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DON’T CHANGE HANDS
1975
Director
Paul Vecchiali
Starring
Hélène Surgère
Myriam Mézières
Jean-Christophe Bouvet
Sonia Saviange
Howard Vernon
Runtime
86 minutes
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A French politician is blackmailed when a mysterious pornographic film starring her son is delivered to her. She hires Melinda, a cut-throat lesbian detective, to investigate. Melinda is sent to “Shanghai Lily” to meet the blackmailers, a stylish but seedy club with a portrait of Marlene Dietrich on the wall where queer performers entertain anonymous elites. After a deadly shootout, things escalate and answers only result in more questions. And while the twisting investigation takes us through a labyrinth of the French underground, there is a killer on the loose with a desire that cannot be quenched!
Director Paul Vecchiali came up as a critic, writing for Cahier du Cinema during the peak of the French New Wave. Training himself with a critical eye for style and the rare queer perspective amongst the New Wave boys, Vecchiali’s work stands out as some of the most dangerous films of the period. Transgressive even among his contemporaries for featuring pornographic scenarios, Vecchiali’s voyeuristic gaze has an intuition for what glows in the pitch black of the cinema.
FOR FANS OF: sequins, fringe, wigs, porn on 35mm, KNIFE+HEART (2018), bodies writhing indiscernibly in the shadows, the eroticism of illicit deals in dimly lit rooms, Jacque Rivette after dark, crimes of passion.
A French politician is blackmailed when a mysterious pornographic film starring her son is delivered to her. She hires Melinda, a cut-throat lesbian detective, to investigate. Melinda is sent to “Shanghai Lily” to meet the blackmailers, a stylish but seedy club with a portrait of Marlene Dietrich on the wall where queer performers entertain anonymous elites. After a deadly shootout, things escalate and answers only result in more questions. And while the twisting investigation takes us through a labyrinth of the French underground, there is a killer on the loose with a desire that cannot be quenched!
Director Paul Vecchiali came up as a critic, writing for Cahier du Cinema during the peak of the French New Wave. Training himself with a critical eye for style and the rare queer perspective amongst the New Wave boys, Vecchiali’s work stands out as some of the most dangerous films of the period. Transgressive even among his contemporaries for featuring pornographic scenarios, Vecchiali’s voyeuristic gaze has an intuition for what glows in the pitch black of the cinema.
FOR FANS OF: sequins, fringe, wigs, porn on 35mm, KNIFE+HEART (2018), bodies writhing indiscernibly in the shadows, the eroticism of illicit deals in dimly lit rooms, Jacque Rivette after dark, crimes of passion.