Love Lies Bleeding | “We’ve always been there! »

Kristen Stewart had never seen Showgirls, Paul Verhoeven’s erotic turnip which has become a classic of psychotronic cinema for 30 years. “I saw it in the middle of our shoot and I understood! », Confided the American actress last month during a press conference at the Berlin Film Festival, at which The Press attended and where she presented Love Lies Bleeding by Rose Glass.

Love Lies Bleeding (Of love and blood in French version), which is due to be released on March 15 in Quebec, has strong retrokitsch accents. Which probably explains why Rose Glass (Saint Maud) advised his actors to see or rewatch Showgirls in anticipation of filming his second feature film.

The film by the 34-year-old author-filmmaker recounts the romantic passion between two young women at the end of the 1980s, thwarted by the criminal context in which it is experienced. Lou (Kristen Stewart) is the unambitious manager of a gym in a small New Mexico town, where she meets ambitious bodybuilder Jackie (Katy O’Brian), en route to a competition in Las Vegas . Jackie has a troubled and mysterious past, just like Lou, who is the daughter of an arms dealer hunted by the FBI (Ed Harris).

Having its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January, Love Lies Bleeding successfully combines several genres: romantic thriller, film noir, fantasy comedy. It is a satire that is at once funny, violent, gripping and astonishing, which sometimes recalls the cinema of the Coen brothers, sometimes that of Michael Mann – in particular for its typical aesthetic of the 1980s -, music by Bronski Beat in support .

“I decided to make this film primarily to work with Rose, because Saint Maud is one of my favorite films, said the famous actress of Twilight, Spencer And Personal Shopper. She is one of those who believe that women can regain power by making cinema. She told me that she wanted to make a film about a strong girl, and that I would have the role of the more fragile girl, stuck in her daily life. »

The resumption of female power

Kristen Stewart still read the script before accepting the role that was offered to her. “It’s a very interesting scenario, which can be interpreted in so many ways. I didn’t think it was funny. It was during filming that I realized to what extent Rose had an inclination for absurd humor! »

“It’s a film that has a strong comedic side, but which deals with very hard subjects,” explains Rose Glass, who decided to set her story in the United States rather than in her native Great Britain. “It made more sense to me and more in line with this story full of guns and muscles,” she says. She was interested in bodybuilding as a metaphor for America, but also in the psychology behind the practice. “I find it fascinating. It’s artistic performance as much as sport. We transform our body into a sculpture, in a way. »

Rose’s way of deconstructing America is indeed very comical. This American obsession with self-affirmation. This idea that when you want, you can. That’s not always true, is it? Although it’s a nice idea.

Kristen Stewart

Her character Lou, she says, has “internalized a lot of misogyny, but doesn’t want to end up on the wrong side of history.” Love Lies Bleeding puts forward another way of thinking about sexual stereotypes, believes the actress. “People we don’t usually listen to or look at are front and center in this film. The interviews we give as female artists don’t talk much about this idea of ​​women taking back power, because it makes people uncomfortable with the fact that women have been so oppressed. It’s crazy that there aren’t more movies like this. »

A valid experience

Rose Glass, on the other hand, explains that she did not think too much about queer representation in her film. “I was only interested in the best way to tell the story, without subjecting myself to other forms of pressure from outside. »

This is also the opinion of Kristen Stewart, who believes that it is high time to move on to another stage in our thinking about the representation of queer characters in cinema. “I no longer want to talk only about the reasons why these characters are marginalized, but about their real experience. What they like, what their desires are, where they come from, where they want to go. And then not having the impression of always having to take every platform to be a spokesperson. »

“We can no longer pat ourselves on the back, receiving bonus points, because we offer space to marginalized voices on the condition that they stick only to what marginalizes them,” adds -she. We have always been there! The days when queer films were just queer films are over. We are making progress. »

In theaters Friday March 15