For the first time available in Italy and easily rentable online, Simon Rumley's Fashionista is the first film released by The dark side of Movies, the new distribution label born from the collaboration between the Ravenna Nightmare Film Fest and the totally Italian streaming platform CINEMAF .
Winner of the Critics Award at the XV edition, Fashionista is the most iconic film by Rumley, "historic" director of Ravenna Nightmare, where over the years he has also presented four other features: The Living and the Dead, Red White & Blue, Little Deaths and Johnny Frank Garrett's Last Word, winner in 2016 of the Audience Award for Best Film.
There could be no better title to launch the film proposal of The Dark Side of Movies. Rumley's noir work perfectly represents the dark side of which Ravenna Nightmare is the cinematographic icon. Fashionista transcends any categorization, because the concept of gender does not exhaust its nature and potential. It is one of those artistic productions that perfectly reflect the poetics of their author, emerging from the established boundaries of commercial cinema and exploring the freest territories of independent cinema. The film is a journey both physical and psychological in the madness and obsessions of its protagonists, an atypical story that frightens and intrigues through an unconventional writing and an innovative style, disregarding every expectation.
The center of the story is April, co-owner with her husband of a clothes shop in Austin. The two live in a house overflowing with useless clothes and objects, a total disorder that structures their lives, made of fetishisms and obsessions. Eric is a serial accumulator, unable to extricate himself from the jumble of junk that he continues to surround himself with. For her part, April has a deep obsession for clothes, the object of her daily work and a true safety valve in which to take refuge. From touch to smell, when she feels her clothes, April enters a sensory vortex that is pleasant and corrosive at the same time. A situation of apparent stability, ready to crack at any moment.
That moment comes when April discovers that Eric is cheating on her with a colleague. Anger and disappointment prompt her to indulge herself in a stranger she met in a bar, Randall, a mysterious subject with singular requests, willing to finance her fetish for fabrics and clothes. Soon, April will discover that that seemingly unsuspecting man is actually a slimy seducer with a passion for sadomasochism, which will drag her into a spiral of sexual blackmail and perversions, more dangerous than she ever could have imagined.
Fashionista was written and directed by Simon Rumley and produced by Bob Portal and by Rumley himself. The film can boast an exceptional cast that sees in the shoes of April Amanda Fuller, already directed by Rumley in the powerful Red, White and Blue (2010), Ethan Embry in the role of the unfaithful husband Eric and finally Eric Balfour, in the part of the perverse Randall.
Simon Rumley has recently returned to the cinema with the epic gangster movie Once Upon A Time in London and he is one of the UK's most important independent film directors and screenwriters. After writing and directing various films, in 2004 he was noticed by international critics for The Handyman, winner of the best short film award at the Sitges Film Festival. In 2005 he produced the film The Life and the Dead, screened at over 40 festivals, including Ravenna Nightmare. In 2010 it was the turn of Red White & Blue, also filmed in Texas, where he had his first screening at Austin's SXSW, before being presented again at Nightmare. In 2011, together with two other directors, he shot Little Deaths, presented in competition at Ravenna Nightmare, and in 2015 he created Crowhurst, whose executive producer was Nicolas Roeg, director of "The man who fell on earth", considered a mentor by Rumley. 2016 is the year of Johnny Frank Garrett's Last Word, winner of the Audience Award for Best Film at the 14th edition of Ravenna Nightmare, just a year before Fashionista's win.
The film can be rented until April 30th 2020 on the CINEMAF streaming platform, at the modest price of 4.99 euro and will be available for 30 days from the rental: from the first play the viewer will have 48h to watch the film an infinite number of times.
