Saturday, September 17, 2022

Knife + Heart - Yann Gonzalez - 2018

★★★★★ - Wow. Brilliant movie. A contemporary queer giallo-inspired movie. Follows this group making gay pornography in 1979 Paris. They are lead by this director chick, played by one Vanessa Paradis, who is the star of the movie. This masked killer shows up and starts killing them one by one. 

I'm not exactly the target audience, but I have seen more giallo than anyone I've ever met. This is contemporary, subversive giallo.

Several great scenes. One is where all the actors have a wrap party picnic when it starts storming. One person gets caught out in the woods. As she (a trans actor) yells for her mates, the camera pans in fast circles giving the viewer a sense of being lost. A few times around we see the killer in the distance. Every time it goes around after that, the killer gets closer and closer, before you know. 

I thought it was a great, beautiful, captivating flick with a killer score by M83. However… let’s say this is not a family film. Not one you’re gonna wanna watch for your kids. You’ll know pretty quick what you’re in for when you fire it up.

My favorite thing about the movie is that the porn director gets questioned by the police about an actor in her stable who is murdered by getting repeatedly stabbed in his rectum. She immediately turns the experience into gay porn. I am crazy about films within films. This is an interesting, unique take on that. There is also a sacrilege porn, which was indeed something. 

The premiere for this movie based on the killings of the actors looked fun despite everything. JK, it was depressing and crazy as shit. Then after it is over you hear all the dudes in there buckling their pants. A lovely touch. Then there is more murder. 

This might sound sort of funny, but it ends up being a pretty moving scene where the fluffer cries and talks about how fucked up it is that they are filming a scene based on this dude's extremely violent and disturbing death. But then, with tears in his eyes, he's called in for duty. A professional, this guy. Turns out he's not even getting paid. Yeesh.

I like that about the flick, that they make the porn star lifestyle way less glamorous than say Boogie Nights. I'm not against it or anything, but it seems like a pretty sad grind, and this is definitely of that mentality, with all the stars on heroin or traumatized or what have you. 

One of my favorite things about the movie is that when the Killer is revealed and dealt with, they give him a really sweet and touching sendoff by showing a story and having this pretty profound voice over that tells a really powerful story. We see he is a victim too. The backstory of a slasher like Jason Voorhees for example it’s probably super sad and fucked up. Makes you think about me that. Then again, the deaths are so fucked up that maybe that lessens the impact a bit.

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