trailer for the acclaimed film Daaaaaali! from wacky filmmaker Quentin Dupieux (who also premiered his latest film The Second Act in Cannes earlier this year). Quite simple, this brilliantly hilarious comedy is a wild and weird take on the iconic artist Salvador Dalí. It premiered a the 2023 Venice Film Festival last year to uproarious laughter - it was one of my favorite films of the festival. Dupieux's film is sort of about a young journalist who attempts to meet with the iconic surrealist artist Salvador Dalí on several occasions for a documentary. But it never seems to work out. To add to the confusion, multiple actors portray Dali during different scenes in the film. Starring Anaïs Demoustier, Romain Duris, Gilles Lellouche, Edouard Baer, Pio Marmaï, Didier Flamand, and Jonathan Cohen.

From “Rubber” to “Wrong” to “Smoking Causes Coughing” and “The Second Act,” eccentric French auteur Quentin Dupieux is quickly becoming one of Europe’s most prolific filmmakers akin to a Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Albeit with eccentric, often fourth-wall-breaking comedies. He had two films debut at festivals in 2023, including the heckler hostage comedy “Yannick” at Locarno and the Salvador Dalí “real fake biopic” “Daaaaaalí!” out of competition at the 2024 Venice Film Festival. A movie where five actors play the surrealist icon, “Daaaaaalí!” is now making its way to U.S. theaters courtesy of Music Box Films, and IndieWire shares the exclusive trailer below.

Here’s the official synopsis: “For journalist Judith Rochant (Anaïs Demoustier), the assignment to interview renowned artist Salvador Dalí is a great career opportunity–if only he would agree to sit still and answer a single question. What begins as a 15-minute conversation blows up into a bonafide cinematographic documentary portrait,...