ALLELUIA (2014)

Belgium-France. Direction: Fabrice du Welz. Production: Vincent Tavier, Clément Miserez, Matthieu Warter / Panique, Radar Films, Savage Film, One Eyed, Versus. Screenplay: Fabrice du Welz, Vincent Tavier. Photography: Manu Dacosse. Music: Vincent Cahay. Edition: Anne-Laure Guégan. Cast: Laurent Lucas, Lola Dueñas, Helena Noguerra, Stéphane Bissot, Edith Le Merdy, Anne-Marie Loop. Running time: 90 min

LANGUAGE: French / SUBTITLES: English, Spanish

Affirmative: Lola Dueñas is a member of the cast. In fact, she’s Gloria, the leading lady in this tale of love, death, submission, coupling, jealousy and an Oedipus complex like the side of a house. Wasn't there another one, or several? In fact there have been quite a few. For a start, it's based on the purulent relationship between two beings of flesh and blood who ran riot in the America of the 40s: Martha Beck and Raymond Fernández. Next, we've seen two great movies that told the tale: The Honeymoon Killers (1970) and Lonely Hearts (2006), but neither was signed by the helmer of Calvaire (2004), nor did they have a website in such Churriguresque style, nor did they leave hugely different festivals like Austin and Toronto with a glazed look in their eyes. Martha and Raymond were hung in Sing Sing. I’ll say nothing about Gloria and Michel...