Scalarama: KLUBB SUPER 8 & EROTIC FILM SOCIETY

SWEDISH SEXSATION DOUBLE-BILL

DOORS: 7PM

TICKETS £8 ON THE DOOR / £6.50 ADVANCE (CLICK HERE)

Sweden's Klubb Super 8 and London's Erotic Film Society present a double-bill of Nordic naughtiness from the heyday of Scandinavian smut.

SWEDEN: HEAVEN AND HELL (starts 7:30pm / nc / 1968 / Italy / dir. Luigi Scattini / with Edmund Purdom (narrator) / r-t 85 mins / English version)

In the sixties and seventies, the world observed Sweden's liberal attitudes towards sex with a mixture of self-righteous outrage and prurient fascination. Scattini's shockumentary duly delivered enough spectacle to satisfy even the most jaded sensation seeker. From saunas to skinny-dipping; suicides to swingers; clandestine lesbian nightclubs; alcoholics swigging in public toilets; tripping hippies freaking out; traffic wardens moonlighting as glamour models... even that old exploitation stalwart, the birth of a baby! Purdom's hilariously snarky narration emphasises how resolutely unhip it all is, compared with the previous year's globally scandalous, radical polemic, I AM CURIOUS (YELLOW). But behind the 'mondo' tropes lies a portrait of a society apparently trying to balance a rational approach to permissiveness with deep-rooted nanny-state instincts. A bizarrely fascinating mixture of trash and social history.

JUSTINE AND JULIETTE (starts 9:15pm / nc / 1975 / Sweden / dir. Mac Ahlberg / with Marie Forså (as Marie Lynn), Anne Bie Warburg, Harry Reems / r-t: 95 mins / Swedish with English sub-titles)

De Sade's notoriety has ensured regular - albeit often very loose - adaptations of his writings throughout sexploitation cinema's first 50 years. But few interpretations are as strange as this one! Updating his fable of two sisters pursuing paths of vice and virtue in a wicked world to contemporary Stockholm, adult film pioneer Ahlberg turns the dark depravities into a rollicking sex romp with all the kitsch accoutrements of mid-70s decor and fashion. Forså - a cult favourite in Scandinavian adult cinema - gives a wonderful performance as the perpetually put-upon Justine, touchingly funny as she struggles to survive the moral uncertainties of swinging Stockholm. But Warburg matches her as libertine Juliette, sly and feline, whose mercenary joi de vivre and amoral survival instincts make her some sort of feminist hero. Add a guest appearance by DEEP THROAT's Reems, whose trademark ebullience seems to be in overdrive, and you have a near perfect example of mid-70s Euro-porno chic. NB: this film contains explicit adult imagery; please do not attend if you are likely to be offended.

Since it was founded in 1997, KLUBB SUPER 8 has presented a smorgasbord of rare and wonderful films in its native Sweden and internationally. It boasts an invaluable archive of well over two hundred 16mm and 35mm prints and a growing catalogue of essential DVD releases.

klubbsuper8.com

The Erotic Film Society aims to encourage appreciation and enjoyment of cinematic sex in all its many, diverse manifestations; and to encourage quality in contemporary erotic cinema. It is delighted to be part of the Scala-tribute festival for the third year running.

www.eroticfilmsociety.org

Owing to the nature of these films, strictly over 18 only. Proof of age and identity may be requested. We reserve the right to refuse admission.

Part of SCALARAMA