logo
A sinner, a killer and a very controversial erection: has director Alain Guiraudie surpassed Stranger By the Lake?

A sinner, a killer and a very controversial erection: has director Alain Guiraudie surpassed Stranger By the Lake?

The Guardian24-03-2025
There's a wonderfully frank clifftop scene in Misericordia, Alain Guiraudie's new rural thriller, in which a priest seems to give absolution to a murderer. Not through some great act of clemency, though, but because of what he wants in return. 'He's a lot like me,' says the director, laughing. 'He's navigating between his greater ideals and his desires as a man. I think a lot of us do that.'
Morally flexible clergymen, vacillating killers, characters whose desires lead them into terra incognita – this is Guiraudie's morally unstable terrain. Misericordia is the mirror image of his much-praised 2013 psychological drama Stranger By the Lake. Where that film made a murderer a dimly grasped object of desire, here the point of view is the killer's. Jérémie stirs up dormant passions when he returns to his childhood village for the funeral of his former baker boss. In Guiraudie's hands, it's never certain whether a story will turn out tragic or comic. In Misericordia, it's both: the film starts off in Talented Mr Ripley territory, before spiralling into bed-hopping, gendarme-dodging farce.
I'd hoped to meet Guiraudie in Aveyron, where he was born and where many of his films are set, but he's upped sticks from the south-west and now lives in Paris. 'After 20 years, I fancied a change of horizon,' he says, sitting in a brasserie near the capital's Buttes-Chaumont park. 'And also I was there less and less. My furniture may as well have been in a storage unit.'
With a full head of silvery hair and well-hewn features, the 60-year-old still looks fresh from a hike in the stark Aveyron highlands, in his Polartec jacket, climbing shoes and headband. Through Misericordia, Stranger By the Lake and his 2016 comedy-drama Staying Vertical, he has broadened the scope of on-screen depictions of rural France, something he thinks has narrowed since the 1970s.
Mainly, Guiraudie likes to remind audiences that sexuality is just as rich out there as it is on the Parisian thoroughfare moving past our brasserie window. 'The working class has become completely excluded from the representation of sensuality, of sexuality, of homosexuality,' he says. 'There's an impression those things only concern hot young people in sexy jobs. But it's important to remember you can be a worker, or a farmer, and gay. Or not even gay, but with an erotic life.'
The priest wandering into shot fully erect in Misericordia – surely a screen first – gets that point across effectively, as does the middle-aged sex worker cheerfully plying her trade in 2022's Nobody's Hero. It seems natural that Guiraudie is on intimate terms with la France profonde: he grew up in a five-house hamlet north of Toulouse with his parents on a small dairy farm. The claustrophobia of Misericordia – 'where everyone is always making up stories about the neighbours' – is a direct lift. In such a place, the idea of making films seemed absurd: 'It felt very far off socially and geographically. My parents always had a tendency to dampen my ambitions. By saying, 'Careful. It's not possible. You won't get there.''
After dropping out of history studies in Montpellier, Guiraudie began writing novels, then realised they were closer to film scripts. He broke out of his inertia by describing it, writing a story about two layabouts in a village square bantering about some magazine project. Encouraged by a Toulouse producer to film it, he turned it into his first short: 1990's Les Héros Sont Immortels (Heroes Never Die). He learned everything about film-making on the job, while working simultaneously as a night watchman. 'It was the most thrilling period of my youth,' he says, 'apart from certain great parties.'
The erotic action of Stranger By the Lake was focused on the titular cruising spot, its drama alternating between horny conversations at its nudist beach and pornographically shot tussles in the undergrowth. The film had a classical purity. Although it was rapturously reviewed, and was by far his most commercially successful, some American viewers felt it described a world that had been made obsolete by Grindr and the like. But Guiraudie points out that real-life cruising is far from dead – from Berlin's Tiergarten to the actual lake where they filmed, Sainte-Croix in south-east France. 'It hasn't completely disappeared,' he says. 'Especially in France, we're still attached to it. We've still got that romantic notion of sex and love.'
Even the film's explicit sex scenes added to the Greco-Roman feel. Shot with body doubles, this was an area in which Guiraudie forced himself to take a head-on approach. 'I wanted to face up to the representation of sex and of my sexuality: homosexuality. It's complicated because you give up a lot of your intimate self and you have to ask a lot of actors.'
For someone whose films are so carnal, Guiraudie is an unlikely sort of moralist, in his amused fascination with how best to negotiate the world. His characters, in their wayward navigation of their desires, seem constantly to be trying to locate the correct path – not that the director, as his films veer from tragic to comic, makes it easy for them. That appears to be Guiraudie's take on how the universe works: a sense of unfathomability probably inherited from his Catholic education. Until he lost his faith at the age of 14, he insisted on going to mass himself, despite his parents' indifference to it. He points out that Catholicism has the same kind of pragmatic accommodation to sex seen in his films: 'It integrates the physical needs of man quite well. The proof is that forgives easily [via confession].'
Guiraudie has torn up and strewn across the table his Kusmi tea sachet. He's getting used to Paris, he says, a once-unthinkable notion: 'I'm liking it more and more. I'm doing things the opposite way round to everyone else, heading off to the countryside as they get older.'
Currently writing a new film, this Molière of the Massif Central is headed somewhere new in his work too: it will be set in France's overseas territories. Not that us humans have any choice but to adapt. 'My impression is that whatever we're living through – amorous or otherwise – never lives up to our ideals.' He laughs once more. 'Reality always smacks us in the face.'
Misericordia is out on 28 March
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Jeff Bezos' $500m luxury superyacht heads to Venice for world's most lavish wedding as he ties knot with Lauren Sanchez
Jeff Bezos' $500m luxury superyacht heads to Venice for world's most lavish wedding as he ties knot with Lauren Sanchez

