MALGRÉ LA NUIT World Cinema

In Philippe Grandrieux’s fourth feature, the director’s signature tight framings follow a man named Lenz as he falls into the milieu of pornographic snuff films while searching for his lost love Madeleine. In a realm of undefined spaces and intense light, Lenz encounters Lena and Hélène, whose passion for Lenz can’t supplant his memories of his absent lover. Grandrieux’s first digitally shot film, MALGRÉ LA NUIT experiments with video effects to give a dreamlike counterpoint to scenes of disturbing sexual violence and abuse. Casting a wide net, collaborators on the script include up-and-coming French art house filmmaker Rebecca Zlotowski (GRAND CENTRAL, AFI FEST 2013) and Hollywood scribe John-Henry Butterworth. — Gillian Horvat