MISERICORDIA World Cinema

Death and desire make a potent cocktail in Alain Guiraudie’s (STRANGER BY THE LAKE, AFI FEST 2013) delicious Hitchcockian thriller, which premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. A former baker, Jérémie (a beguiling Félix Kysyl), returns to the small French village of his youth after his mentor’s death. Perhaps overstaying his welcome, Jérémie ingratiates himself into the man’s family, charming his gracious widow Martine (Catherine Frot) to the displeasure of her hot-headed son Vincent (Jean-Baptiste Durand). But when tensions boil over, Jérémie has no qualms about seducing whoever he sees fit to get his way, including an all-too-receptive priest (Jacques Develay). Yet again, Guiraudie dissects rural French life with laser precision, melding sex, violence and black comedy to create something wholly his own. –Josh Gardner