Institute History
Description
The work of the master of pulp fiction, Jim Thompson, has been adapted for the screen a number of times. But nothing previously prepares one for this plunge to the depths achieved by filmmaker Michael Oblowitz and producer/ screenwriter Larry Gross. As darkly perverse a melodrama as you’re likely to see, this story by Thompson is a litany of evils and immorality that keeps it from being everyone’s cup of tea. But those who can appreciate its excess and style will be energized, provoked, and satiated
Murder, blackmail, drugs, sexual abuse, whoring, duplicity, incest, patricide, and deceit are elements in this almost antinaturalistic crime movie that its director describes as “film trés noir.” Starring Billy Zane, Gina Gershon, and Sheryl Lee in a twisting and turning narrative that utilizes love, seduction, greed, and treachery as casually as the normal crime drama lights a cigarette, This World, Then the Fireworks takes audience members to places they may never have been before, countering modern sensibilities, morality, and political correctness with a sardonic style.