Day: April 12, 2014

14 April 2013-04-14

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Stacy Martin and Shia LaBeouf in Nymphomaniac

Out in the UK This Week Nymphomaniac Vol I (Artificial Eye, cert 18, Blu-ray/DVD/Digital) A middle aged man finds a woman beaten up in the street. Taking her back to his house – she doesn’t want the police involved – he coaxes her story out of her with nothing more than a bit of tea and sympathy. And so starts Lars Von Trier’s most “normal” film to date, effectively a Victorian bildungsroman in which one party (Charlotte Gainsbourg) relates the ping-ponging progress of her life, while the other party (Stellan Skarsgård) prompts more revelations with a “do tell me more”. Von Trier barely bothers to hide the structure and sets about acclimatising us … Read more

The Substance: Albert Hofmann’s LSD

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Still of a naked woman from The Substance: Albert Hoffmann's LSD

A movie for every day of the year – a good one 13 April MKULTRA launched, 1953 On this day in 1953, CIA director Allen Dulles officially created the MKULTRA program. Its purpose was to investigate ways of controlling human behaviour, using drugs and other methods. It was a continuation of Operation Paperclip, Projects Chatter, Bluebird and Artichoke, whose purpose was also mind control and the exploration of more effective interrogation techniques. The MK of the name marks it out as being a project under the aegis of the Technical Services Staff division of the CIA. The ULTRA indicates that it was classified as being the very highest level of secret. Its main … Read more