241. Knife + Heart (Un couteau dans le coeur); movie review

KNIFE + HEART (UN COUTEAU DANS LE COEUR)
Cert 18
102 mins
BBFC advice: Contains sexual violence, strong violence, sex

The trend for B-movies is throwing up ever weirder pictures which are more focused on pushing boundaries than quality.
Knife + Heart is undoubtedly strange but is on the cusp of unwatchable.
It is gory and sexually explicit (although contains less nudity than I would have expected) and its characters are very flawed.
Set in Paris in the summer of 1979, it stars Vanessa Paradis as the producer of gay porn movies.
After her editor and lover Lois (Kate Moran) leaves her, she makes several unsuccessful, drunken attempts to lure her back.
Her final roll of the dice is to create her most ambitious film yet with her sidekick (Nicolas Maury).
However, as shooting proceeds, actors, past and present, are being bumped off by a sadistic killer in a mask.
Knife + Heart begins with a sex scene which ends with a young man being stabbed to death through his rectum.
Yep... and there are plenty more grotesque scenes to follow as gay actor after gay actor become victims of the crazed knifeman.
Meanwhile, the porn scenes become more bizarre and the lesbian love story becomes more fraught.
I don't understand the lure of so-called B Movies. The genre was dumped because of its lack of popularity during the 1970s, so why bring it back?
Ultimately, it seems to be an excuse for a low budget and ham acting.
Yann Gonzalez's film may attract a cult following but, like those of its genre which have gone before it, didn't resonate with me.

Reasons to watch: B-Movie cult film
Reasons to avoid: Its low production values

Laughs: None
Jumps: None
Vomit: None
Nudity: None
Overall rating: 4/10

Did you know? Knife + Heart was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival

The final word. Yann Gonzalez: "Thanks to the Dictionnaire de la pornographie (Dictionary of Pornography) put together by Christophe Bier, I’d heard about a 1970s female French gay porn director who was passionate, an alcoholic, homosexual, and in love with her film editor… 

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