MARCH: BORIS SZULZINGER

Director, screenwriter and producer, Boris Szulzinger was a true jack-of-all-trades, but he made his mark above all in genre cinema, which remains underrepresented in our country. One of the first students at INSAS, the Brussels film school, he interned with Jean-Pierre Melville, worked as a journalist in the United States, co-directed and produced the debut animated films of illustrator Picha, and directed documentaries, commercials (Sabena, Barbie...), and several short films.

His most well-known film, Les Tueurs fous, is based on a grim true crime case from 1971, when two young Frenchmen randomly shot passersby over ten days. The film is not an indictment of juvenile delinquency but rather a stark and chilling portrayal of two amoral individuals carving a bloody path through Brussels. Critics at the time condemned the film for its brutality and lack of ethics. In this sense, Les Tueurs fous was ahead of its time and can be considered a forerunner of the serial killer films that would later become wildly popular.

His second film is the eccentric Mama Dracula. Professor Van Bloed is invited to an international hematology congress organized by Countess Dracula in a small Transylvanian village. Played by Louise Fletcher, the countess is the mother of twins who run the fashion store Vamp, a front to lure in virgins whose blood is used for her daily rejuvenating baths. Cheesy jokes, gratuitous nudity, and exaggerated caricatures make up the core ingredients of this guilty pleasure to be enjoyed without moderation.

APRIL: WHODUNIT

The whodunit ("who [has] done it") revolves around uncovering the culprit among the various characters in a mystery. This playful narrative structure was not Alfred Hitchcock’s favorite—he claimed it killed suspense—but it has nonetheless proven effective across various genres, including giallo and slasher films.

Phantom Lady by Robert Siodmak is a classic of the whodunit genre and is considered one of the possible inspirations for Italian giallo films. In 1975, British director Peter Collinson (The Italian Job, Fright, The Penthouse) reimagined this classic with the stylistic elements of contemporary 1970s giallo cinema. The remake features Jacqueline Bisset (Bullitt) and John Phillip Law (Danger: Diabolik) in a gripping adaptation by one of the most promising directors of British genre cinema—who, sadly, passed away just five years later at the age of 44.

Meanwhile, Terror Train is a prime example of the golden age of 1980s slasher films, unique in that it takes place entirely on a train. It follows the classic slasher formula: a traumatized teenager, bullied by their peers, returns to exact revenge. Riding on the success of Halloween, Terror Train stars Jamie Lee Curtis, the ultimate scream queen—and, in a curious twist, features magician David Copperfield in a supporting role! This was the directorial debut of Canadian editor Roger Spottiswoode, who would later build a career in mainstream Hollywood (Tomorrow Never Dies, Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot with Sylvester Stallone…).

MAY: POST-APO

Brace yourself for the cinematic wasteland—this evening is more about the letter "Z" than "B"! Post-nuke or post-apocalyptic films explore the survival of humanity’s last remnants after a catastrophe (often nuclear), with characters navigating the ruins in two- or four-wheeled vehicles… or more!

In this genre, Mad Max is the undisputed benchmark, inspiring countless imitators. Johnny Hallyday himself seemed to be a huge fan of George Miller’s film, donning a Mel Gibson-esque look and wielding an axe on stage during his early 1980s concerts. Terminus was intended to make him the French Mad Max. The film was directed by renowned cinematographer Pierre-William Glenn, who had worked with major French filmmakers (Rivette, Truffaut, Demy, Costa-Gavras, Tavernier…). The futuristic world was designed by Enki Bilal, and the international cast included Karen Allen (Raiders of the Lost Ark) and Jürgen Prochnow (The Keep). However, despite the ambitious production, Johnny—sporting peroxide-blond hair for the occasion—crashed and burned along with his truck, as the film turned out to be a spectacular failure.

On a much smaller budget, Italian director Enzo G. Castellari (Keoma) launched a post-apocalyptic trilogy with The New Barbarians. In addition to Mad Max, he borrowed elements from John Carpenter’s Escape from New York (another cornerstone of the post-apo genre) and Walter Hill’s The Warriors. Castellari was a master of imitation—his previous film, Great White, was so similar to Jaws that it led to a lawsuit. However, with this new genre, he found a natural affinity… even if these films never reached the heights of his masterpieces in spaghetti western and poliziottesco cinema!

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