“Stranger by the Lake” director Alain Guiraudie is again with one other unsettling queer exploration, this time with 2024 Cannes premiere “Misericordia.” Right here, Jérémie (Félix Kysyl) comes again to his hometown in rural France to mourn the dying of his former boss. Who he additionally might need been in love with. It’s difficult, however for those who’ve by no means identified what it’s wish to be the one sizzling individual in a small city, Jérémie’s arrival makes the case that it’s lower than fascinating, and even harmful. Particularly because the townspeople, together with an area bishop, begin feasting on him.
The movie opens in choose theaters from Sideshow and Janus Movies on March 21, with Guiraudie touring to the U.S. for Q&As. IndieWire shares the trailer completely under.
Returning to Saint-Martial, Jérémie stays longer than one ought to, reconnecting along with his boss’ now-widowed spouse, and his childhood finest buddy Vincent (Jean-Baptiste Durand). Vincent is the son of stated widow, Martine (Catherine Frot), and previous jealousies resurface, resulting in potential homicide, as Jérémie wears out his welcome with the group. Jérémie attaches himself to an area bishop (Jacques Develay) within the course of, sending everybody, together with the village priest, right into a psychosexual frenzy.
As Guiraudie advised IndieWire again at Cannes 2024, “Misericordia” is his “first movie with out an express lovemaking scene in a very long time.” That’s definitely one thing from the director of 2013’s “Stranger by the Lake,” the place an affair between a good-looking, sullen cruiser and a mustachioed potential killer became one of many sexiest, deadliest, and most express movies of the twenty first century up to now. Like “Stranger by the Lake,” Guiraudie depends on his Hitchcockian arsenal of ethical ambiguity and quick-witted cuts surrounding a queer man’s harmful presence.
After “Stranger by the Lake,” Guiraudie additionally wrote and directed “Staying Vertical” and “No person’s Hero,” however “Misericordia” brings him again to his essential curiosity: queer need.
“On the age of 60 — properly, I’m not fairly 60, however practically — I’d wish to say that this movie was kind of made on the energy of what I might name teenage fantasies,” Guiraudie stated through translator. “Effectively, the concept of falling in love with the mom of 1’s finest buddy or the daddy of 1’s finest buddy. You have got this complete picture of need and eroticism as it’s linked to faith primarily based from childhood or teenagehood.”
Right here’s a extra detailed synopsis: “In ‘Misericordia,’ the entwined ambiguities of affection and dying hang-out the meandering exploits of Jérémie (Félix Kysyl), an out-of-work baker who has drifted again to his hometown after the dying of his beloved former boss. Staying lengthy after the funeral, the seemingly benign Jérémie begins to casually insinuate himself into his late mentor’s household. He lives with the kind-hearted widow (Catherine Frot) and is stalked by the venomously jealous son (Jean-Baptiste Durand), whereas constructing an odd but significant friendship with a realistic native priest (Jacques Develay). Earlier than lengthy, small-town pleasantries are tangled into an internet of violent legal conduct and erotic bodily need.”