The body knows how to recognise eroticism, but how to express it? How can it be explained through cinema? The cycle Erotic Cinema - Challenging the Limits confronts this question through 20 films and a cine-concert that challenge conventions and expose the deepest recesses of human desires. It's not just the search for pleasure: it's the exploration of identity, moral limits and the confrontation with what is taboo.
Among the highlights of the cycle, some sessions will feature discussions with directors, providing a rare opportunity to delve deeper into the themes addressed in the films. David Cronenberg will be present for Crash (1996), to discuss the fetishism that unites desire and technology in a disruptive experience. Adina Pintilie, after the screening of Touch Me Not (2018), will create a space for reflection on the impact of touch and vulnerability, central themes in her film that challenge traditional notions of intimacy. Mario Martone will also be present with The Scent of Blood (2004), in a conversation about the fascination with overwhelming passions and destructive desires.
Among the other highlights of the cycle is the screening of Louis Feuillade's Les Vampires (1915), in special sessions with a cine-concert by Rodrigo Amado Unity, offering an immersive experience of this classic.
Other films on show include classics such as Luis Buñuel's Beauty of the Day (1967), starring Catherine Deneuve as a housewife who explores her sexuality by working as a prostitute. In Jean-Jacques Beineix's Betty Blue (1986), emotional intensity and eroticism find an explosive synergy, capturing obsessive love in all its rawness. The controversial Calígula - The Ultimate Cut (2023), by Tinto Brass, will also be exhibited, offering an insight into the excesses and perversions of Ancient Rome.
Curated by Denis Ruzaev and Ines Lopez Branco, this cycle is a journey through the evolution of eroticism in the history of cinema, highlighting renowned filmmakers whose visions traverse the sensual, the violent and the deeply disturbing.