For this eleventh edition of the PIFFF, the cult screenings are placed under the sign of blazing fury. 

Alexandre Aja's HAUTE TENSION, a burning icon of French Extremity, is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year and will be shown in a restored 4K version, in the presence of the director. 

Speaking of another stellar anniversary,  Mad Movies celebrates its 50th birthday and has carte blanche to set fire to a cult screening. The editorial staff has chosen STRANGE DAYS, Kathryn Bigelow's searing thriller, and its editor-in-chief Fausto Fasulo shares details about the program: 

"Mad Movies is celebrating its half-century of existence without pomp and circumstance, but with an exceptional 35mm screening of an immense and singular film, prophetic and disturbing, perhaps the darkest of its decade and also its author's most beautiful: Kathryn Bigelow's STRANGE DAYS. If the dizziness is not too great, and if you feel like it, join the Mad Team after the screening for a debate on the treatment of genre films in the press and the notion of "editorial identity" so dear to the magazine.”

Next, the feisty ELECTRIC DRAGON 80.000 V by Gakuryû Ishii will propel you in a frenetic cyberpunk universe. Finally, we offer you to (re)live two of the most incandescent experiences in cinema history: SCHIZOPHRENIA by Gerald Kargl and CALIGULA by Tinto Brass in its complete version. 

The team continues to refine the program, see you next week for more announcements!

HAUTE TENSION
Alexandre Aja, FR, 2003

In the depths of the countryside, two young women are chased by a psychopath. 20 years after the film was released, what is left of the so-called « French Extremity »? There’s only one way to find out: come and see the 4K restored version of the movie, in the presence of its director.

STRANGE DAYS
Kathryn Bigelow, US, 1995

SPECIAL MAD MOVIES 

On the eve of the year 2000, the death of a rapper sparks things off in Los Angeles. There is no film more typical of the 1990s, and yet its provocative potential remains intact. To be rediscovered in 35 mm.

ELECTRIC DRAGON 80.000 V

Gakuryû Ishii, JP, 2001

Dragon Eye Morrison and Thunderbold Buddha channel their yearning for electricity as best they can. Their confrontation seems inevitable. Here we have the missing link between Burst City by Ishii and Tetsuo by Shinya Tsukamoto.

SCHIZOPHRENIA
Gerald Kargl, AT, 1983

A deep plunge into the head of a serial killer. Gerald Kargl’s meteoric film, carried by Zbigniew Rybczyński’s insane photography and editing, Klaus Shulze’s monumental music and Erwin Leder’s out of space performance.

CALIGULA
Tinto Brass, IT/US, 1979

The rise and mostly the fall of a degenerate Roman emperor. This aberration made into a film is presented to you in its obnoxious uncut version, halfway between the fascinating Fellinian approach of Tinto Brass and the vulgarity of producer Bob Guccione.