In ‘Outrage’ director Ida Lupino tackles a sexual assault and its aftermath in a - for the time - groundbreaking and taboo shattering way. This underseen and devastatingly beautiful noir gets a brand new score by composer and electronic artist Laryssa Kim.
Ida Lupino: A Cinema Pioneer
Lupino described herself as a “bulldozer” when finding project finances, but a “mother” on set, nurturing her actors. She was a cinema pioneer, especially in telling women’s stories. After starting as an actor (starring opposite Humphrey Bogart in High Sierra), she became the first woman to direct a film noir (The Hitch-Hiker, 1953) and the only woman to direct an episode of The Twilight Zone. In her eight films, she fearlessly tackled controversial subjects like unplanned pregnancy (Not Wanted, 1949) and bigamy (The Bigamist).
Her crowning achievement is Outrage (1950). By depicting sexual assault, Lupino challenged classical Hollywood cinema and strict Hays Code censorship. The film follows Ann Walton (Mala Powers), who, after being attacked by a stranger, is unable to continue her normal life and runs away. Although the word 'rape' is never used, the film’s frankness about trauma and debilitating flashbacks (PTSD) was decades ahead of its time. Breaking with the victim-blaming attitudes of the era, Lupino portrays Ann with pure empathy, creating a pioneering piece of feminist filmmaking that still impacts contemporary viewers.
The Live Score: Laryssa Kim
The newly composed soundtrack is in the capable hands of multifaceted Italo-Congolese artist Laryssa Kim. Her ritual-like dreamscapes, where musique concrète melds with ambient electronics and tender vocals, have been making waves recently—with her mesmerizing album Contezza praised by Pitchfork last year.
Born in Rome, Kim refined her craft within Amsterdam’s contemporary dance and physical theatre circles before making Brussels her creative home in 2013. There, she earned a Master’s in Acousmatic Composition. On stage, her soulful voice floats over hypnotic soundscapes, field recordings, bare-bones trip-hop textures, and shape-shifting electroacoustic arrangements. In this oneiric realm, Laryssa Kim leads listeners into an immersive, trance-like sound odyssey.
