Secret Ceremony, our dedicated film club where the aesthetic meets the esoteric is back, with an extraordinary, one-of-a-kind double-bill…
Channelling the colours of both the indigo third eye chakra and the violet crown chakra, we’ll be showing two blueish, purplish cinematic masterpieces. Although these chakras signify oneness, divinity, and higher knowledge… and we’re totally subverting that by showing witchy films instead.
This transcontinental exercise in dark magic includes a dead poet and a haunted house. Mad rites and Medieval villagers. There’s… even a murder by cat. It’s one hell of a horror finale to our Chakra Season.
So buy your ticket, and join us if you dare…
PART I: Belladonna of Sadness (1973)
Come for the art, stay for the freakiest revenge plot ever…
A rare chance to see this lost masterpiece of animation, chock-full of stunning artwork, from watercolour to pencil drawing. The story concerns Jeanne, a peasant girl who is taken advantage of by the local lord on her wedding night. To take revenge she makes a pact with the devil, who transforms her into a black-robed vision with magical powers of her own.
As the film builds up in kaleidoscopic witchcraft, rebellious depictions of sexuality erupt with the emancipating energies of 1970s Japan’s feminist movements.
PART II: Inferno (1980)
Come for Dario Argento’s inimitable style, stay for the cats…
Inferno starts with musicologist Mark, a student who heads to New York City when his sister Rose mysteriously vanishes from her haunted apartment building.
Rose had recently grown obsessed with a book called The Three Mothers that supposedly reveals the locations of three forces of evil, a trio of witches that control the world through ‘sorrow, tears, and darkness’.
A quasi-sequel to the legendary Suspiria, this lesser-known offering from Giallo master-director, Dario Argento, is a hallucinatory nightmare. A transcontinental exercise in campy dark magic, it starts as a psychedelic trip that gradually turns into gut-wrenching horror… 80s style.
VENUE: She’s Lost Control, 42 Valentine Rd, London E9 7AD
DRESS CODE: Think chic in tones of violet, cool blues and dark hues (if you’re not comfortable wearing something purple or blue, perhaps chose an accessory in one of those colours, or wear white, black, or neutrals to avoid clashing).
TIMINGS:
5.00pm: Doors open
5.15pm: Part I ‘Belladonna of Sadness’ starts promptly
6.30pm - 7.30pm: bathroom break, drink top-up etc.
7.40pm: Part II ‘Inferno’ starts promptly
9.15pm: End (unless you want to join us for drinks after)
Final word of caution: these are intense, provocative films, dealing with some very big - and occasionally painful - themes. Please check out the movies beforehand to make sure you’ll be comfortable.