Knife in the heart
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Knife in the heart |
| Original title | Un couteau dans le cœur |
| Country of production | France , Mexico , Switzerland |
| original language | French , Spanish |
| Publishing year | 2018 |
| length | 106 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Yann Gonzalez |
| script | Yann Gonzalez, Cristiano Mangione |
| production | Charles Gillibert |
| music | M83 |
| camera | Simon Beaufils |
| cut | Raphaël Lefèvre |
| occupation | |
| |
Messer im Herz (original title Un couteau dans le cœur ) is a film drama by Yann Gonzalez , in which Vanessa Paradis plays a porn producer, whose actors fall victim to a masked killer. The film premiered on May 17, 2018 in the competition at the Cannes International Film Festival and was released in French cinemas on June 27, 2018. A theatrical release in Germany took place on July 18, 2019.
action
Paris 1979. Porn producer Anne Parèze has not yet got over the end of her relationship with film editor Loïs and she hopes they will get back together. In order to win them back, she decides to make her most ambitious film yet. The gay porn is supposed to be so unusual that Loïs has no choice but to come back to her. She is supported in her endeavor by her extravagant best friend Archibald.
A masked killer apparently only targets the actors in her low-budget production. During a sex game, he kills her with a black dildo in which a switchblade is hidden. The man starts out with Anne's newest star. Since the police do not want to help Anne, they decide to take matters into their own hands. In Paris at night, Anne goes to the clubs to look.
production
Staff and cast
Directed by Yann Gonzalez , who wrote the script together with Cristiano Mangione . Gonzalez told epd Film that despite the milieu shown, sex was a minor matter for him in the film: “What I was about was friendship. The conspiratorial community, this own little world of this group of queer people who share their lives and their work with one another. And about the fun and melancholy that make up the everyday life of these sex workers. For me it wasn't about turning the audience on, but rather awakening empathy for my characters. "
Vanessa Paradis plays the porn producer Anne Parèze, Nicolas Maury her best friend Archibald Langevin.
Filming and film music
Simon Beaufils acted as cameraman. During the shooting, Yann Gonzalez tried to orient himself as closely as possible, formally and stylistically, on the gay porn that was filmed in France at the end of the seventies: “The staging and the scenery had to have this particular naivety, completely unironic. But not to make fun of it, but because, on the contrary, I wanted to pay tribute to this film. They were porn pioneers back then, and their films were miles away from the soulless mass-produced goods that are produced today. In a way, that was really underground art, and the films that still exist from that time bear witness in an incomparable way to a gay scene between saunas, toilets and sex cinemas that no longer exists today. "
The soundtrack comes from the French electro-pop band M83 , which the director co-founded.
publication
The film premiered on May 17, 2018 in the competition at the Cannes International Film Festival and was released in French cinemas on June 27, 2018. In January 2019 the film was shown at the Palm Springs International Film Festival , at the end of June and beginning of July 2019 at the Munich Film Festival in the Spotlight section. A theatrical release in Germany took place on July 18, 2019.
reception
Age rating
In Germany the film is FSK 16 . The statement of reasons for the release states: “In the case of the murders , there are occasional clear depictions of violence , but these are kept short and do not seem sensational. Due to the location of the game, there are some sex scenes in which, however, no explicit details can be seen. In addition, the artificial staging style makes it easier for young people aged 16 and over to maintain an emotional distance. It is possible for them to recognize the film as a thriller and to process the events appropriately. "
Reviews
The film won over 80 percent of Rotten Tomatoes ' critics . Again and again, Messer im Herz was compared with films by Brian De Palma .
Sascha Westphal from epd Film writes that the French filmmaker Yann Gonzalez revealed his great role models with the first murder , but the director not only created a nostalgic image of the porn scene in Paris in 1979, he recreated it from the spirit of the present New. Especially in the film-in-film scenes, something utopian reveals itself, according to Westphal: “There are no outsiders in Anne's film world. All of its actors form a tight community, a kind of family in which there are no taboos. ”While Anne is looking for the killer, the film turns and the thriller gradually turns into melodrama. This also connects Gonzalez 'wildly poetic vision with many Gialli and with de Palma's genre work. With its grandiose mixture of comedy and tragedy, extravagance and innocence, Messer im Herz hits the audience's heart, and the images, characterized by a deeply true artificiality, developed a hypnotic pull, according to Westphal.
Christopher Diekhaus from the Gilde deutscher Filmkunsttheater explains that the boundaries between the plot of Messer im Herz and the filming of the murders organized by Anne are blurred several times, which causes some irritation. In general, the experimental thriller refuses to lull the audience into safety, continues Diekhaus: “Weird characters keep appearing. Inexplicable elements - such as a scary bird - repeatedly come to the fore. In addition, striking play of colors and sizzling synthesizer sounds create a decidedly surreal atmosphere. ”The wild, unpredictable ride through human abysses does not create tension in the conventional sense, says Diekhaus, a diffuse intensity arises, at least in some passages, but very much a. Last but not least, Vanessa Paradis played a big part in this, she played the soul out of her body and turned Anne's turbulent inner life outwards in an almost painfully oppressive way.
Awards (selection)
Cannes International Film Festival 2018
- Nomination for the Golden Palm ( Yann Gonzalez )
- Nomination for the Queer Palm (Yann Gonzalez)
Reykjavik International Film Festival 2018
- Award for best film with the Golden Puffin (Yann Gonzalez)
Sitges Festival Internacional de Cinema Fantàstic de Catalunya 2018
- Nomination for Best Film in the Secció Oficial Fantàstic (Yann Gonzalez)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release certificate for knives in the heart . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF).
- ↑ a b c Patrick Heidmann: Interview: Yann Gonzalez about his film "Messer im Herz". In: epd Film, July 15, 2019.
- ↑ Knife + Heart. In: miamifilmfestival.com. Retrieved July 16, 2019.
- ↑ UN COUTEAU DANS LE COEUR. In: Festival de Cannes - En Compétition - Longs Métrages. Retrieved July 17, 2019 (French).
- ↑ https://www.psfilmfest.org/2019-ps-film-festival/film-finder/knifeheart
- ↑ Knife in the heart. In: filmfest-muenchen.de. Retrieved July 16, 2019.
- ↑ Start dates Germany In: insidekino.com. Retrieved July 18, 2018.
- ↑ Reasons for approval for knife in the heart In: Voluntary self-control of the film industry. Retrieved July 18, 2019.
- ↑ Knife + Heart. In: Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
- ↑ a b Sascha Westphal: criticism of knife in the heart. In: epd Film, June 21, 2019.
- ↑ Oliver Armknecht: Knife in the heart. In: film-rezensions.de, June 19, 2019.
- ↑ Christopher Diekhaus: Knife in the heart. In: programmkino.de. Retrieved July 16, 2019.