Pig sex. Steroids. Terrible hairstyles. Torn human faces. Monsters or something like that. Blood, sweat and other body fluids. Love Lies Bleeding has a bit of all of it. In this way, it aims to be one of the most controversial films of the season. Even with the A24 stamp, the freshest and most influential studio today, its nomination deserves serious attention. The film was directed by Rose Glass, a British filmmaker who quickly established herself after her debut feature Saint Maud in 2021. Saint Maud remains a benchmark for psychological horror driven by religious fervor and obsessive compulsion, and Love Lies Bleeding revisits characters who surrender to their impulses and dark urges.
Offered out of competition at Berlinale, and following the buzz from Sundance, the narrative shifts to a small town in the United States in 1989 where the American Dream feels distant. Kristen Stewart plays a gym employee who enters a steamy romance with a bodybuilder. A synthetic testosterone injection sets the stage for the couple’s intimate moments, followed by a string of encounters in private spaces. Violence soon intrudes on this fragile paradise as the bodybuilder begins to morph under the weight of new emotions — a body that seems to reflect the girlfriend’s hidden desires. Bodies pile up as love pushes boundaries, and the couple realizes that a fresh life in Las Vegas may remain just a dream.
In the first half, Love Lies Bleeding adopts a noir tone that doubles as a feminist and lesbian interpretation of a traditionally masculine genre. It invites comparisons to early works by the Wachowskis and brings to mind titles like Wild Heart, Easy Blood, Thelma and Louise, and Drive. Yet the second half leans into the unpredictable, each scene escalating the intensity while the narrative keeps its spark. The film plays with daring ideas and relentless energy, even when control feels precarious. This combination becomes the work’s greatest strength — a bold piece that challenges the audience and keeps them unsettled in the best possible way.
Colonialism, aliens and Ingmar Bergman
The director Mati Diop, Frenchwoman of Senegalese descent and the first of three Golden Bear nominees today, returns to a theme that gave her breakout Atlantique its momentum: the enduring damage of colonial histories. Her work touches on Dahomey, a November 2021 event marking the repatriation of 26 Dahomean artworks from the former colony, now Benin. By weaving documentary texture with fantasy cinema, the film contributes sharp, current commentary on European abuses in Africa and the necessity of returning cultural treasures to their places of origin.
In contrast, the new comedy from Bruno Dumont leans into absurd humor. Empire follows two space-faring forces approaching the Normandy coast to conquer the earth and to inhabit local bodies in an offbeat invasion. The blend of slapstick and whimsy here lightens the mood, especially in the early sequences, though the later portions struggle to maintain that buoyant energy. The competition also highlights Matthias Glasner’s new project, Sterbern. It presents a family in crisis, exploring illnesses, funerals, suicides and addictions across a long, sprawling runtime that aims for an epic scale reminiscent of classic cinema from a master like Ingmar Bergman.