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Extreme Cinema

The films listed below are (in)famous for arousing controversy on their initial release, be it for explicit scenes of violence, sex or extreme political beliefs . The best films in this collection use their notorious elements not merely to shock, but to provoke ('Salo' uses its disturbing sequences, borrowed from Sade, as a comment on Fascism, whilst the sickening rape scene in 'The Accused' rightly refused to soften the depiction of this despicable crime). The following films can still cause impassioned debate, in some cases decades after they were made... See also the category 'Asia Extreme'. Right: One of the most shocking debuts 'Man Bites Dog'.

A Clockwork Orange (1971)

8.3/10
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Starring: Miriam Karlin, Patrick Magee, Malcolm McDowell, Adrienne Corri

Stanley Kubrick's dark, dazzling, ironic tale of an ultra-violent future filled with marauding gangs, decaying cities and bizarre technologies. Follow... Read more

A Clockwork Orange ( Blu-ray ) (1971)

8.3/10
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Starring: Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee, Adrienne Corri, Miriam Karlin

Stanley Kubrick's dark, dazzling, ironic tale of an ultra-violent future filled with marauding gangs, decaying cities and bizarre technologies. Follow... Read more

A Ma Soeur! ( Fat Girl ) (2001)

6.5/10
Director: Catherine Breillat
Starring: Anais Reboux, Libero de Rienzo, Roxane Mesquida, Arsinee Khanjian

Aka "For My Sister", "Fat Girl". Disturbing, sexually graphic and violent French drama about an overweight 13-year-old Parisian girl who feels ostraci... Read more

Audition (2000)

6.8/10
Director: Takashi Miike
Starring: Ryo Ishibashi, Eihi Shiina, Jun Kunimura

Extreme drama from rebel Japanese director Miike Takashi tells of Aoyama, a lonely widower owner of a video production company, who joins forces with... Read more

Bad Lieutenant (1992)

7.1/10
Director: Abel Ferrara
Starring: Harvey Keitel, Frankie Thorn, Paul Hipp, Victor Argo

About a morally bankrupt cop (Harvey Keitel) who starts to pull himself out of the abyss when he investigates the rape of a nun who refuses to press c... Read more

Black Sun: The Nanking Massacre (1995)

7.5/10
Director: T F Mou

Portrays the ordeals of the members of a poor Chinese family as they try to survive the Japanese occupation of their city. This is an uncompromising p... Read more

Bloodsucking Freaks (1975)

4.8/10
Director: Joel Reed
Starring: Seamus O'Brien, Niles McMaster, Viju Krim, Luis De Jesus, Dan Fauci

Cult classic cannibal 'comedy' about the sadistic Sardu, a man who stages elaborate S & M torture shows in an exclusive New York theatre. What the un... Read more

Body Melt (1993)

5/10
Director: Philip Brophy
Starring: Gerard Kennedy, Andrew Daddo, Ian Smith, Lisa McCune

A gore-filled Aussie B-movie, directed by Philip Brophy and based on his own short stories, in which a small Melbourne community is being used as guin... Read more

Crash (1996)

6.4/10
Director: David Cronenberg
Starring: James Spader, Holly Hunter, Elias Koteas, Rosanna Arquette, Deborah Kara Unger

James Spader, Holly Hunter and Rosanna Arquette are a motley assortment of car crash survivors seeking more and more perverse thrills to communicate,... Read more

Ebola Syndrome (1996)

6.6/10
Director: Herman Yau
Starring: Anthony Wong, Fui-On Shing, Yeung Ming Wan

Anthony Wong is Kai, a man with a grudge against the world. Fleeing from a murder charge he winds up in Africa where he rapes a dying woman. He cont... Read more