Sydney Film Festival head of programs Jenny Neighbour has clocked up 30 Sydney Film Festivals in her time. To mark this milestone for one the festival's key creatives, she's been given an all-night movie marathon to curate, and she's pulled out all of the stops, choosing four mind-blowing movies from the 1970s – cinema's most freewheeling and unhinged decade.
“These films hark back to my time as an arts student in London in the early '80s and discovering the capital's legendary Scala Cinema – a true movie treasure trove, from the days when films weren’t accessible online or even in stores," says Neighbour. "It’s there I discovered that films could be provocative, trashy, surreal, troubling, and not always in English.”
Kicking off at 10pm on Saturday June 8, the films screening will be:
Eraserhead (1977)
David Lynch's debut feature is a touchstone of indie cinema. It's a black and-white freak-out about a young man who discovers he's the father of a grotesque wormlike creature.
In the Realm of the Senses (1977)
An essay in sex and death from Japanese filmmaker Nagisa Oshima's, this one features unsimulated sex and a hugely controversial ending.
O Lucky Man! (1973)
Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange) stars in an epic and scathing deconstruction of capitalism, in which a young coffee salesman travels the length and breadth of the UK having insane misadventures. The young Helen Mirren also stars.
Female Trouble (1974)
An early, lurid, low-budget movie by the 'Pope of Trash' John Waters stars Divine as both a rebellious high school student and the man who makes her pregnant.
“This All Night Cine-Love In may change your cinematic world," says Neighbour, "and if it doesn’t... well, it’s going to be a great night at the movies.”
The full Sydney Film Festival program is announced on Wednesday May 8.