Good morning, Bacchantes! As the working week winds down and we head into the weekend, BUFF XX is going strong, with three more days of wild and wicked cinema ahead. Tonight begins with our fifth annual Homegrown Horror celebration of local New England talent curated by screenwriter and film critic Chris Hallock. Our latest installment is the most unique assortment yet; prepare for a convention-defying, anxiety-inducing mixtape for the terror-philic, courtesy of your nor’eastern neighbors.
Next up, we’re honored and exultant to bring you the world premiere of Orson Oblowitz’s The Queen of Hollywood Blvd. This audacious female-centric revenge flick, swathed in faded neon, religious iconography, and leopard prints, takes you on sublime and stylish thrill ride along Tinseltown’s infamous mile-long haven of debauchery and debasement. We’ll have Orson Oblowitz and lead Rosemary Hochschild in attendance for a Q&A after the film. If you’ve come for blood, breasts, and a bokeh-ed glimpse into Los Angeles’ rapidly disappearing underbelly, you will be wholly satisfied.
We’re also proud to bring Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani’s visionary talent back to BUFF for the third time with Let the Corpses Tan. Having previously mastered (and transcended) the giallo genre with Amer and The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears, Cattet & Forzani turn their attention to the Italian Eurocrime films of the 70s and the Spaghetti Western, mashing up the two genres with an equally fetishistic fervor. Using staccato editing, lush photography and an assaulting soundtrack, Let the Corpses Tan is a sensory feast that you can’t take your eyes from. Afterwards, head on over to Les Sablons in Harvard Square for the after party hosted by Fernet-Branca, with DJ Brother Cleve spinning 70s poliziotteschi themes all night long.
For the braver souls in the crowd, you’ll want to hang out at the Brattle ’til just before midnight (maybe after steeling yourself with a few stiff Fernet-Branca cocktails) for our annual Trigger Warning program starting at 11:45pm. We take the title of this program seriously. This is where the most sick, twisted, and profane films at BUFF live. If there’s anything that’s upsetting, offensive or just plain wrong, it’s probably in here. Enter at your own risk and leave the kiddies at home.
Speaking of kiddies though, you might not want to hit the Fernet-Branca too hard tonight, because we’ve got guest curator extraordinaire Kier-La Janisse here to present her annual Saturday Morning All-You-Can-Eat Cereal Cartoon Party tomorrow, and that’s probably the only thing in this depraved fest suitable for the little ones. So chug a hot coffee (because we know you didn’t take our advice about the Fernet), grab the kids, and we hope to see you bright and early tomorrow morning for three hours of non-stop retro cartoons and plenty of multi-colored sugary cereals. Not to mention the two days of festival programming still to come!