Scottish Sun

time23-06-2025

  • Scottish Sun

Jeff Bezos' $500m luxury superyacht heads to Venice for world's most lavish wedding as he ties knot with Lauren Sanchez

The wedding planning company also organised George and Amal Clooney's special day PARTY BOAT Jeff Bezos' $500m luxury superyacht heads to Venice for world's most lavish wedding as he ties knot with Lauren Sanchez Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) BILLIONAIRE Jeff Bezos is set to tie the knot with fiancée Lauren Sanchez - kicking off lavish celebrations aboard his $500 million superyacht. The couple will be joined by their celebrity friends ahead of their wedding aboard the yacht in Venice's waters this Friday. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 4 The wedding is set to take place aboard Bezos' $500million superyacht, Koru, in Venice, Italy 4 Around 200 guests are expected to attend Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez' lavish wedding 4 Koru took five years to build The week-long pre-wedding festivities are estimated to cost roughly $15 to $20 million (£12 to £16 million). Around 200 guests are expected to attend the wedding of the 61-year-old Amazon founder and 55-year-old journalist fiancée. Ahead of the wedding in Venice, local activists displayed large protest banners, reading 'No Space for Bezos' and 'If You Can Rent Venice for Your Wedding You Can Pay More Tax'. They have also staged canal-blocking and waterside protests in a bid to stop the world's richest man from tying the knot in their city. Read more world news LA DOLCE VITA Jeff Bezos & Lauren Sanchez prepare for star-studded 3-day Venetian wedding Organiser Federica Toninello told The New York Times that protesters have obtained leaked details of the couple's schedule and plan to disrupt events - including one reportedly set for the historic Misericordia. Toninello told a crowd of 300 people: "Bezos will never get to the Misericordia", adding, "We will line the streets with our bodies, block the canals with lifesavers, dinghies and our boats." Protesters say tourism in Venice has driven housing costs sky-high, forcing many locals out of the region. But the couple's wedding organisers, Lanza & Baucina Limited, earlier hit back at suggestions that the couple's lavish wedding plans are not respectful of locals. The organisers said in a statement to Page Six: "From the outset, instructions from our client and our own guiding principles were abundantly clear: the minimising of any disruption to the city, the respect for its residents and institutions and the overwhelming employment of locals in the crafting of the events." The wedding planning company has worked with stars like George and Amal Clooney, as well as Salma Hayek and François-Henri Pinault. $500m superyacht, $32k-night-hotels & a $2m ring… inside the Bezos wedding of the century in world's most beautiful city Bezos proposed to Sánchez in 2023 aboard the yacht, presenting her with a 20-carat pink diamond ring worth $2.5 million. The luxury vessel, Koru - named after the Māori word for 'loop' or 'coil' - symbolises new beginnings. Measuring 417 feet in length with three towering masts over 230 feet high, Koru is currently the world's largest sailing yacht, according to Boat International. The superyacht can reach speeds of up to 17 knots per hour, powered by twin, 1,500hp MTU diesel engines. It cruises comfortably at 15 knots - about 2.25 knots faster than the average for similar vessels. Said to have been first commissioned by Bezos in 2018, the yacht was built by Dutch yacht maker Oceanco near Rotterdam and delivered to Gibraltar in April 2023. The superyacht's support vessel reportedly added another $75 million to the already staggering $500 million cost. Its exterior design was completed by Dutch company Dykstra Naval Architects, while London-based company Mlinaric, Henry & Zervudachi completed its interior design. Koru can host up to 18 guests in nine staterooms, along with around 36 crew members. Its full features remain unclear, but Architectural Digest reports that Koru includes multiple outdoor lounging areas, three jacuzzis and a swimming pool.

