The Grand Guignol Theatre in Paris, founded by Oscar Metenier in 1897, soon became world-renowned for staging wild and bizarre spectacles of madness, mutilation, horror and death. The theatre's dark prince was Andr de Lorde, whose gore-drenched psychodramas of medical and surgical horror included A [...]
The Jivaro Indians of the Peru-Ecuador interior have long been renowned for their ferocity and cruelty in warfare; they are also shamanistic, communing with ancient spectres through the ingestion of poisonous hallucinogens. But above all, the Jivaro are known for their unique and macabre brand of de[...]
Toyohara Kunichika (1835-1900) was one of the last great masters of ukiyo-e, the Japanese art of woodblock-printing which peaked in the late Edo and early Meiji periods. Inspired by the plays, actors and customs of kabuki theatre, and using vibrant new chemical dyes imported from Europe, Kunichika c[...]
Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861) is regarded as one of the true masters of ukiyo-e, the art of Edo-period Japan. Kuniyoshi produced thousands of prints and designs during his lifetime, but is perhaps best-known for his musha-e ("warrior prints"), with which he came to prominence in 1830. Kuniyoshi's se[...]
Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, apprenticed to ukiyo-e master Kuniyoshi since his adolescence, was twenty years old when he first began to make sketches of severed heads and dismembered corpses. Soon he would start to incorporate this imagery into his work, and his vivid and bloody battle scenes quickly caught[...]
Kawanabe Kyosai (1831-89) was only 6 years old when he joined the school of the great ukiyo-e master Utagawa Kuniyoshi, along with such fellow pupils as Yoshitoshi, who followed him in 1850. Later Kyosai studied traditional Japanese painting at the Kano school. As befits this varied apprenticeship, [...]
UKIYO-E - "images from the floating world" - were the most popular art-form of 19th century Japan. Like modern-day manga, these prints could be mass-produced and were admired by people from all sectors of society; and as in manga, the art of ukiyo-e included significant sub-genres dealing in violenc[...]
The first Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 was Japan's first modern war, and their first military action overseas for over 300 years. One notable result of this conflict was a huge burst in popularity for senso-e ("war pictures"), a genre of ukiyo-e which first evolved as a mutation of musha-e ("warri[...]
Dario Argento is the visionary Italian giallo director whose films such as Bird With The Crystal Plumage, Four Flies On Grey Velvet, Deep Red, Suspiria, and Inferno have shocked and disturbed audiences since the 1970s. Argento's films assault the eye with incredible colour schemes, transgressive twi[...]
Kenneth Anger: author of Hollywood Babylon, true disciple of Aleister Crowley, former mentor to both Bobby Beausoleil and Mick Jagger, amongst others - and one of the most original and talented film-makers of the 20th Century. BLACK LEATHER LUCIFER presents revelatory texts on the occult, mind-alter[...]
An illustrated appreciation of the films of Jean Rollin, the cult French film director best-known for his surrealistic depictions of vampires, sex, and horror. With 140 photographs and poster images, including 40 pages in full colour; an interview with Jean Rollin; an introductory essay on his films[...]
ADULT MOVIE SUPERSTARS looks back at the so-called "Golden Age" of American porno movies - roughly from 1970 until 1980 and the advent of video technology - and focuses on 10 legendary actresses/models from that era, presenting photographic profiles of each of them, with over 300 rarely-seen images.[...]
ADULT MOVIE SUPERSTARS looks back at the so-called "Golden Age" of European sex movies - roughly from 1972 until 1980 and the advent of video technology - and focuses on 4 legendary actresses/models from that era, presenting photographic profiles of each of them, with over 130 rarely-seen images. As[...]
An ex-con must save Northern Ireland from a violent cabal, before the nation is plunged into chaosFormer IRA operative Martin Fallon has survived prison, the bottle, and a police pursuit that sent him running the length and breadth of Ireland. As Fallon turns forty years old, the IRA needs his help [...]
Bara början
När Luca Bianchi förlorar sin fru bestämmer han sig för att stänga av alla sina känslor. Han vill inte riskera att behöva uppleva en sådan smärta igen. I stället går han in för sitt arbete som fondförvaltare och bygger raskt upp en förmögenhet. Men när han träffar d[...]
An edited collection of writings from the first 19 volumes of the bestselling Creation Cinema Collection, which documents the world of cult, exploitation, and underground cinema by genre, and arguably forms the best library of alternative film studies in the world. Forming a crucial sampler to the s[...]
MUSHA-E ("warrior pictures") constitute one of the major and most dynamic sub-genres of ukiyo-e, the populist art of 19th century Japan. From Hokusai to Kyosai, virtually all of ukiyo-e's greatest artists created musha-e, in particular Kuniyoshi and Yoshitoshi. It was Kuniyoshi who, inspired by the [...]