Five Great Movies Featuring Pools

Pools have almost always been interesting elements in films and television, from movies like “Sunset Boulevard,” “Poltergeist,” and “Gremlins” to famed TV shows like “Breaking Bad.” Since “Night Swim,” Bryce McGuire’s horror tale centered on a swimming pool is currently in theaters, I thought I’d list five great movies centered on or prominently featuring swimming pools. What are some of your favorites? What did you think of “Night Swim”?

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LA&M Finishes The 2023 FETISH FILM FORUM with CRISTIANA: DEVIL NUN

The Leather Archives & Museum is thrilled to continue Fetish Film Forum, a new monthly screening series about sex, relationships, and art. These ten erotic films spanning nine countries and six decades are stunning explorations of fetish, kink, leather, and BDSM.

Many folks in this world have made room for Christ, but we’re making room for Cristiana: Devil Nun. Sexually liberated Cristiana enjoys sex on a plane in front of the other passengers until a storm hits and sends them plummeting from the sky. She begs her higher power for help and promises to become a nun if their lives are spared. The pilot immediately regains control of the plane, and Cristiana soon enters a convent where sex remains an everlasting temptation….

This screening of Cristiana: Devil Nun is co-presented by Corinne Halbert, a psychedelic horror artist obsessed with 1970s cult films and vintage comics. She is also the creator of Acid Nun.

Trailer for Cristiana: Devil Nun can be found here.

Fetish Film Forum trailer can be found here.

Full synopsis and ticketing can be found on the LA&M’s website here.

In the Realm of the Senses (Ai no korîda) (1976) [LA&M Film Fetish Forum]

Banned in many countries thanks to its immensely explicit depictions of sex and sexual acts, Nagisa Ōshima’s “In the Realm of the Senses” is an immense movie, and one that straddles the line between erotica and thriller. Although “In the Realm of the Senses” revels in the eroticism of sexuality and sex, it also delves deep in to the darkness of sexual obsession, control, and the appetite for sex (all of the sex scenes are un-simulated) that can consume our lives. I’ve never actually seen director and writer Nagisa Ōshima’s film before, so viewing it now was quite the surprise. The director fancies themselves in exploring the acts of sex along with the behavior between its core characters that result in lust that inevitably becomes deadly.

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tOuch Kink (2023) [Fantasia Film Festival 2023]

I’ve always maintained that, as long as its legal and consensual, we should embrace our sexuality and kinks no matter how unusual it may seem to others. Kinks and fetishes are a form of human expression as much as they are about desire, and they can be important in deciding who we are and how we can operate on the outside. Sexuality shouldn’t be vilified it should be openly explored and embraced. “tOuch Kink” is a refreshing documentary that, while about sex and erotica, is also about humanity. It’s about our inner desires and how they can be a catharsis and even therapeutic.

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Shortbus (2006) [LA&M Film Fetish Forum]

Director John Cameron Mitchell’s “Shortbus” is a movie I’d only ever heard about since its 2006 release but never actually sat down to watch. Nothing really prepared me for what he had to offer in terms of not only commenting on sexuality but on sex in general. “Shortbus” is unabashedly shocking in its presentation, offering up a movie about a group of New Yorkers, all of whom are seeking human connection. Some of them think that sex will grant them that connection, while some of them are just seeking emotional connection that may or may not allow them that desire with sex and various sexual acts.

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BAD MOVIE MONDAY: Verotika (2019)

I’ve written at length about what makes a good bad movie, but what makes a BAD bad movie? This is what I’d like to talk about in today’s review because I think I found the perfect example. Here is a movie that is so bad, so incompetent, so mind-numbingly lazy, that I can’t just overlook its flaws and give it the benefit of the doubt like I normally would. This is a movie that is insultingly and aggressively terrible. Yes folks, I’m talking about VEROTIKA.
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Querelle (1982) [LA&M Film Fetish Forum]

Director Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s adaptation of “Querelle” is a divisive movie and has been for a long time. It’s a movie that originally split some critics and journalists, as it’s a movie that’s been explained as a film you’d have to be almost exclusively gay to watch. That’s not a criticism or chastising, but the popular opinion I’ve read seems to indicate that it’s mostly clicked with gay audiences. “Querelle” is very much tailored to gay audiences, as it’s a movie about self discovery and main character Querelle searching for a sense of identity.

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Belle de Jour (1967) [LA&M Film Fetish Forum]

Luis Buñuel’s film is not just a celebration of protagonist Severine’s penchant for sadomasochism, but it’s also an examination of her desire for it. When we first meet Severine, she’s riding in a carriage with her husband. After some words are exchanged, he violently tears her off and drags her in to the woods. There she’s tied up, whipped, and savaged by his two coachmen, both of whom delight in taking advantage of her. We then see it’s nothing more than a depraved fantasy from a woman who is absolutely bored. As someone who is a part of the elite, who finds herself in the mountains at a ski lodge every weekend, she desires something so much more that money can buy.

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