Love, lies and blood 8 points
Loves Lies BleedingUnited States, 2024
Address: Rose Glass
Script: Weronika Tofilska and Rose Glass
Duration: 104 minutes
Performers: Kristen Stewart, Katy O’Brien, Ed Harris, Dave Franco, Anna Baryshnikov, Jena Malone.
Premiere: Available in rooms.
The first sequence of Love, lies and blood It starts with the shot of a starry sky. From there, the resounding presence of music makes it clear that here sound will be essential. A tool to influence the perception of viewers in many ways. The most obvious: being a temporal compass with the north fixed in the ’80s. You don’t have to wait for an hour into the movie before the fall of the Wall is mentioned on the radio. It is enough to listen to a single chord of the synthesizers popularized by John Carpenter in the cinema to be sure: they are the ’80s.
The neon aura of the photograph confirms this. The camera descends over an arid valley where a shed stands in which A gym: the desiré jackets, the very short and tight pants, the style fonts Flashdance printed on t-shirts and haircuts also date back to the era. He works there lou, a young woman with a pompous look who is in charge of everything, from unclogging toilets to selling soda. But she also turns off the lights and cuts everyone off when she sees that a couple of muscular men are starting to fuck with the girl she likes. It’s worth clarifying, the girl Lou likes is called Jackie and it’s a closet almost as huge as the guys who want it.
The music also appeals to the emotional memory linked to cinematography. Those who know Carpenter know that when a soundtrack quotes him, it is also invoking his spirit. The closed spaces, the oppressive climates and the fight for survival of a handful of characters faced with the strange are key elements in the filmography of the director of Halloween night. And they are also in Love, lies and blood. EITHER What could be more closed and oppressive for a couple of lesbian girls than trying to survive in a rural town in the conservative heart of the United States, in the Reaganite ’80s??
Directed by the British Rose Glass -whose debut film, Saint Maud (2019), is an extraordinary exercise in style within mystical terror-, Love, lies and blood it’s at the same time a love story, a sordid police officer and a distorted period portrait. Maybe that’s why At times it is reminiscent of some works by the Danish Nicolas Winding Refn, but with his forces working in a healthier and more loving direction despite the violence, nothing nihilistic. And, big difference, with sense of humor. It is also about the staging of a universe in which the fantastic plays a fundamental role in making a powerful declaration of principles. That has nothing to do with identity issues or gender politics, although readings in those senses can also be valid and valuable.
Here The fantastic is used to enhance what occupies the soul of the film: the desires and feelings of the protagonists.. A kind of emotional viagra that confirms, in two crucial moments of the story, what Argentine cinema already said 30 years ago: that love is stronger. In this case, in a violently express way. That is the engine that drives and transforms Jackie, even in the literal sense, into a prodigy. A game that once again quotes the ’80s, using the same visual and sound resources of a certain television series in which a scientist with something of Jekyll became a green Mr. Hyde.
There is one more reason that makes the film fascinating: the actress Katy O’Brian, a physical marvel at the service of Jackie and the film. The way she occupies space every time she enters the screen and her versatility to jump in a second from a touching candidness to the most alienated fury, are captivating. Like the big stars, her presence is a magnet that fuels the desire to return to the movies just to see Jackie in action again.
