Not a Pretty Picture

a film by Martha Coolidge

In 1962, when she was 16, Martha Coolidge was date raped by an older student of the same high school. Recreating the circumstances of the director’s ordeal, this 1976 docudrama is, just as its name suggests, not a pretty picture. Molly Haskell wrote in 2024:

Given the rise in reported incidents of rape and the omnipresence of the subject across social media in the intervening years, you’d think Not a Pretty Picture would have lost its power to shock. It hasn’t. Coolidge’s seminal film is a fascinating window onto another time, one that we would like to think of as kinder and gentler, but alas, Not a Pretty Picture also seems horribly contemporary, shudder-inducing in its relevance...

So it is. Michele Manenti, herself a rape survivor, plays Martha at 16. Jim Carrington is scarily convincing as Curly the rapist. But there’s light too. Lot of it is provided by Martha’s best friend, Anne Mundstuk, as herself.

This film, Coolidge’s debut feature, was shown as part of the cycle Diversidad, Igualdad y Cultura by Filmoteca Canaria and Instituto Canario de Desarrollo Cultural.

And Then There Were None

a film by René Clair
based on a novel by Agatha Christie

To me, this 1945 movie — the first cinematic adaptation of the classic novel — was not as much a mystery, let alone film noir, as a (black) comedy. According to Wikipedia, this is what René Clair wanted to make all along. Jolly good fun throughout.

The film is full of familiar faces; alas, I couldn’t recall where exactly I saw them.

Diez negritos opened the cycle Nada es lo que parece. 50 años sin Agatha Christie organised by Asociación de Cine Vértigo. Curiously, the Spanish title is faithful to the original title of the novel although the film features figurines of Indians (and was released in the UK as Ten Little Indians).

Orlando, ma biographie politique

a film by Paul B. Preciado

According to Wikipedia,

ARTE France reached out to Preciado in hopes of producing a documentary focused on his work as a philosopher. Preciado rejected the idea and instead jokingly suggested that the film should be an adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando: A Biography in an attempt to shut down the conversation. To his surprise, ARTE France agreed and asked Preciado to make the film.

And good thing they did. The film is neither a documentary nor adaptation nor, despite the name, biography, but a process, metamorphosis, transition — like those of the film’s many intelligent, charming, and funny protagonists. And yes, it’s political. Enough said. Watch it. Enjoy it.

Orlando, mi biografía política opens the fifth cycle Diversidad, Igualdad y Cultura organised by Filmoteca Canaria and Instituto Canario de Desarrollo Cultural.