BLACK MOON (1975)

Okay, now for a really weird one. This week at Ciné-Club, we're leaving Rivette's whimsical Paris to find a darker, more cryptic kind of magic in the French countryside. Join us as we discuss Louis Malle's hypnotic, macabre fever dream...

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BLACK MOON (1975)
Dir. by Louis Malle
Available to stream on archive.org here, or on the Criterion Channel.

Creepy-crawlies. A talking unicorn. Two weird twins with nothing to say, but a lot on their minds. These curiosities and more await Lily on the other side of the looking glass when she stumbles upon a mysterious country house, while fleeing some kind of apocalyptic armed conflict that is ravaging the french countryside. The inhabitants of this mystery house have an odd way of making their thoughts known, and all seem to treat Lily with the same detached uncanniness as they go about their cryptic domestic rituals. And Lily herself has a touch of the inscrutable, as her compulsions and appetites drive her through this somber other-where in strange and unpredictable ways. Let's just say it's not a film that you watch with an attention to plot - unless you want to wind up mad as a hatter.

A weirdo take on Wonderland brimming with bizarre imagery and memorable "wtf" moments, Malle's ultrafreudian fairy tale perfectly captures the strange logic and eerie surreality of the dream world. What does it all mean? We'll need everyone's help for this one... so let's talk about it!

*As a reminder, this is solely a movie discussion group - we encourage you to watch the film independently prior to coming to the meetings.