Posted Feb. 11, 2008,

Inside, Featuring a Scary Scissors-Wielding Womb Raider, Comes to Lincoln Center!

By Dennis Dermody

Every once in a while a horror movie comes along that is so jaw-dropping and nightmarish and great that you want all your friends to see it. This is the case with Inside, this outrageous new French shocker by directors Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo. It's one of the high points of the Film Comment Selects series at Lincoln Center (from Feb. 15-28) and you shouldn't miss it at any cost!

After a car accident that leaves her boyfriend dead, a traumatized and very pregnant photographer Sarah (Alysson Paradis) decides to spend Christmas Eve alone at her remote house. That is until a strange woman (Beatrice Dalle) shows up banging at her door ferociously trying to get in. She’s not Santa, either. Like a Grimm fairy tale gone berserk, the film is awash in blood and gore -- so much so that you won’t believe what you’re watching. I love this new wave of horror films coming out of France -- they’re like American fright flicks of the 1970s, visceral, intense, and, with a take-no-prisoners attitude. Former Betty Blue, Beatrice Dalle, is absolutely terrifying. She’s a scissors-wielding womb raider, and she cuts such a frightening figure in the film she freezes your blood.

Jerry Lewis, The Ladies Man

By Ann Magnuson

It's kind of amazing what you can find while sick at home during a rainy Friday morning in L.A. I used to be part of that snobby set that thought Jerry Lewis wasn't funny. (Odd, considering I took French lessons for five years.) But I saw him perform in Vegas during his "comeback" (was it '99? 2000?) and while I can't say it was the funniest show I'd ever seen it was definitely the most surreal. At times he was hilarious, other times painfully not so and then others so full of rage that you could feel the audience gasp like one singularly abused child worried if Daddy was going to really hit us. Then he'd catch himself, toss off a one liner and we'd all breathe a collective sigh of relief as he went on with the show.

Johnny Hazzard in Pref

By Mickey Boardman

Mr. Mickey found this amazing shot of Johnny Hazzard, truly on of MM's favorite adult stars (whom we photographed for our February 2006 LA issue). Johnny was photographed for the French magazine Pref. See more of the shots at the blog Beautiful.