The arrival of Baroness Mary Vetsera and the "Circus of Truth"
[In a new weekly feature for Country Life, James Cathcart, DJ, cinephile and now programmer of Third Man Records' new Light and Sound Machine film series, shares finds from the dusky celluloid recesses and online frontiers of cinema.]
This week’s film brings us to another seething den of iniquity, another story which unfolds primarily at a single location — the scene of a transgressive turn from the banal to the bacchanal. Sexual manifestations in conflicting frequencies of repression and liberation reverberate violently, eventually razing the walls.
However, this is where the parallels end with last week’s piece on Joseph Losey's The Servant, the only true masterpiece featured in the first month of this column. Rather, I’m always compelled to advocate in favor of the misunderstood — the quiet, ugly schoolchildren who kept their intelligence well hidden. Such is the case with Private Vices, Public Virtues — an admittedly unorthodox entry point for readers unacquainted with the serene subversions of the Hungarian master Miklos Jansco.
