Cine-Excess IV: Cult Bodies And Bodies Of Knowledge

Cine Excess IV ‘Corporeal Excess: Cult Bodies’ ran between 29th April-1st May 2010. The themed event was focused to tie in with our invited Guest of Honour Joe Dante, internationally celebrated creator of a number of body horror/comic horror classics.

Dante has continued to experiment with new forms of movie technology including 3D and internet modes of delivery, while his love of cult film has also resulted in him compiling the crucial A-Z of classic cult promos Trailers from Hell.

Joe Dante recently completed a restoration of his 1968 rarely seen cult collage epic The Movie Orgy, which was screened at the Venice Film Festival. We are delighted to present an exclusive UK theatrical premiere of a 90 minute cut of The Movie Orgy on Thursday 29th April at 8.30pm. This was followed by an on-stage discussion between Joe Dante and leading film critic Kim Newman.

The conference and festival focused on the body in cult media including film, TV, games, comics and online media. Various aspects of how the body has been represented within the cult tradition were discussed: spectacular, monstrous, mutilated, erotic, gendered, transfigured, censored, ethnic, transgressive, unruly, resistant, grotesque, dead, violent, objectified and technologically enhanced.

Corporeal Excess: Cult Bodies featured a high profile keynote address by Professor Richard Dyer (King’s College), on the topic of European serial killers in society and cinema. Professor Dyer is the author of a number of extremely influential volumes including Stars (BFI, 1979; reprinted 1980, 1985, 1991; new edition 1998), Heavenly Bodies: Film Stars and Society, (Macmillan, 1987); Now You See It: Historical Studies in Lesbian and Gay Film, (Routledge, 1990), The Matter of Images: Essays on Representations (Routledge, 1993), White (Routledge, 1997), Seven (BFI, 1999) and Pastiche (Routledge, 2006).

We were delighted to host such a distinguished keynote at Cine-Excess IV, and Professor Dyer’s talk took place on Friday 30th April at 11.45am.

Corporeal Excess: Cult Bodies also featured over 30 talks, panel discussions and plenary sessions by leading critics and theorists including Stacey Abbott, Lorna Jowett, Darren Kerr, Tina Lorenz, Charlie Blake, Beth Johnson, Clarissa Smith, Adam Locks, Iain Robert Smith, Michael Ahmed, Steven Rawle, Aga Skrodzka-Bates, Adrian Smith, Rachel Mizsei Ward, Tamao Nakahara, Ian Hunter, Siu Yan Xavier Tam, Kazumi, Mia Chen, Daniel Portland, Darren Elliott, Nicola Woodham, Richard Nowell, Wickham Clayton and Johnny Walker.

As the reputation of Cine-Excess festival component continues to grow, we were able to secure a number of high profile UK theatrical premieres and exclusive pre-release screenings. This year we were proud to present our strongest line-up of exclusive screenings to date:

The Movie Orgy (Joe Dante, 1968): Cine-Excess IV was proud to announce an exclusive UK theatrical premiere of footage from Joe Dante’ s unseen first film The Movie Orgy. In the words of the legendary director, The Movie Orgy “is an unclassifiable extravaganza assembled from found footage by Joe Dante and Jon Davison from 1968 thru 1974. The original running time of seven hours was pared down over time as different material was added and removed.” The film is a paracinematic cult collage of imagery from television, movies, old serials, news programs, musical performances edited in Dante’s unique style to form a pop culture explosion. Unseen publicly for decades, recent revivals in LA and at last year's Venice Festival have proved popular and Cine-Excess was delighted to screen the opening 90 minutes of the new cut prepared by Dante in this exclusive UK theatrical screening.

Demons (Lamberto Bava, 1986) Cine-Excess IV was thrilled to present a special preview screening of the forthcoming release of this cult classic. Directed by Lamberto Bava, and produced by Dario Argento, this body horror epic details the terrifying events that unfold when two young girls accept an invitation to a screening of an untitled horror movie, only to find that the cinema patrons are infectious zombies.


The Party’s Over (Guy Hamilton, 1963) Cine-Excess IV was honored to be able to present the worldwide theatrical premiere of this controversial cult rarity, which has been painstakingly restored and is screened here in its entirety for the first time.

In the film, enigmatic young Melina (Louise Sorel) falls in with a group of Chelsea beatniks, catching the attention of the gang's defiant leader Moise (Oliver Reed). But wild and drunken partying has terrible consequences, and when Melina's fiancée Carson (Clifford David) begins investigating, the shocking truth is soon revealed. With its controversial themes of teen debauchery, sexual debasement and necrophilia, The Party’s Over was written by Marc Behm (Help!), scored by John Barry  (Zulu, Thunderball, Diamonds are Forever), and directed by the legendary Guy Hamilton (Goldfinger, Diamonds are Forever, Battle of Britain).

We are delighted to welcome the film’s Producer Anthony Perry to  introduce this exclusive screening with Professor Julian Petley (Brunel University).

Piranha (Joe Dante, 1978) Cine-Excess IV was proud to present a screening of this classic monster movie from visionary director Joe Dante. When a deadly strain of fish engineered by the military are accidently released onto an unsuspecting American populous, Bradford Dillman and Heather Menzies face a desperate race against time to warn summer camp residents of the ensuing massacre. Featuring a script co-written by John Sales and Dante’s trademark features of comedic excess, combined with body horror and cutting social critique, Piranha provided the perfect closing bite to this year’s conference and festival theme of ‘Corporeal Excess.’

Joe Dante interviewed at Cine-Excess IV.

Professor Richard Dyer delivers his keynote talk at Cine-Excess IV.