KNIFE+HEART (2018) (Altered Innocence Blu-ray Review)

KNIFE+HEART (2018) 

Label:  Altered Innocence
Duration: 103 Minutes
Region Code: A
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.40:1)
Audio: French DTS-0HD MA 5.1 with Optional English and Spanish subtitles
Director: Yann Gonzalez
Cast: Vanessa Paradis, Nicolas Maury, Kate Moran, Jonathan Genet, Romane Bohringer, Félix Maritaud

Set in Paris in the summer of '79 retro-giallo Knife+Heart (Un couteau dans le Coeur) (2018) stars French pop star Vanessa Paradis as Anne, the director of gay porn films. Her latest production runs into trouble when a leather-masked culprit begins murdering her stars with a bladed black-dildo. While the cops are investigating the deaths Anne takes pieces of the ongoing investigation and channels it into a new film, a gay slasher film. In true giallo fashion Anne begins doing some sleuthing of her own, along the way trying to win back the love of her life, her film editor Lois (Kate Moran).

Knife+Heart is a deliciously trashy queer-slanted giallo that channels vintage Dario Argento, William Friedkin's Cruising (1980) and Dressed To Kill (1980) era Brian DePalma, creating a lurid blend of euro-whodunit, outrageous characters and some campy gay-porn elements that keep things rather interesting, if not all together coherent. The queer-centric film might scare off the less adventurous types, but if you have a love for stylish 70's whodunits there's a lot here to love. 

The story itself is simple yet more convoluted than it needs to be, which is absolutely on-brand for the giallo my opinion, with solid direction from Yann Gonzalez who keeps tings trashy, ultra-stylish and delightfully lurid throughout. The kills are are well-executed with some truly disturbing imagery, offering up hallucinogenic visuals and neon-lit suspense, but it's the moody performance from star Vanessa Paradis that pulled me on this one, anchoring a film that while a stylish and surreal is a bit disjointed in it's storytelling, but I always found her platinum blonde smut-peddler intriguing and sympathetic.   

Audio/Video: Knife+Heart arrives on Blu-ray from Altered Innocence in 2.40:1 widescreen in 1080p HD. This looks to have been shot on film, everything is crisp and vibrant looking throughout, the deep red and blue saturated hues look terrific in 1080p. The amount of fine detail is pleasing, grain is well-managed,  and the black levels are deep throughout, creating a wonderfully lush visual presentation. 

Audio on the disc come by way of a strong French DTS-HD MA 5.1 track with optional English and Spanish subtitles. The dialogue is clean and the fantastic electronic-synth score from M83 (Oblivion).

Extras include a 20-min interview with Director Yann Gonzalez and co-writer Cristiano Mangione who go into how they met, and the process of making the film, plus the 24-min short film 'Les îles', a trailer for the film-within-a-film 'De Sperme et d’eau Fraiche', three trailers for the main feature, a fun and gory 4-min music video, and a selection of Altered Innocence trailers.   

The single-disc release comes housed in a Criterion-style clear Blu-ray keepcase with a reversible sleeve of artwork. Inside there's a mini-foldout of one of the artworks, the same artwork is excerpted on the disc itself, this is a stylish looking release with some serious shelf appeal. 

Special Features 
- Interview with Director Yann Gonzalez and co-writer Cristiano Mangione (20 min) HD 
- Short Film: Islands (Les îles) by Yann Gonzalez (24 min) HD 
- Music Video: Les Vacances Continuent (4 min) HD 
- A Gothic Video Introduction by Pierre Emö (4 min) HD 
- De Sperme et d’eau Fraiche (2 min) HD
- International Trailer (2 min) HD
- U.S. Theatrical Trailer (2 min) HD 
- XXX Trailer (1 min) HD 
Trailers: Qeeercore (2 min) HD, The Wild Boys (2 min) HD, Permanent Green Light (2 min) HD, A Closer Walk With Thee (2 min) HD