In 2023 I watched 254 movies – some first-time watched and some re-watches.
Among the first time cult movie watches the most pleasant surprises were:
Just Jaeckin’s Madame Claude (1977), a stylish intelligent political thriller about sex and power.
Lucio Fulci’s Aenigma (1987), seriously surreal and twisted, unsettling and perplexing but unsettling and perplexing in a way that is original and distinctive.
Lucio Fulci’s The Devil’s Honey (1986). A sleazy kinky movie, but sleazy and kinky in an intelligent and provocative way. A movie about sex and sexual obsession and it confronts those subjects in the kind of direct way that very very few American movie have ever done.
Among the re-watches the highlight was Paul Schrader’s 1982 Cat People. In order to appreciate this one you have to regard it as being an entirely different movie from the 1942 version although dealing with similar themes. Both movies are equally great in their own ways.