Catherine Deneuve’s porcelain perfection hides a cracked interior in one of the actress’s most iconic roles: Séverine, a Paris housewife who begins secretly spending her after­noon hours working in a bordello. This surreal and erotic late-sixties daydream from provocateur for the ages Luis Buñuel is an examination of desire and fetishistic pleasure (its characters’ and its viewers’), as well as a gently absurdist take on contemporary social mores and class divisions. Fantasy and reality commingle in this burst of cinematic transgression, which was one of Buñuel’s biggest hits. In French with English subtitles.

Part of our Love Stinks film series.

“Today, Belle de Jour remains Buñuel’s most recognized film, and while it’s not without its flaws, it’s a radical work that reimagines some of the director’s earlier surrealist impulses and anticipates the work of David Lynch.” Slant Magazine

“A shrewd commentary on the hypocrisy of social relations and sexual politics… A strange and captivating film.” The Guardian

“Buñuel’s handling of color is gorgeous. And the acting is impeccable. …Belle de Jour is, like much of Buñuel’s work, almost icily cold and impersonal but at the same time an oblique and paradoxical testament to love. …Pervading the film…are not the enticements of sensuality but the sadnesses of a society in which love and sensuality are seen too seldom as a unity and too frequently as a mutually destructive tangle.” LA Times

Sailor (Nicolas Cage) and Lula (Laura Dern) are two lovers struggling to remain together even when fate seems intent on keeping them apart. In this case, fate is Lula’s mother, Marietta Fortune (played by Laura Dern’s real-life mother, Diane Ladd). Marietta is a desperate woman who hates Sailor and will do anything to keep him away from her daughter. After Sailor is released from prison for murdering a man in self-defense, he and Lula embark on a sex-filled, rocking road trip, all while being hunted by Marietta’s hired goons and threatened by the grotesquely terrifying Bobby Peru (an unforgettable Willem Dafoe).

Part of our Love Stinks film series.

“Lynch’s kinky fairy tale is a triumph of startling images and comic invention.” Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

“David Lynch doesn’t tell stories as much as he shows hallucinations. Weird, wild, excessive, obsessive, idiosyncratic visions.” Marjorie Baumgarten, The Austin Chronicle

What if love was a sickness? Or even worse, a cannibalistic impulse that can only be satisfied via utter consumption? Director Claire Denis follows these questions to their gruesome conclusions in this visceral portrayal of an all-consuming desire. When newlyweds Shane (Vincent Gallo) and June (Tricia Vessey) honeymoon in Paris, Shane secretly tracks down renowned neuroscientist Dr. Sémeneau (Alex Descas) and his wife, Coré (Béatrice Dalle), whom Shane once knew and was obsessed with. Coré suffers from a strange and savage sexual affliction, requiring her to be quarantined at all times. Shane quietly suffers from the same malady—a sickness more terrible than anyone can imagine—and can’t help but be drawn to Coré, no matter how deadly the attraction proves to be. In English and French with English subtitles.

Part of our Love Stinks film series.

“Forever cemented in (or relegated to) the cultural annals of New French Extremity, Trouble Every Day contains its own brand of dream-like, drowsy fear—akin to the sensation of waking up in the middle of a hellish nightmare that’s so horrifying, you fall back asleep out of curiosity for just how gruesome it gets.” Natalia Keogan, Paste

“Watching Trouble Every Day, at least if you don’t know what’s coming, is like biting into what looks like a juicy, delicious plum on a hot summer day and coming away with your mouth full of rotten pulp and living worms… Whatever you make of Denis’ movies, she never wants you to leave the theater unmoved or unshaken. She wants to turn you on and mess you up. She wants – there’s no better way to say this – to fuck with your mind. And she’s always going to be the one on top.” Andrew O’Hehir, Salon

Seventeen-year-old Simone (Désirée Nosbusch) is obsessed with a pop star that goes by the name “R” (Bodo Staiger of real-life synth-pop band Rheingold, who also composed the movie’s superb soundtrack). Simone fantasizes about the love she believes is meant to be between her and R. This obsession soon consumes her so thoroughly that it takes over her life, isolating her from everyone. When R comes to town to make a television appearance, Simone is suddenly gripped by a trance-like state, leaving school, friends, and parents behind. She wants nothing more than to love and be loved by R. But when she finally meets her idol face to face and realizes that the reality of their relationship will never live up to her fantasy, she becomes dangerous.

DER FAN is an unsettling treasure of German underground cinema that builds to a shocking climax not easily forgotten. In German with English subtitles.

Part of our Love Stinks film series.

“Der Fan is stylish, twisted, heavy, and absolutely magnetic. Désirée Nosbusch’s turn as Simone is perfect; capturing the emotional essence of being an obsessed teenager.” Annie Choi, Bleeding Skull

“One of the most chilling portrayals of psychotic teenage obsession ever committed to film.” Celluloid Screams Festival

“Dark, perverse… truly transgressive and still possessing the ability to shock.” Alex Ross Perry

Chaos lurks in every corner of this giddily off-kilter romantic comedy by Paul Thomas Anderson. Struggling to cope with his erratic temper, novelty-toilet-plunger salesman Barry Egan (Adam Sandler, in his first dramatic role) spends his days collecting coupons and dodging the insults of his seven sisters. The promise of a new life emerges when Barry inadvertently attracts the affection of a mysterious woman named Lena (Emily Watson), but their budding relationship is threatened when he falls prey to the swindling operator of a phone sex line and her deranged boss (played with maniacal brio by Philip Seymour Hoffman). Fueled by a baroque-futurist score by Jon Brion, the Cannes-award-winning PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE channels the spirit of classic Hollywood and the whimsy of Jacques Tati into an idiosyncratic ode to the delirium of new romance.

Part of our Love Stinks film series.

“Though it was critically acclaimed and served as a vindication of Sandler’s dramatic chops, it failed to make back its budget at the box office. Time has been kind to Punch-Drunk Love, with plenty of filmmakers including Guillermo del Toro and Bong Joon-ho saying that it’s one of their favorite films. And it’s a great representation of how love can come into your life when you least expect it — as well as an example of how love can better one’s life.” Collier Jennings, Collider

“Punch-Drunk Love is above all a portrait of a personality type. Barry Egan has been damaged, perhaps beyond repair… The film is exhilarating to watch because Sandler, liberated from the constraints of [predictable comedy] formula, reveals unexpected depths as an actor. Watching this film, you can imagine him in Dennis Hopper roles. He has darkness, obsession and power. His world is hedged around with mystery and challenge.” Roger Ebert

It’s the 1980s. Robbie Hart (Adam Sandler) lives in his grandmother’s basement in New Jersey and sings in a wedding band. His dreams of being a rock star are long gone, replaced by a burning desire to find the right girl and settle down. But when his fiancée leaves him standing at the altar, he becomes a wedding planner’s worst nightmare, taking out his bitterness on stage… until his budding relationship with new friend Julia (Drew Barrymore, delightful as ever) lifts his spirits and starts to develop into something more. Too bad Julia is engaged to super douche businessman Glenn Gulia.

Part of our Love Stinks film series.

“A sparkling romantic comedy, the kind of picture that glides by so gracefully and unpretentiously that it’s only upon reflection that you realize how much skill, caring and good judgment had to have gone into its making.” Kevin Thomas, The Los Angeles Times

“Ridiculous and surprisingly likable – sweet, silly and light as a soap bubble.” Stephanie Zacharek, Salon

“Like the cinematic equivalent of cotton candy, it might make you yak, but it tastes pretty good going down.” Marc Savlov, The Austin Chronicle