This is soft porn masquerading as a slasher film. The first hour was was crazy but interesting. It fizzled our after that.

Can’t think of any good puns as they’ve already done Homocidal. Damn.

Being a bit of a francophile, a film only has to be set in France for me immediately to be pumped for it. Ridiculous, of course. But Yann Gonzalez' sumptuous and brilliant second full length feature forgives any such fool hardy preconceptions. Set in 1979 Paris, filmmaker Anne is a producer of third rate gay porn. Her editor and lover Lois leaves her early in the film, and she decides to undertake her most ambitious project yet in an attempt to win her back. As the production begins however, one of her cast is brutally murdered. Consequently, Anne decides to press on with her project, and even when another of her actors is murdered (by the same masked individual) she continues, and begins to combine the atrocities engulfing the production into the project itself. There's so many genres at play here that it could lead to disaster; instead Knife + Heart encapsulates everything that's excellent about the genres it's dealing in. I've said before that when dealing specifically with sexual nature as the crux of a film, it's difficult to keep it interesting and relevant. As much as I love and respect Gaspar Noe for example, his experimental film Love 3D (2015) had the right intentions, but was fairly dull. The best example I can remember of sex and fetishism on film in recent years is still Peter Strickland's The Duke Of Burgundy (2014). Until now, anyway. The sex scenes Anne films throughout are intoxicating, with the backdrop of a wonderful score by M83 (Gonzalez' brother incidentally) and there's plenty of deliberate humour within them as well. Part thriller, part horror, part comedy, you name it, I would argue it's the best LGBTQ+ genre film of the year. The cast are wonderful, and I've heard some say the film dips off in its final quarter when it threatens to introduce a supernatural element (or does it) but I couldn't disagree more. It's a more playful film than something like Friedkin's Cruising (1980) but there's also a more chilling undertone than you might initially realise. The neon chrome lighting gives Knife + Heart a threatening sheen that works wonders as a genre mixer, and the cinematography is transfixing. It's so apt then, that Knife + Heart is about so many things, but deep down and stripped back, it's about cinema. Gonzalez has produced a masterpiece, an ode to film, arguing through his production not just the supposed satisfaction of Anne's art form for many, but tackling the long asked question of where the line is between art and porn. Through Knife + Heart, he makes a compelling case. Knife + Heart is available to stream on MUBI.

Gay Porn Meets Giallo Slasher in Moody ‘Knife+Heart'

French noir with retro-Italian vibes and a futuristic flair. Boogie Nights' and Mr Nobody's love child raised by Dario Argento.

I really loved this and I think it's a great film, but I have a hard time recommending it due to the highly upsetting content and the fact that it left me feeling pretty despondent. It might actually be the saddest horror movie I've ever seen. The soundtrack is excellent, everyone in it is amazing. It's full of wonderful weird, awesome moments. I cried a bit.

Magnifica oda y homenaje al thriller de los 70, desde el americano (haciendo referencias a A la caza) o al italiano (elige cualquier giallo), grabada con muchisimo mimo y encanto. La naturaleza meta que tiene le da aun mas dimension a una historia que no solo habla de asesinatos, sino tambien del amor, el deseo, el dolor… Absoluta delicia visual y musical (M83 es amor).

Wow! If you're open-minded and love Dario Argento films this movie is for you! Casts a spell. The soundtrack fits it perfectly. A modern throwback!

Boring and subtly misogynist.

Very stylish, but could've pushed the envelope just a tad more

Dont be fooled, its a soft core porn film sprinkled with a little violence and pretty colors.

A stylishly retro giallo throwback, and a thoroughly original story.

I never know what to say when a movie is this good and personally resonant. It's a whole reality that you slip into, and it feels custom made just for me. Imagine trying to review the whole world, you can never say all there is to say about it because it has so many facets and they're shifting and growing and decaying all the time. I think a lot of people aren't going to like or understand it because it's not for them. It's gay giallo babey.

I had a bad feeling about this movie, but the music on the trailer (by M83) convinced me to take a chance on it. I'm so glad I did. It copies its style from giallo and Brian DePalma movies. I'm not a big fan of those styles, but this movie uses them so well, to such entertaining ends, that I was hooked. The film-within-a-film looks as interesting as the film itself, which is a hard trick to pull off. The music is perfect. Stay for the credits.

Eerie, depressing, dark fun, scary! A Grimm romance empowering the LGBTQA

Vanessa paradis is brillant. this horror film is of a bloody originality

Saw this movie at 2018 AFI Fest in Hollywood, good to see that it got picked up for U.S. release. it's definitely an interesting LGBTQ erotic thriller French movie set in the 70's - 80's.

Just an insulting peace of a movie. Not scary, not funny, not romantic. Vanessa Paradies plays disgusting.

Fueled by a killer soundtrack from M83, Knife + Heart gives off a je ne sais quoi quality that, after watching, will be impossible to forget.

Vanessa Paradis (yes, her of Joe Le Taxi and ex-wife of Johnny Depp) stars in this French queer cult film as a lesbian film-maker of male gay porn movies in Paris, 1979 (bear with me) when her actors are brutally murdered one by one while she takes inspiration from these murders for her next project. I want to say this is John Waters meets John Carpenter but that wouldn't be fair to either Johns. Shot on a limited budget on proper film, this certainly tips its head to film-makers such as Dario Argento and Russ Meyers, the sort of fare you see in rep cinemas like the Scala in Kings Cross once upon a time; and to an extent, it succeeds in replicating those films, though I reckon it could go further and get wilder and camper than it is now. Otherwise, the film is stylish but disjointed and at 110 mins, it drags in the middle when we can either do with a few more artfully staged murders to liven up proceedings or shave off 15-20 minutes. There are some good ideas and knowledgable cinematic homages floating around but it remains a curious film that doesn't quite lift off, though it does make me nostalgic for places like Scala and wish they are still around so films like this can find their audience there.