OFFSCREEN Film Festival Brussels Welcomes Radley Metzger, And A Whole Lot More

This week, the seventh edition of the Offscreen Film Festival in Brussels will start, undoubtedly one of the best 'genre' festivals in Europe. And their line-up this year is very much yummie.

Radley Metzger is one of the guests of honor this year, and he will be giving a masterclass on nude cinematography. Also, they screen just about every film of his you can quickly name. Score, Misty Beethoven, Lickerish Quartet, Pamela Mann, Camille 2000... they're all there.

Who isn't there is Ken Russell, as he died in 2011, but his filmography gets the same treatment here. It's hard to think of a film of his that isn't in the programme. Examples are: Tommie, Altered States, Lisztomania, Women in Love... even Lair of the White Worm is there. And The Devils will be shown in its 111-minute edit, the longest Warner Brothers currently allows to be screened.

Another festival theme this year is British Cult Cinema, with director Robin Hardy and actress Martine Beswick as guests, and a veritable slew of (in)famous classics. These include X-Tro, Psychomania, The Bed Sitting Room, Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde, Journey to the Far Side of the Sun, and of course The Wicker Man.
Arthouse anime director Gisaburo Sugii is in the spotlight as well, with three films from the seventies and eighties: The Belladonna of Sadness, Night on the Galactic Railroad, and The Tale of Genji.

Festival themes aside, there will also be many contemporary genre films like Blue Ruin, Her, R100, and Why Don't You Play in Hell.

Offscreen starts on the 5th of March, with opening film The Strange Colour of Your Body's Tears, and you can see the entire program on-line at their website.