Staying Vertical

Rester Vertical is on Netflix now and made rather a splash at Cannes where most people decided it was the strangest film of the festival. The movie is indeed weird and unexpected, while also completely taking place in the real world... it's just that the stuff that happens in the film keeps prompting one to question the reality of the images on screen. It's realism, but then you find yourself watching something and go – wait what??

This is a gay film, I guess, or at least the main character is mostly gay. But there are many other things to recommend this strange movie. The film, in fact, is filled with intriguing images – a man fucks an old, dying man as a kind of last request; at another point of the movie a group of transients steal every stitch of clothing off of the main character; and at one point the camera steadily and simply watches a baby come out of a vagina. (It's kind of gross, in case you've never seen this.)

Rester Vertical is not quite as good as Guiraudie's last film, L'Inconnu du Lac. I found the latter film just as strange but much more troubling, still, Rester Vertical is certainly intriguing, and I am always happy to watch something that aims to be outrageous.