Screening 1: Edmund Elias Merhige’s Begotten (1989), introduced by Madeline Le Despencer, 3 November 2022
The first of these screenings will be Edmund Elias Merhige’s experimental silent horror Begotten (1989), a deeply macabre and visually relentless ‘ritual captured on film’ (Mark Paterson). This film is not for the faint of heart and viewer discretion is advised. This screening will be preceded by a special introduction by cult-movie collector, visual artist, and author, Madeline Le Despencer.
Madeline Le Despencer is a visual artist, educator, and independent researcher whose focus is on fin de siècle conceptions of diabolism and heretical movements within Catholicism. She has written on decadence and the occult for Three Hands Press, Hadean Press, as well as various online journals. Her research on Berthe de Courrière was featured in the journal Cercle des Amateurs de Remy de Gourmont. She is currently writing a biography of Abbe Boullan for Three Hands Press.
Screening 2: Luchino Visconti’s Death in Venice (1971), introduced by Jessica Gossling and Alice Condé, 30 March 2023
In a continuation of our dive into decadent cinema, the second of our screenings will Luchino Visconti’s sumptuous and haunting adaptation of Thomas Mann’s classic novella, Death in Venice (Der Tod in Venedig, 1912).
Alice Condé and Jessica Gossling are founding members of BADS and Deputy Editors of Volupté. They lecture in the English and Creative Writing Department at Goldsmiths and are researchers in the Decadence Research Centre. Alongside their other projects, they are currently working on a collection of essays on the decadent body.