Here we begin our quarterly tour of the House of Bright Lights. In the Features Rotunda you’ll find a new installment of BL associate editor Alan Vanneman’s fabulous sojourn into Fred ‘n Ginger country with Swing Time. (Requests for his take on some of their separate works, say Ginger’s 1930 Sap from Syracuse and Fred’s 1976 The Amazing Dobermans, will be forwarded to the author.) Julian Upton weighs in with a mighty history of British trash, a subject he seems to know shockingly well. Andrew Grossman exhaustively explores the multiple travesties of Gohatto, its director, and its foolish critic-sympathizers. And for those who can’t get enough of Uchida Tomu (and who can, really?), BL newcomer Craig Watts' glittering history of Tomu’s mid-50s masterpiece tells all.

Next we enter the Sex Parlor, where jaded moderns can get cozy and revel in the debatable pleasures of Wadd (aka the Hung One) and Baise-Moi. We pride ourselves here at Bright Lights on always being "with it," and to that end have erected a temple to recent film. Included there are Vanneman’s roughing-up of The Mexican, BL first-timer Matthew Levie’s refreshing take on Crouching Tiger, and your editor’s brave attempt to find something of interest Under the Sand.

Film festivals occupy so much of our lives that we’ve dedicated an alcove to them. There you can check out three such events, all from San Francisco: Silent, Asian-American, and Lesbian ’n Gay. To that noble roster is added the annual "penisspotting" guide to the latter fest, published strictly as a public service. In the Homo Puppet Lanai, master of puppet animation Barry Purves endures BL’s pitiless — though not necessarily male — gaze.

DVDs and VHS tapes continue to arrive at a crushing rate. All are dutifully stacked in the expando attached to our lovely mobile home (actually a 1945 "teardrop trailer") before being ruthlessly watched and analyzed by our team of critic-scientists. Alan Vanneman confronts Company, Don’t Look Back, Genghis Blues, and From Mao to Mozart. BL virgin Robert Keser gives it good to Abel Gance’s Lucrezia Borgia. And your editor rattles a mixed bag of goodies: Black Narcissus, Scarlet Empress, Louis Prima: The Wildest!, and four fabulous films by Dusan Makavejev.

No one is more surprised than we that people still read; it’s for those hardy souls that the Book Review Boudoir is dedicated. Relaxing under the covers you’ll find Matt Kennedy’s witty stroll through a book of actor profiles and BL newbie Richard Armstrong’s smart summary of a new anthology on French film. Who could ask for anything more?