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Based on Ryu Murakami’s novel of the same name, Audition is a creepy, sexed-up horror flick that easily ranks as one of the most stylish of all-time. The story begins with a lonely widower who, encouraged by his teenage son, arranges a set of makeshift ‘auditions’ to find a new wife. He soon stumbles upon Asami, a beautiful enigma with a dark history – and if you’ve seen Ring, another cult horror gem by Japanese studio Omega Projects, you’ll have some idea of just how dark things get.

It’s no spoiler to say this film isn’t for the faint-hearted, but there’s a sense of humour amongst the fast-paced action and the gruesome, bloody scenes. There’s also a stellar soundtrack composed by Koji Endo, which adds to the drama with frantic strings and spooky synths which ebb and flow as the mystery unfolds. Fashion fans will be hooked, too: with her PVC butcher’s apron and clinical whites, Asami nails a femme fatale look still cosplayed today.

Audition can be streamed on MUBI.

In Roger Corman’s vision of the futuristic year 2000, a fascist America gathers for a homicidal, government-sponsored, nihilistic transcontinental road race in which drivers score by mowing down innocent pedestrians – rewarding points based on each kill’s brutality. While supported by a wacky national leader who likes things big and fast (hmmm…), the American people are moving on, as evidenced by an armed rebellion who aim to sabotage the race. Made around the same time Nixon was getting lynched for his role in the Watergate scandal, needless to say, that timing went further than mere accident.

Originally conceived as Corman’s attempt to steal some of the publicity surrounding the upcoming release of Rollerball – another high-octane dystopian story of bloodthirsty ‘sport’ – the so-called King of the B-movies succeeded in creating a dark action-comedy that has become a cult classic in its own right.

The 1975 film is one of the finest examples of Corman’s brilliantly low-budget, exploitation ethos – The Little Shop of Horrors (1960) was shot in less than three days – that saw him cemented in film history as well as launch the careers of Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Jack Nicholson and James Cameron, amongst many other. And with a tagline like this – In the year 2000 hit and run driving is no longer a crime. It’s the NATIONAL SPORT! – you know you’re in for one hell of a ride.

Death Race 2000 can be streamed on Youtube.

Of the many directors drawn to Venice and its otherworldly beauty, few do justice to the ancient city quite like Luchino Visconti and his classic adaptation of Thomas Mann’s novella, first published in 1912. From the opening shot of sea and sky as one, the film unfurls through a series of languid, meticulously constructed shots befitting of its Renaissance setting.

In Mann’s novel, the story’s protagonist, Gustav von Aschenbach, is an author who travels to Venice to escape his writer’s block. In Visconti’s version however, Aschenbach (played by Dirk Bogarde) is a renowned composer who escapes to Venice for his ailing health.

There he becomes infatuated with the cherubic beauty of Tadzio (Björn Andrésen), a young Polish boy staying at the same Lido hotel as Aschenbach with his family. Though the pair never speak, their eyes are constantly drawn to one another, building a tension that compensates for its glacial pace with a never-ending supply of exquisite outfits.

In spite of travelling to Venice to better his health, Aschenbach deteriorates physically and emotionally over the course of the film, tormented by his forbidden feelings for Tadzio. Unable to distinguish lust from his platonic love of physical perfection, the film forces us to consider whether beauty is an inherent, visceral emotion or simply an intellectual construct?

Death In Venice can be streamed on Amazon.