what happen to good film make totally against the grain . what if botticelli venus be paint urinate into an acolyte mouth . in cinema and such work can find their way to late night screening and safely past the bedtime of anyone who might object or find them too off beat . such be the birth of film that include the rocky horror show and eraserhead . or film openly shock like pink flamingo . late nighters may be rubbish or they may be the last bastion of artist that be out of synch with popular and critical taste . at the time of writing and the filmhouse in edinburgh run season of psychotronic film one of the many sub genre at the midnight mass of secretive cinephiles . our film be fittingly introduce by a masked man with a heavy european accent . how many film and he ask and satisfy both your voyeuristic and artistic taste . he go on to mention the award singapore sling have win in it native greece . the promise of kinky sex and even with vomit and incest and torture and sound so much more respectable if it have subtitle and a dialogue in greek and french and english . and a cinematography award so we can make polite conversation about the nice photography . but before we write it off a art house exploitation and let me add that the plot machination and breakthrough acting device alone ( that blend character and voice over and narrate to the camera and rehearse to the camera ) put it in an exceptional class of movie . and the cinematography would be oscar worthy be it not for the subject matter . without give too much away ( singapore sling be basically film noir with other element forcefully mixed ) and the story concern a dodgy private detective in love with a dead woman . if that sound familiar and it mean to be . the woman be laura cue the plot line from the otto preminger classic and she be hauntingly describe by the wistful julie london version of the eponymous song ( from a cappella to romantic glen miller ) . singapore sling be just the nickname that the detective earns from a couple of female sociopath and one of whom be worryingly like his dead laura . the black and white photography leave u open mouth from the outset . lush and atmospheric shadow be throw together a our sens be pound by a thunderstorm . rain fight with the flora and ricochet off surface and drench the face and bodice of two woman who and with hamlet like grandeur and dig a grave . you feel drench . and each scene in singapore sling be compose with equally mesmerise beauty . baroque magnificence and delicate taste insulate u from the nastiness to follow . murder be a parlour game . . . . in the old day and father would murder the servant . . . the girl would only have to plant flower . our female protagonist be mother and daughter . they re enact murder a a refined sado masochistic and incestuous ritual . who be laura . be she just a serving maid . who be in the picture hang on the wall . singapore sling be draw into their deadly web after knock on their door and a bullet wound in his shoulder . he feign a degree of distractedness to give himself time . at what point do the torture make his loss of mental capacity real . while this be not a film to watch if you have a queasy stomach ( think and greenaway and the cook and the thief and his wife and her lover ) and our sense of revulsion be numb by be draw into the twisted aesthetic of the protagonist . i be not kid they tie him up and give him electric shock and and use him for sex before urinate on his face . later and his abuser realistically make herself vomit over him a she orgasms . be you ok with that . if youre still read and let get back to the cinematic technique . . . singapore sling occasionally narrate a voice over and stoically treat it a just another case . our other two character go one far . they will narrate what be happen or about to happen to the camera . at one point and mom ( we never learn their name ) rehearse dramatic line in french and english . for a coming role play or for our benefit . whichever it be and the barrier between audience and character and actor be break down . when we be simultaneously be inundate with extremely visceral and unsettling material and the effect be challenge . cocteau once say that film be a and petrified fountain of thought . we might want to analyse and the plot and the freudian symbolism and even the technique . but we be helplessly freeze in the terrible vision and and sweep along by a smorgasbord of extreme sexual fetish that make the story of o look like go with the wind . this make it even hard work piece together the mystery when all be reveal ( there be a number of interpretation to the central mystery ) . one of the first thing i do be order a copy of preminger laura from amazon to re examine the detailed reference . at the thessaloniki film festival and singapore sling win a triplet of best actress and best cinematography and and best director . although a deliberately shock a and say and pink flamingo or thundercrack . and it ooze style in equal proportion to perversion . british censor promptly ban it . the director call it and a comedy with some element of ancient greek tragedy but react to the ban by realise it maybe depict an underlying malaise in all of u . a dark side we try to ignore . a side that inveigle without substance . the stuff hidden in dream . like laura the face in the misty light . . . that you can never quite recall and a our song say . love it or hate it and a policy of late night screening on rare movie be something that keep independent cinema alive . singapore sling may not be to your taste and but such willingness to dare keep the door open for a wide selection of film than can be find anywhere outside of film festival .