American Exploitation and The New French Extremity. Want a better understanding of these movements? Start here! Take a deep dive on the entirety of two misunderstood subgeners in this multi-part series, beginning now with Marihuana and Criminal Lovers. The complete who, what, where, when, why of exploitation. Feigned outrage as a cover to enjoy smut. Exploitation films seek to ride a wavelength of some conversation already in the public. They’re looking to hitch themselves to the zeitgeist. Whether they deliver or not, they will become a mile marker on the evolutionary path of various tropes and stories. Future writers will see them in their younger influential years or even just walk by the posters and they’ll become part of the mixture that makes up mainstream tellings of similar stories. Also by being an early form of independent cinema, they’re better equip to tap into an idea that is only beginning to break it’s way into the mainstream public. Exploitation as counter-culture. Telling the true story of life in historical America. Criminal Lovers, also known as Les Amants criminels. The complete introduction to The New French Extremity. Everything people think they know about the French Extreme is wrong.
Links
Letterboxd: The New French Extreme
Alice’s complete list of films in The New French Extremity.