Malpertuis (1971): Director's Cut (4k Restoration)

About this event

'... there is a place, an evil place where sane men fear to tread.' A masterpiece of feverish atmosphere and creeping unease, this bizarre and hypnotic film combines 19th-century gothic horror, 1970s erotic arthouse, 1940s surrealism, macabre family drama, mad science, mythological fantasy, and sex comedy farce. Outlandish, lurid, and baffling, Malpertuis , superbly directed by the underappreciated Belgian director Harry Kümel , a kind of more baroque Jean Cocteau, virtually vanished after its premiere at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival, an elusive legend among devotees of fantastical cinema for many years. Beautifully restored in 4K with supervision by the director, this unreal, nightmarish film, halfway between Hammer horror and giallo, and with a third-act revelation as audacious and bewildering as any ever filmed, should not be missed by anybody interested in cult cinema. + Bar Sounds Before and after the film, lose yourself in the sounds of the dark arts: DJs conjure otherworldly, esoteric, immersive horror atmospheres. - A young sailor, Jan (played with impassive baby-doll beauty by Mathieu Carriere in a tight white uniform), newly arrived onshore in his Flemish hometown, returns unwillingly to the remote, ornate, and decrepit family mansion, Malpertuis, the home of his sister, Nancy ( Susan Hampshire ), presided over by his moribund, inordinately wealthy, occultist uncle Cassavius (a memorably cantankerous performance by Orson Welles ). Rotting in his bed, the despised, despotic old man spews venom on the grotesque and demented relatives and sycophants that haunt Malpertuis while scheming to inherit his vast fortune. The inheritance, however, carries repercussions far more horrific than anyone could imagine. Compelled to never leave the mansion for the rest of their days, their mundane lives degrade into secret plots and gruesome deaths.