British director Edgar Wright, the avid genre remixer behind SHAUN OF THE DEAD, HOT FUZZ, SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD, BABY DRIVER, and LAST NIGHT IN SOHO, sits down with critic Alicia Malone to discuss his early moviegoing memories (including sneaking into GREMLINS as a child), his abiding love for popular genres, and what he looks for in a good horror movie. The films he has chosen to present reflect his omnivorous embrace of art house and grindhouse alike, with the British teen exploitation shocker BEAT GIRL and Mario Bava’s hyperstylish giallo classic BLOOD AND BLACK LACE rubbing shoulders with masterpieces by Max Ophuls, Ingmar Bergman, and Luis Buñuel.
Directed by Edmond T. Gréville • 1960 • United Kingdom
Starring David Farrar, Noëlle Adam, Christopher Lee
An edgy blast of adolescent angst, early rock ’n’ roll, and exploitation sleaze, this X-rated British cult classic follows rebellious teenage hell-raiser Jennifer Linden (Gillian Hills) as ...
Directed by Mario Bava • 1964 • Italy, West Germany
Starring Cameron Mitchell, Eva Bartok, Thomas Reiner
Director Mario Bava cemented his reputation as the master of Italian horror with this deliriously stylized thriller, one of the foundational works of the giallo genre and an influence on dire...
Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger • 1947 • United Kingdom
Starring Deborah Kerr, Sabu, David Farrar
This explosive work about the conflict between the spirit and the flesh is the epitome of the sensuous style of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. A group of nuns—played by som...
Directed by Max Ophuls • 1953 • France
Starring Danielle Darrieux, Charles Boyer, Vittorio De Sica
The most cherished work from French master Max Ophuls, THE EARRINGS OF MADAME DE . . . is a profoundly emotional, cinematographically adventurous tale of deceptive opulence and tragic romance. When...
Directed by Basil Dearden • 1959 • United Kingdom
A beautiful female college student is found dead in a public park; the police soon discover that her murder may have been racially motivated. Basil Dearden's bold, direct police procedural, starring Nigel Patrick as the detective in charge of t...
Directed by Bryan Forbes • 1964 • United Kingdom
Starring Kim Stanley, Richard Attenborough, Margaret Lacey
The medium is the menace in this hair-raising suspense classic. In one of her precious few screen roles, stage legend and renowned Method actor Kim Stanley delivers an electrifying, Academ...
Directed by Ingmar Bergman • 1966 • Sweden
Starring Liv Ullmann, Bibi Andersson
By the midsixties, Ingmar Bergman had already conjured many of the cinema’s most unforgettable images. But with the radical PERSONA, he attained new levels of visual poetry. In the first of a series of legendary perf...
Directed by Luis Buñuel • 1967 • France
Starring Catherine Deneuve, Jean Sorel, Michel Piccoli
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 b...
Directed by Nicolas Roeg • 1973 • United Kingdom
Starring Donald Sutherland, Julie Christie
Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie mesmerize as a married couple on an extended trip to Venice following a family tragedy. While in that elegantly decaying city, they have a series of inexplicable, t...
