Otto Berchem

Merging the traditions of art house and splatter, Mondo Veneziano: High Noon in the Sinking City pokes fun at the bloated importance of discursive theories in contemporary art. Cast in an abandoned Venice – a derelict film set in Luxembourg, as it turns out – this short fiction relates a meeting of a curator, a theorist, a painter and a “relational” artist who appear to engage in complex theoretical debates. Their verbal confrontation – a grotesque patchwork of quotes that mocks the art world’s infatuation with sampling and referencing – is punctuated by a string of dreamlike sequences in which the stereotypical characters are seen killing each other in the best tradition of mondo films.

Stage actors Mariah and Daniel play lovers every night, but their onstage romance lacks spark. One slow afternoon, they discover that today’s matinée performance will make or break both their careers. Daniel wants to make big changes, and Mariah starts to wonder: are Daniel’s suggestions reasonable? Or has he lost track of the boundary between actor and character? Rushed to the stage, in front of a live audience, they must figure it out together. “Matinée” is a sexually explicit drama intended to bridge the gap between art film and sex film. The film showcases Steven McAlistair (Scotland) and Alicia Whitsover (England) in their first explicit sex roles ever. Matinée takes a fresh look at what erotic film can be. It features an original musical score and careful attention to capturing the real-life sounds of sex. Real, intense and emotional, Matinée is truly erotic film for people who like film.