Perhaps at first glance, the filmography of Silvio Narizzano appears unremarkable. Thanks to his sleeper hit Georgy Girl (1966), he's known largely as a "one-hit wonder" director. Upon closer inspection, however, likely no other filmmaker used cinema as effectively to exorcise personal demons in ways both ugly and beautiful. And few directors' sensibilities were more gay, both overtly and covertly. Film historian Daniel Kremer is your tour guide through an obscure, perplexing body of work heretofore ignored and often unfairly shunned. Cruel, Usual, Necessary: The Passion of Silvio Narizzano is an essay documentary of discovery.
Canadian-born filmmaker Sidney J. Furie made his name with British hits like The Young Ones (1961), The Leather Boys (1964), and The Ipcress File (1965). When he arrived in Hollywood, Marlon Brando and Frank Sinatra wreaked havoc on his first major studio productions. In 1968, the newly emigrated director joined a stable of cutting-edge filmmakers at Paramount Pictures, under the new leadership of Bob Evans. His films saw both a stylistic departure and a shift in thematic focus. What was behind the evolution, and which aspects unite all of Furie's films?
Toronto-born Sidney J. Furie has enjoyed a distinguished career that has spanned over six decades. Having worked in every genre, Furie has directed films starring Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra, Robert Redford, Diana Ross, Michael Caine, Peter O'Toole, Rodney Dangerfield, Barbara Hershey, Gene Hackman, Donald Sutherland, Laurence Olivier, and countless others. He is most known for the espionage classic The Ipcress File (1965), the landmark biopic Lady Sings the Blues (1972), the franchise-generating Iron Eagle (1986), the Scorsese-beloved horror saga The Entity (1982), and the Vietnam combat chronicle The Boys in Company C (1978), which later partly inspired Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket. His first two films, A Dangerous Age (1957) and A Cool Sound from Hell (1959), both independently financed, were two of the first English Canadian features ever made, produced before he emigrated to London in 1960. He became an important figure in the British New Wave, especially with The Boys (1962) and his realist drama The Leather Boys (1964), a critical darling that became a popular cult film.