Staying Vertical
Director: Alain Guiraudie
Year Released: 2016
Rating: 2.0
Filmmaker Léo (Damien Bonnard), who's struggling to write his new screenplay, begins a relationship with shepherdess Marie (India Hair) that he meets at random - they have a son together, but she doesn't want to raise it so he runs off with the baby. Guiraudie seems to care more about atmosphere and (sporadic) sensationalism - close-ups of vaginas both during copulation and during child birth, anal sex with geriatrics - and less about intellectualism, sprinkling in 'symbols' (wolves and sheep/men and babies) to pad the movie and distract from the hollowness. The young man Léo keeps trying to recruit to be in his movie, Yoan (Basile Meilleurat), sleeps with everyone but him, which I guess is supposed to be a joke - also odd is how every man in this, whether they're a father or grandfather, just can't wait to fornicate with other men (there's only one woman in this, and she's treated as an after-thought).