Gwyneth Paltrow makes rare comments about how she raises her two kids
Gwyneth Paltrow makes rare comments about how she raises her two kids

Daily Mail​

time09-05-2025

  • Daily Mail​

Gwyneth Paltrow makes rare comments about how she raises her two kids

Gwyneth Paltrow made rare comments about her parenting style on Thursday. The Talented Mr. Ripley actress discussed raising her two kids — daughter Apple, 20, and son Moses, 19 — revealing she encourages them to do what's 'true to themselves' even if she 'doesn't agree with it.' 'I think I really encourage them to be true to themselves and like to do what feels right to them,' she told People.

Misericordia review – desire and dread in rural France
Misericordia review – desire and dread in rural France

The Guardian

time29-03-2025

  • The Guardian

Misericordia review – desire and dread in rural France

Plenty of film-makers explore the intersection between desire and violence; it's a recurring theme in the work of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, for example. But in the films of Stranger By the Lake director Alain Guiraudie, the overlap between the two is so great, it almost feels as if they are one and the same thing. In this slippery French-language thriller, boyish, floppy-fringed Jérémie (Félix Kysyl) returns from Toulouse to the village of Saint-Martial for a funeral. His arrival unlocks a gnawing hunger among the villagers: Martine (Catherine Frot), the widow of the dead man, invites Jérémie to stay in her spare room for as long as he chooses, on the understanding that his personal space is hers to invade. Martine's bullish son Vincent (Jean-Baptiste Durand) is unsettled by Jérémie's presence, but there's a menacing intimacy to their half-serious bouts of woodland wrestling. Then there's the local priest (Jacques Develay), with his candid, prying gaze, who always seems to be picking mushrooms at the same time as Jérémie, and whose interest in the younger man goes well beyond his spiritual wellbeing. And what of Jérémie himself? Is there a motive behind his prowling visits to sad-sack local farmer Walter (David Ayala) beyond just reconnecting with an old friend over glasses of pastis? A murder raises the stakes, but even before the mystery surrounding the death of a central character, Guiraudie seeds Misericordia with needling sexual tension and latent savagery through an ominous, skin-prickling score by Marc Verdaguer and Claire Mathon's snaking, shifty camerawork. It isn't entirely satisfying – there are too many unfulfilled subplots and murky motivations – but this intriguingly tricky drama has a perverse appeal. In UK and Irish cinemas

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store