Also released as "Erotic Blue" and the more verbose "What Are Those Strange Drops Of Blood Doing On Jennifer's Body?" in Italy, Bloody Iris was another giallo entry by veteran genre writer Ernesto Gastaldi - best known for Torso, and Mario Bava's The Whip and the Body.

Helmer Giuliano Carnimeo (aka Anthony Ascott on English prints) ably constructs the film's murder sequences with slow buildups and rapid attacks, and makes excellent use of the large apartment building and its numerous rooms and creepy underbelly. The widescreen cinematography embraces the broad .... [read full review]

Empire 's first two reels are stunning, noirish mood pieces, and the heroine's realization of some serious deceit should have set up a marvelous mystery-thriller; instead, elements of La Femme Nikita alter events, and not dissimilar from the Luc Besson-penned Crimson Rivers 2 (best characterized as Indiana Jones meets Super Ninja Monks), Empire evokes too many kissing cousin genres, and elongate the inevitable narrative collision before offering up little of substance. What keeps one's interest, however, are the strong performances by the film's two actresses: Laura Morante as the sympathetic head-shrink, and Arly Jover as the traumatized heroine.... [read full review]

Half Past Autumn was filmed and released when a touring photographic retrospective of Gordon Parks work was in its second year. Best-known as a top photojournalist for LIFE magazine, Parks also achieved fame when he switched careers in 1969, and subsequently directed the first Shaft film, in 1971 - but there's so much more to this articulate artist who's responsible for capturing and documenting some of America's most prominent historical and media figures - Malcolm X, Ingrid Bergman - and the plight of the oppressed, poor and destitute. [read full review]

One of Arrabal's most linear films, The Guernica Tree differs from the writer/director's prior work by depicting the epic turmoil of a nation instead of an individual. Arrabal's naughty playfulness also manifests itself through sharp missives at the Fascist regime (the Nazi Freudenlied, used in I Will Walk Like A Crazy Horse , appears again, at full volume), but he also characterizes the dwindling socialist factions as rustic tree-huggers and peace-loving idealists (including an unbilled Hachemi Marzouk, as one of the disenfranchised dwarves). The main link between the warring Fascist and Socialist faction are two strangers who meet in the town of Guernica - before Nazi planes demolish... [read full review]