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8 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 14 JULY 2019 FILM FILM PASTICHE and artistic nostal- gia may not be anything new – in some ways, looking to the past is the animating germ of all art – though these days it certainly feels as though obses- sively looking back to the im- mediate past has reached fever pitch. Whether it's the more rarefied work of David Gordon Green (It Follows, Under the Silver Lake) or the compulsive pop culture behemoth of Net- flix's Stranger Things – which will surely continue unabated onto a fourth season now that its just-concluded third 'chap- ter' has reliably raked in record viewing numbers – picking on the affectations and preoccu- pations of decades past con- tinues to form the backbone of a lot of our current viewing experience. But it's a tendency that's only really interesting – that is, be- yond superficially entertaining – if what's being referenced is inflected by a fresh, novel ap- proach, or at least an askance look at the source-influence. Thankfully, the Cannes Film Festival-feted Knife+Heart, writ- ten and directed by Yann Gon- zalez (with the script co-written by Cristiano Mangione), very much bathes in the lurid, prima- ry-coloured light of vintage Ital- ian giallo classics, while offering a queer-inflected re-reading of the hyper-violent though often misogynist works by the likes of Dario Argento and Mario Bava. Set in 1979 Paris, the film plunges us into the very particu- lar world of Anne (Vanessa Para- dis); a gay porn producer licking the wounds of a recent break-up with her film editor, Loïs (Kate Moran). While her obsession and denial begins to reach un- managable – and highly unpro- fessional peaks – her professional life is further compromised by a shocking series of murders, com- mitted by a leather-masked serial killer, who picks as his victims the stars of Anne's films, which she creates in collaboration with her partner, Archibald (Nicolas Maury). The one great thing about Gon- zalez's dive into the giallo uni- verse is that this is not an arms' length tribute, cherry-picking the outwardly appealing and re- arranging it to create something easily digestible. The grainy seed- iness of the pure giallo aesthetic is very much present and account- ed for, with the over-the-top sty- listic tics – psychedelic longeours that make little narrative sense but that are undeniably hypnotic – serving as a break from the grit and grime that characterises the Parisian underworld our charac- ters operate in. Compared to similar homages such as the Toby Jones-starring Berberian Sound Studio (2012), which is brilliant as an apposite in its own way but far more 'po- lite' in overall tone, and Gonza- lez's film emerges as the more abrasive, honest and devilishly fun tribute to the subversive spir- it communicated by the giallo aesthetic. All of this is done while also ad- dressing the inherent misogyny that's undeniably at the heart of the genre – giallo grandmaster Dario Argento problematically says that he, "[loves] women, so I would rather see a beauti- ful woman killed than an ugly man" – but even here, Gonzalez eschews the polite, corrective route and cleaves to a punkier approach. Largely limiting the murders to the coterie of gay performers in Anne's orbit, Gonzalez moves away from the heterosexually- loaded murder sprees of tra- ditional giallos. But even here, Anne is not presented as some kind of maternal figure whose chicks are being mercilessly dis- patched. Instead, the porn auteur – gleefully enabled by Nicolas Maury's tricksy and mercurial Archibald – channels her off-kil- ter psychological state into new productions that appear to be inspired by each of the murders. Paradis proffers a game, un- hinged performance that dances gleefully on the film's melodra- matic wavelength, once again perfectly matching the low- budget-and-low-rent giallo styl- ings that form the film's back- bone. It is a seductively venomous edifice that's painted into life with the help of cinematogra- pher Simon Beaufils – who nails the unmistakable look so crucial to such a bald tribute – and an appropriately synth-heavy score provided by the popular electro- pop act M83. In the wake of the expensive fart that was Luca Guadagnino's remake of Argento's giallo main- stay Suspiria, Knife + Heart feels like the kind of reworking of the genre we truly deserve. Yann Gonzalez orchestrates a seedy-and- saturated trip down 'giallo' lane but takes a decidedly queer twist with this explicit downward spiral about obsession and murder KNIFE + HEART HEART - KNIFE HEART SHARD FART ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ The verdict Raunchy, abrasive and entertaining as hell, Yann Gonzalez's queer-twisted tribute to Italian giallos of yore packs a refreshingly subversive punch. Knife+Heart will be screened at Spazju Kreattiv Cinema, Valletta on July 17, July 26 and August 1 at 7.30pm, and August 11 at 6pm Teodor Reljic ★ ★ ★ ★ K N I F E + H E A RT ( 18 ) Vanessa Paradis and Nicolas Maury are gay-porn auteurs in a heightened version of late '70s Paris, in which a masked killer has ominously begun to snuff out their on-screen stars An irresistibly lurid swerve down giallo lane