2K Restoration of Paul Vecchiali’s Underseen 1970 French Arthouse Giallo THE STRANGLER Begins U.S. Theatrical Next Month From Altered InnocenceOpening at Anthology Film Archives in New York on November 15, Austin Film Society on November 17 — More to come!
“Thrilling and beautiful… A haunting examination of isolation.”— Alejandra Martinez, Dread Central“Paul Vecchiali’s 1970 undiscovered gem… Revels in the dark amorality its characters swim in.”— A.W. Kautzer, The Movie Isle“Creates a degree of cinematic influence that has been felt in films for decades to follow… A must-see.”— Cait Kennedy, But Why Tho?“[A] psychosexual meditation on violence and the inability of people to connect that uncannily prefigures any number of psycho-killer films that would emerge in the subsequent decades.”— Peter Sobczynski, The Spool
France / 1970 / 96 min / 35mm-to-DCP / In French with English subtitles Restored with the help of Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée (CNC); laboratory: Cosmodigital. Festivals:Cannes Film Festival — Directors’ Fortnight 1970New York Film Festival — Revivals 2023Fantastic Fest 2023
SCREENING DETAILSwww.alteredinnocence.net/thestranglerOct 21 / NYC @ Metrograph (Preview Screening!)As part of: Paul Vecchiali, Producer: From Jeanne Dielman To DiagonaleNov 15-21 / NYC @ Anthology Film ArchivesNov 17-22 / Austin, TX @ Austin Film Society
Nov 17 / Austin, TX @ Alamo Drafthouse Cinema VillageNov 17 / Chicago, IL @ Alamo Drafthouse WrigleyvilleNov 17 / Denver, CO @ Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Sloans LakeNov 17 / Los Angeles, CA @ Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Downtown Los AngelesNov 17 / New York, NY @ Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Lower ManhattanNov 17 / Raleigh, NC @ Alamo Drafthouse Cinema RaleighNov 17 / San Francisco, CA @ Alamo Drafthouse Cinema New MissionNov 17 / Yonkers, NY @ Alamo Drafthouse CinemaDec 1 / Seattle, WA @ The Beacon Cinema** More to come! **
Paul Vecchiali is one of the most fascinating members of the generation of French filmmakers who emerged in the immediate wake of the French New Wave. Hailed as an “icon of a rebellious, reflexive, and emotionally excessive cinema” by Le Monde and celebrated for his prolific filmography and decades-spanning career as a critic, director, and producer, Vecchiali was remarkable both for the often highly stylized, experimental nature of his films and for his pioneering exploration of queer characters and themes.
Releasing work right up until his death earlier this year, he’s considered widely influential in France while much of his work has yet to be distributed and appraised with matched acclaim in America — until now, where he’s the subject of a series at Metrograph theater in New York focusing on the output of his pioneering production company, Diagonale, which operated with a revolutionary focus on female and queer filmmakers, and now to the first-ever U.S. theatrical release of one of Vecchiali’s earliest films, the arthouse psycho-thriller THE STRANGLER (1970).
An unconventional French giallo released before the subgenre’s popularity boom resulting from filmmakers like Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci, THE STRANGLER is regarded as Vecchiali’s most ambitious work, his first foray into genre, and a highlight of his overarching filmography. The film centers on Emile (Jacques Perrin, The Young Girls of Rochefort), a handsome young man targeting women he believes are too depressed to go on living. As multiple women fall to Emile’s suffocating white scarf, inspector Simon Dangret, the detective assigned to track down the killer, resorts to seriously unorthodox and even unethical methods to get his man with the assistance of Anna, a beautiful woman who believes herself to be a potential victim.
Initially a selection of the 23rd Cannes Film Festival’s Directors’ Fortnight section, THE STRANGLER equally subverts and indulges in the conventions of the giallo with unexpected beauty and refinement and was praised as a “complex, melancholic meditation on isolation as well as a portrait of collective hysteria” by New York Film Festival, where it recently screened in the Revivals section.
Beyond THE STRANGLER, some of the highlights of Vecchiali’s illustrious career include Femmes femme (1974), La machine (1977), Drugstore Romance (1979), C’est la vie! (1980), and Rosa la rose, fille publique (1986). As a producer, Vecchiali was able to facilitate work by Liliane de Kermadec (Aloïse) and Chantal Akerman (Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du commerce, 1080 Bruxelles), among others, and his final film, Bonjour la langue, which he co-wrote, directed, and produced prior to his death, premiered posthumously at the Locarno Film Festival.
Following select limited theatrical screenings across North America, Altered Innocence will release THE STRANGLER on digital and home video.
Most recently, Los Angeles-based distribution outfit Altered Innocence, who champion international and cutting-edge LGBTQ and Coming-of-Age cinema for North American audiences, snapped up Conann, Bertrand Mandicoi’s latest queer fantasy adventure, following its Cannes world premiere and ahead of its bow at Fantastic Fest in selection alongside THE STRANGLER. Additional recent releases include David Depesseville Astrakan, Wallace Potts’s Le Beau Mec, and Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson’s Beautiful Beings, Iceland’s submission for the 95th Academy Awards®, released earlier this year.
