Not to mention painfully cool, with her bleached blonde hair and sex-worker-chic bottle green plastic trench coat.Įmbarrassingly, I better knew Vanessa for her personal life until this film, and had never seen her act before. Yes, French actress Vanessa Paradis is utterly fascinating as the main character: adult filmmaker Anne. She even upstages the dildo-switchblade-wielding, sex club-frequenting madman who drives the plot. Indeed, one performance stands out above all others. Set in and around a 70s gay porn studio in Paris, it’s unforgettable, and not just because of the many curly-haired, angel-faced actors playing adult models who fill the screen for much of its 90 minute running time. In truth, this pulpy horror, helmed by French director Yann Gonzalez, is unlike anything you’ve seen before. The end result? Something vaguely resembling the supremely queer Knife+Heart. Mix in a campy dash of lovingly bad cliched trash, a la A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge.įinally, finish with a thick layer of colorful absurdity, like the original Suspiria or a Pedro Almodóvar thriller. Take a pinch of the The Rocky Horror Picture Show’s bawdy humour add a dose of Stranger By the Lake’s eerie eroticism.
