Diva Dolorosa 1999    star_border 6.5
In this mesmerizing collage of silent Italian melodrama, found-footage filmmaker Peter Delpeut (Lyrical Nitrate) affectionately captures the spirit of the World War One-era cinema diva. In all-but-lost gems such as La donna nuda (1914), and Tigre reale (1916), superstars such as Lyda Borelli and Pina Menichelli portrayed heroines teetering dangerously between defiant indulgence in sexual passion and hysterical remorse at their own cruelties. Delpeut’s inventive celebration of Black Romanticism is both striking and heartbreaking in its composition—a beautifully woven narrative of tempted fate and self-torment, elegantly guided by Loek Dikker’s original score. Zeitgeist Films is proud to present Delpeut’s stunningly experimental work in all its heaving bosomed, luridly tinted glory.

Verse Texture 1998
An actress and an actor overhear parts of the play "Three Travelers Watch Sunrise" by Wallace Stevens (1879-1955). The dialogues of the three [Chinese] travelers and the girl [Anna] are spoken as a monologue by the actress. The actor just listens but occasionally he gives her instructions.

Exit 1997    star_border 2
Exit is a flashback by a man of fifty. He remembers the moment when, as a young photographer, he was realising an exhibition of his own artistic work when he was unexpectedly commissioned to make a music video. The offer at first seems like the answer to his financial and personal woes, but during the preparations, a childhood trauma he has not come to terms with ensures unexpected complications and everything threatens to turn into a fiasco.