This film will no longer be available in Subscription from 30 April
In Fabric
A beautiful blood-red dress unleashes a curse on its wearers in Peter Strickland's erotic and twisted horror.
Director: Peter Strickland
Overview
Bank clerk Sheila (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) has decided it’s time to start dating again. It’s been a while and it will get her out of the house, where her son is busy with his sadomasochistic girlfriend (Gwendoline Christie). Calling a lonely-hearts ad in a newspaper, she soon agrees on a rendezvous with the promising-sounding Adonis. Time to get herself something nice to wear. A trip to Dentley & Soper’s Trusted Department Store soon becomes a shopping experience like no other. There’s something not quite right about the staff here, from the disconcerting sales talk to their unsavoury night-time trysts. And as for those dresses…
In Fabric is as wildly, perversely imaginative and visually thrilling as we have come to expect from director Peter Strickland. He follows The Duke of Burgundy by venturing even further to the outer reaches of the erotic macabre, finding pleasures in everything from shop mannequins to the sound of someone listing washing-machine parts. A potent mix of design and spooky intrigue, the film is bolstered with lashings of oddball humour – Steve Oram and Julian Barratt’s double act is a particular treat – and a hot synth score from Cavern of Anti-Matter. Essential viewing for fashion addicts and those who dig their ghost stories kinky.
Related
Air Doll Air Doll
Drama 2009 116 mins Director: Hirokazu Koreeda
A life-size blow-up doll comes to life and falls in love with a video store clerk in Kore-eda Hirokazu’s haunting, melancholy meditation on urban alienation.
Floating Skyscrapers Floating Skyscrapers
Drama 2013 89 mins Director: Tomasz Wasilewski
Hailed as ‘Poland’s first LGBT film’, Tomasz Wasilewski’s striking drama follows a champion swimmer whose gay relationship causes ripples.
Sweet Sue Sweet Sue
Comedy 2022 100 mins Director: Leo Leigh
Bleakly funny comedy-drama starring Maggie O’Neill as a middle-aged woman who begins dating a mysterious biker, whose flamboyant son is a social media influencer.
El Sur El Sur
Drama 1983 94 mins Director: Víctor Erice
Victor Erice’s second masterpiece, following The Spirit of the Beehive, is a rarely seen meditation on memory, deception and Spain’s 20th-century history.
20,000 Species of Bees 20,000 Species of Bees
Drama 2023 128 mins Director: Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren
Sofía Otero ignites this warm, rich Spanish drama woven from a child’s probing question: who am I?
Undertow Undertow
Drama 2009 101 mins Director: Javier Fuentes-León
Miguel, a young married fisherman with a baby on the way, struggles to reconcile his devotion to his male lover within his town’s rigid traditions.
Ordet. Ordet.
Drama 1955 125 mins Director: Carl Th. Dreyer
Carl Theodor Dreyer’s beautifully photographed tale explores the religious intolerance and familial tensions within a Danish farming family.
Casablanca Beats Casablanca Beats
Drama 2021 102 mins Director: Nabil Ayouch
Palme d'Or nominated film about a former rapper who takes a teaching job at a cultural centre in a working-class neighbourhood in Casablanca.
Godland Godland
Drama 2022 143 mins Director: Hlynur Pálmason
With his third feature, Hlynur Pálmason (A White, White Day) delivers a breathtakingly inventive and ambitious historical epic, set in mid-19th-century Iceland.
Immaculate Conception Immaculate Conception
Drama 1992 123 mins Director: Jamil Dehlavi
A western couple struggling to conceive a child visit a fertility shrine in Karachi and find themselves caught in a world of fantasy and exploitation.
Couscous (aka The Secret of the Grain) Couscous (aka The Secret of the Grain)
Drama 2007 155 mins Director: Abdel Kechiche
Abdellatif Kechiche’s expansive ensemble comedy-drama about a North African dockside community, is a richly characterised and affectionate portrait of a port, a community, and a culture.
Black God, White Devil Black God, White Devil
Drama 1964 119 mins Director: Glauber Rocha
Wanted for killing his boss, Manuel and his wife flee to a primordial violent region in Glauber Rocha's masterpiece and banner film of Brazil's Cinema Novo movement.
Berberian Sound Studio Berberian Sound Studio
Drama 2012 92 mins Director: Peter Strickland
In 1970s Italy, a timid British sound engineer joins the crew on a violent horror film. But the disturbing world of the film soon seeps into reality.
The Duke of Burgundy The Duke of Burgundy
Drama 2015 104 mins Director: Peter Strickland
Peter Strickland’s visually and aurally intoxicating tale of sadomasochistic power-play is a daringly erotic sensory feast.
Air Doll Air Doll
Drama 2009 116 mins Director: Hirokazu Koreeda
A life-size blow-up doll comes to life and falls in love with a video store clerk in Kore-eda Hirokazu’s haunting, melancholy meditation on urban alienation.
Floating Skyscrapers Floating Skyscrapers
Drama 2013 89 mins Director: Tomasz Wasilewski
Hailed as ‘Poland’s first LGBT film’, Tomasz Wasilewski’s striking drama follows a champion swimmer whose gay relationship causes ripples.
Sweet Sue Sweet Sue
Comedy 2022 100 mins Director: Leo Leigh
Bleakly funny comedy-drama starring Maggie O’Neill as a middle-aged woman who begins dating a mysterious biker, whose flamboyant son is a social media influencer.
Bande à part Bande à part
Crime 1964 95 mins Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Godard's playful tribute to the Hollywood pulp crime movies of the 1940s, executed with typically Gallic cool.
El Sur El Sur
Drama 1983 94 mins Director: Víctor Erice
Victor Erice’s second masterpiece, following The Spirit of the Beehive, is a rarely seen meditation on memory, deception and Spain’s 20th-century history.
Of Time and the City Of Time and the City
Documentary 2008 74 mins Director: Terence Davies
Brilliantly mixing archive film and music, Liverpool-born director Terence Davies reflects with wit and wisdom on a times of change, for good or ill