09/03/2026
The fourth and final film of eccentric filmmaker Donald Cammell, best known for his brilliant 1970 debut PERFORMANCE co-directed with Nic Roeg, WILD SIDE was butchered by studio interference, re-cut and taken away from Cammell who subsequently took his own life. A provocative, erotic neo-noir starring Christopher Walken in one of his most over-the-top performances, WILD SIDE indulges in a rapacious world of power, s*x, crime and money. Walken’s paranoid Bruno, a notorious money launderer, is the subject of an undercover sting operation that pulls in Anne Heche’s banker-turned-high-class pr******te, who in turn becomes enraptured with Bruno’s elegant wife (Joan Chen). Painstakingly re-cut by Cammell’s widow and longtime editor using Cammell’s notes and a personal cut, this posthumous director’s cut restores much of its original vision: its humor, avant garde leanings and non-linear plotting, along with a new score by Ryuichi Sakamoto. Screening on one of only two 35mm prints ever made.
DONALD CAMMELL'S WILD SIDE screens next Sat. 9/12 on 35mm for likely the first time in the US as part of "Music by Ryuichi Sakamoto": japansociety.org/events/donald-cammells-wild-side-directors-cut/
