SAN FRANCISCO—Bijou Video and PinkLabel.TV have teamed up to present an adults-only summer film series during June at San Francisco’s 4-Star Theater featuring historic erotic cinema by adult directors Peter de Rome, Maria Beatty and Arch Brown.
The screenings are set to run June 3, 10 and 17, and tickets are on sale now for $15. The program is as follows:
June 3rd - Peter de Rome’s The Destroying Angel
The series kicks off with acclaimed ’70s avant-garde erotic filmmaker Peter de Rome's 1976 Hand in Hand Films horror-porn, The Destroying Angel, recently remastered from a 16mm transfer. Loosely based on an Edgar Allan Poe story, the film focuses on Caswell Campbell, a priest in training on sabbatical, torn between the call of the cloth and his pent-up lust. Religious repression leads to internal—and physical—fragmentation as Caswell repeatedly glimpses his sexually ravenous doppelgänger and is drawn into a bizarre underworld of psychedelic supernatural sex, with rough and kinky action and surreal, stylized sex scenes. Expressive photography and trippy editing from Hand in Hand founders Jack Deveau and Robert Alvarez and excellent music selections enhance the film’s atmosphere, and it culminates “in a nerve-shattering climax of frenzied emotion” (Torso Magazine).
June 10th - Maria Beatty Retrospective
The lesbian centerpiece of the series will showcase a retrospective of three films by famed fetish filmmaker Maria Beatty: The Elegant Spanking (1995), Ecstasy in Berlin, 1926 (2004), and Spit and Ashes (2019). The screening will be hosted by the Bay Area’s own Annie Rose Malamet, a lesbian film writer versed in horror and adult genres, and hostess of the "Girls, Guts & Giallo" podcast.
Nouveau and sleekly produced, The Elegant Spanking is the story of a unique lesbian S&M relationship between a mistress and her maid. Enter their fantasy: a seductive chain of nostalgically hot images, shocking, amusing and dripping with sexual perversion. This "post-modern romantic subversion" shows fetish, fantasy and role-playing, mutual female masturbation, bare-bottom spanking, spike heel and foot worship in a totally new and classic approach to lesbian S&M erotica.
Decadent and luminous, Ecstasy in Berlin, 1926 was hailed as a new achievement of erotica upon its release. A golden Weimar beauty slips a needle into her creamy thigh, and while in her euphoria slips into erotic fantasy. She drifts through a variety of exotic experiences, all made possible by her dazzling submission and her partner’s absolute command. She dreams of being strictly corseted, whipped and bound, leading to a glowing, graphic climax. Music by Nick Holmes.
Spit and Ashes is a reimagining of the historical violence waged against women by patriarchal forces in the name of religion, medicine and family. The High Priestess embodies the wild, sexual and grotesque—the untamable hunger of female desire and the ultimate threat to male power. The Midwife is the spirit of all women who sought knowledge and agency over their own bodies and paid for their agency with their lives. Through a series of erotic and brutal rituals these women come together to reclaim their bodies and prepare for the fight ahead. Starring Sadie Lune and Dion De Rossi, with Daniel Maszkowicz. "Best Feature" Winner of the 2022 Golden Raincoat Awards.
The triple-header event will be accompanied by a Q&A with the director. A Venezuelan filmmaker who directs, acts and produces, Maria Beatty’s films are often made in black and white and explore various aspects of female sexuality, including BDSM and fetishism. Inspired by expressionist German cinema, French surrealism and American film noir, Maria Beatty is renowned for her profound explorations of female sexuality, fantasy, fetish and BDSM.
June 17th - Arch Brown’s Pier Groups
Closing the series iis Arch Brown's 1979 work Pier Groups, newly remastered from VHS. This historically significant classic focuses on sex at LGBTQ landmark the NYC piers, which served as a popular gay cruising locale and queer congregating space until its demolition. The film predicts the fate of the piers in its premise: a presumably straight engineer (Johnny Kovacs) is sent to inspect them for a demolition company. His neighbor, well-endowed Keith Anthoni (star of Catching Up), is also headed to the piers, but for a day of freewheeling sexual adventures. As Kovacs attempts to do his job, he continuously observes the ever-present hookups of Anthoni and countless other clones (with heavy emphasis on oral). The anonymous encounters—raunchy, tender, enthusiastic—build up to a kinky, climactic foursome with a touch of bondage. Kovacs’ reaction to the sexual activity all around him is ambiguous—at times quietly comedic, but also lending the film a constant air of intrigue. Beautiful photography of the now-gone piers makes up the majority of this classic, capturing and immortalizing a particular time and place in gay culture. A hot and horny cast and exciting soundtrack (featuring original music by David Earnest, who also scored Brown’s The Night Before) cap off this gem.
The 4-Star Theater is located at 2200 Clement St., San Francisco, CA 94121.
Tickets are available at the links below:
