Love Lies Bleeding – Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art

Love Lies Bleeding, directed by Rose Glass, is a love story on steroids that will make you sweat instead of crying, as well as a revenge film, surprisingly combining brutality with a seductive vintage aesthetic.

In a provincial American town in the 1980s, gym manager Lou (Kristen Stewart) falls for the mysterious Jackie (Katy O’Brian), an extremely ambitious bodybuilder who dreams of winning a competition in Las Vegas. All the neon and nylon can’t mask the pervasive violence perpetrated by local gangsters, led by Lou’s father (Ed Harris). When the family mess explodes, the girls take to cleaning up. But blood stains are as hard to get rid of as lies and bad memories.

The bloody, sexy and unpredictable Love Lies Bleeding from A24 won the audiences at Sundance and Berlinale. Rose Glass, known for the well-received Saint Maud, has proven her work surprises and breaks all rules of screenwriting, and that she can play with film like Tarantino. Co-written by Weronika Tofilska (director of Netflix hit Baby Reindeer), it is a mesmerizing thriller full of desire and fascination with a muscular body, both beautiful and dangerous.