Best known for his acclaimed 2013 erotic thriller Stranger by the Lake, French writer-director Alain Guiraudie tells unabashedly queer stories with both a pornographer’s frankness and a stoned philosopher dreaminess. His new feature, Staying Vertical, may very well represent the apotheosis of the director’s most indulgently peculiar tendencies. There’s no denying that it is an opaque and difficult work, but also not without its seductive qualities.
Exactly what happens in the film is contentious (see: Last Year at Marienbad or Synecdoche, New York). A screenwriter named Léo (Damien Bonnard) wanders the French countryside in search of inspiration. He spots a young man, Yoan (Basile Meilleurat), on the side of the road and propositions him, but is rebuffed. He meets a blunt-spoken shepherdess, Marie (India Hair), who takes him home to meet her father (Raphaël Thiéry) and two sons, and then sleeps with him. Léo visits a small seaside city and begs his agent for a cash advance over the phone. At some point, his path loops in on itself and repeats: He returns to Marie, and, abruptly, they have an infant son. Reality reconfigures with each iteration of Léo’s dream-quest, as the roles and even identities of the men in his life seem to metamorphose.
Stay up-to-date with the local arts scene
Subscribe to the weekly St. Louis Arts+Culture newsletter to discover must-attend art exhibits, performances, festivals, and more.
There’s much in Staying Vertical that is shocking—including explicit depictions of childbirth and an alarming gay sexual encounter—and much more that is downright baffling. At times, the film feels like a queer, high-minded Eraserhead: a languid nightmare rooted in a man’s self-loathing, parental anxieties, and fear of mortality. Underneath the film’s dogged weirdness, there’s a definite sense of gnawing purpose. If Guiraudie had favored story (however surreal) over obfuscation a bit more—in the manner of fellow LGBT auteur Apichatpong Weerasthekul—that purpose might have been easier to discern.
Staying Vertical screens Friday, November 4 at 9:30 p.m. and Saturday, November 5 at 4:15 p.m. Both screenings are at the Landmark Plaza Frontenac Cinema. For tickets or additional information visit the Cinema St. Louis website.
