MIFF NOTES: Staying Vertical (2016, Dir. Alain Guiraudie)

If you are looking for an auteur who is unashamedly queer, look no further than Frenchman Alain Guiraudie. People sat up and took notice after his Cannes-lauded beat sex whodunnit, Stranger by the Lake, but as out there as that was (for many), by Guiraudie standards that was very near mainstream. Now, with a stash of prizes tucked under his arm, he heads back into actual queerdom with his latest, Staying Vertical.

This is outside the box stuff, though corralled back into Guiraudie’s favoured rural aestheticism. Léo (Damien Bonnard), a middle-aged writer on the run from writer’s block, spends the film’s runtime grabbing experiences where he can get them. The experiences are varied but invariably sexual. They involve fresh life, expended life and new life. They even take in what will most probably be the decade’s most bizarre assisted suicide.

Common elements may be difficult to finger but the overall aesthetic is alluringly off-kilter and sexy-dirty. Guiraudie’s queer absurdism is undeniably in full swing, like a pair of testes to the face. It will surely leave most audience members with serious concussion. It did me.

But that’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it. Sex is funny that way.

★★★☆

Trailer:

Staying Vertical screened as part of the Melbourne International Film Festival 2016.

You can check out other films from the festival here.