At the beginning of Love Lies Bleeding prepare yourself for a 'heavy but important' session. Lou (Kristen Stewart) is a depressed gym owner in New Mexico. She wants to leave, but her sister is beaten up every week by her husband. She can't leave her alone, can she? Then bodybuilder Jacky enters her gym: perm, a body like an anaconda in skin-colored tights. She is proof that you can be anything you want. Also in New Mexico. And yes, things are starting to change. Even in Lou's relationship with her criminal, insect-obsessed father.
With a synopsis like the one above Love Lies Bleeding as an absurdist variation on a classic theme. And that is partly true. But the viewing experience is very different. The film seems deadly serious at first. Domestic violence, depression, a hint of homophobia. And all this in a world full of dangerous phalluses: Lou smokes cigarettes, her father plays with a fat, wriggling caterpillar, Jacky cannot stop using the doping needles.
Then things slowly start to change. Those bumps on Lou's sister's face are getting really big. Her father seems to really like insects. And why do we keep hearing that spongy, sopping sound when Jacky tenses her muscles?
Also read
the interview with Kristen Stewart and Rose Glass: 'We are small, selfish pleasure seekers'
By the end of the film, all the rules of that well-known plot are broken – all the laws of logic anyway – and you find yourself in an idiosyncratic, absurd, sexy queer universe by director Rose Glass.
It's the film's greatest strength. As a viewer you think you are watching a queer film, as you know it, about the problems of lesbians in a small patriarchal town. But as the plot spirals out of control, you're forced to think: Why did you assume that? Have you underestimated the makers and their theme? Didn't you immediately pigeonhole the film yourself?
When you rewind the movie in your head, the plot points and phallic symbols seem to mock you. Think of the opening of the movie. Lou cleans an extremely dirty toilet. Suddenly it's as if the film challenged you: is this what you wanted to see?
Love Lies Bleeding guides you through the history of queer film: from something that had to be serious and gloomy in the 1990s and 2000s, to something that can be fun, can break boundaries and has a real voice of its own. And only then do you see what the film is really about. On the illusion of 'manufacturability': Jackie poses in the mirror as the Berlin Wall falls on TV – she pretends the cheers are for her. About how dependence might not be so bad if it is your own choice, with someone you love. About how 'dirty' becomes 'delicious' in love. And about the fact that director Rose Glass is a mega talent. That she can dip her toes into the styles of David Lynch, David Cronenberg, and Quentin Tarantino, without losing her individuality.
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