MORTAL TRANSFER (MORTEL TRANSFERT) European Showcase

After an eight-year absence, acclaimed director Jean-Jacques Beineix (DIVA, BETTY BLUE) returns with a satis.fying, surreal piece of contemporary noir about a narcoleptic psychoanalyst who may or may not have murdered one of his patients.

Dr. Michel Durand (an appropriately haggard Jean-Hugues Anglade) is so numb with boredom at his patients’ petty rantings that he has begun falling asleep in their sessions. Not even the lurid tales of Olga, a sadomasochist tease referred by his own analyst, can keep the doctor awake. In classic noir fashion, the lady proves to be nothing but trouble for Michel, who awakens from a mid-session trance to find his patient murdered on his couch.

Reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock’s FRENZY in its macabre humor (and difficulty in body disposal), Beineix, who also co-wrote, has crafted a sumptuous, evocative and deceptively clever film.