"DARK ARC" is a superbly strange noir-ish/art film hyrid which was released on DVD by Vanguard Cinema, and is available on Netflix Streaming. It is the story of a debauched, opium partaking Viscount (also a Huysmans-like artiste manque) and his muse, an escort/cosmetician alternately going by the names "Juxta" and "Lamia". The story turns on their toying with a hapless graphic designer (Ed Smith) who has been selected, seemingly at random,as the recipient of an increasingly bizarre and ultimately tragic series of "visual experiments".
The film is directed by Dan Zukovic, and stars Zukovic (as the Viscount), Kurt Max Runte(as Ed Smith) and Sarah Strange (Juxta/Lamia). The performances are effective across the board, with a particularly mesmerizing turn by Sarah Strange (who was in "White Noise")as the possible femme fatale "Juxta". The visuals, designed to lodge in the mind of both Ed Smith and the audience, are surreal and haunting. There is a blackly comic tone which
pokes up throughout, though by the end it is definitely a bizarre tragedy. A unique, difficult to classify indie film that sticks in the mind.