The films of the French husband-and-wife filmmaking duo Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani are difficult to explain to someone who has never seen them; indeed, it may be hard even for someone who has. The simplest route is to say that they work in genre homage, primarily to vintage Italian exploitation films— giallo in the cases of Amer and The Strange Colour of Your Body’s Tears, spaghetti westerns and poliziotteschi for the BUFF alum Let the Corpses Tan. This description, however, may bring to mind the retro-styled thrillers of Quentin Tarantino or Robert Rodriguez, which is not quite the game Cattet and Forzani are playing. Where Tarantino and his descendants use exploitation signifiers in service of supercharged pulp, Cattet and Forzani make a meal of the signifiers themselves, exaggerating and distorting them into something barely recognizable as a narrative film. Watching a Cattet/Forzani picture feels like being walloped in the head with a genre-film two-by-four. This description which likely won’t sound pleasant to many, but will be all but irresistible to their core audience.
The duo’s latest, Reflection in a Dead Diamond, draws its inspiration from the superspy films of the ‘60s and ‘70s— Bond, yes, but even more so Diabolik and the other Italian antiheroes who popped up in Bond’s wake. “Plot” is a loose term when it comes to these films, but what story is present hinges on “John D” (genre legend Fabio Testi, of What Have They Done to Solange? and countless other gialli), an aging secret agent lounging on the rocky beach of a seaside hotel. A pair of murders at the resort— one of which he may have been involved with, the other he definitely committed— prompt John to flash back to his decades-long pursuit of Serpentik, a leather-clad mistress of disguise with stainless steel press-on nails and deadly fishhook hair extensions. The film then proceeds to play a sort of “top that” with itself, presenting a series of increasingly outre visuals: a silhouetted montage in which bloodsprays are represented by showers of diamonds; an eye-shaped, ruby-studded ring which allows John to see through walls or into people’s minds; a faceless assassin who hypnotizes his victims into believing they’re acting in a movie, triggering their deaths with the word “FIN”; and on and on, through 87 breathless minutes of technicolor pop-art delirium.
Reflection in a Dead Diamond premieres this week on Shudder, which is a bit of a shame. This is a film which all but demands to be watched on a big screen with your jaw hanging open, ideally in the very front row, possibly chemically altered (I’d pay good money to see it in the Jordan’s Furniture IMAX house). It’s a maximalist film, if not in scope, then certainly in form, each image, cut, and even sound design choice hurled like a brick at the viewer’s noggin (any film can give you a femme fatale in a leather catsuit, but only a true sicko epic would mix its constant squeaking loud enough to drown out the dialogue). Imagine if the stylized opening sequence of a Bond picture was extended to feature length and given a hard-R rating, and you’ll have an idea of the sensory experience you’re in for.
The main point of reference here is obviously Bava, but Cattet and Forzani are no mere trash fetishists; Un Chien Andalou and Meshes of the Afternoon are both explicitly referenced in the visuals, and the elliptical form (and hotel setting) at times recalls Last Year at Marienbad. It’s not so much that the filmmakers are “elevating” gutter material, like so much $60 fancy-restaurant pizza. Rather, they’re amplifying a true-blue art picture with the irresistible trappings of a gonzo exploitation film. There’s a real story in here about memory, conflicted morals, and fame (John D exists as a pop cultural entity within the world of the film, and the action occasionally takes the form of comic book panels and dime-store photoplay adaptations of his exploits), but you’ll be forgiven if you don’t notice it among the barrage of candy-colored montage and comically over-the-top violence.
In case it’s not clear, the films that result from this partnership are not for everyone. Those looking for straight-ahead genre thrills, or what one might conventionally recognize as a story with a beginning, middle, and end, will likely walk away more confused than they started, if they manage to finish it at all. Those who jive with its rhythms, however, might consider Reflection in a Dead Diamond among the best films of the year. Simply put, nobody makes films like Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani; they have established their own cinematic language, a volatile concoction of dream logic, black comedy, avant-garde editing, and severed limbs. Reflection in a Dead Diamond is as gleefully hyperbolic as its title, but it is made with more craft and artistry than a dozen 007 epics. It is also the only film you’re likely to see this year to feature a bloody “death by foosball table” scene, and that ain’t nothin.
Reflection in a Dead Diamond
2025
dir. Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani
87 min.
Screens Friday, 1/2 through Tuesday, 1/6 @ Brattle Theatre – click here for showtimes and ticket info
Currently streaming on Shudder
