Imagine "Stranger By the Lake" directed by Dario Argento or better still, Claire Denis and you're about a quarter of the way there. "Knife+Heart" is a deliciously giddy piece of gay giallo, partly "Cruising", partly "Dressed to Kill" and yet feeling totally original. Anne, (an excellent Vanessa Paradis), is a producer of gay male porn whose actors suddenly keep getting murdered in particularly nasty ways. Rather than initially shedding tears, Anne turns the killings into a movie she calls 'Homocidal'.
Naturally it's gruesome but it's also as stylish and as gorgeous as anything DePalma might have done and director Yann Gonzalez is bold enough to take the clichés of the genre, (thunderstorms, a black crow to herald the murders), and turn them on their head; you are never quite sure which way he's heading. Even the sexual make-up of his characters is never clearly defined. This is a really smart take on a genre we thought we knew inside out; once upon a time we would have called it 'post-modern' but don't let that put you off. It's set in 1979 and fans of giallo from that period will find much to enjoy here just as anyone interested in New Queer Cinema will also find much to relish...oh, and don't leave until the very last image leaves the screen..
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