Reflection in a Dead Diamond Trailer Unveils Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani’s Highly Stylized Spy Thriller

      If you desire the Bond series to exude significantly more style, then look no further than Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani’s exuberant new spy thriller, Reflection in a Dead Diamond. Premiering at Berlinale earlier this year, it is set for theatrical release on November 21 and will be available on Shudder starting December 5. Ahead of this release, a new trailer has been unveiled.

      Here’s the synopsis: “When a mysterious woman from the adjacent room vanishes, a charming 70-year-old former spy residing in a luxurious hotel on the Côte d’Azur is faced with the demons and delights of a sordid past where filmmaking, memories, and madness intertwine.”

      Leonardo Goi noted in his review, “However, Diamond is so unconcerned with logic that distinguishing between reality and hallucinations would be beside the point. Those familiar with Cattet and Forzani’s work will recognize the kind of thrills their films consistently deliver. For newcomers, the experience may be akin to––and I say this as a tremendous compliment––a sensory onslaught. Like its predecessors, Diamond unfolds as a fevered illusion. It’s a film where the camera is rarely stable, shots seldom exceed five seconds, and the frame continuously fractures with the same ecstatic pleasure characters feel when stabbing or slicing through human flesh (which occurs frequently). Manuel Dacosse, who has photographed all of the couple’s previous works, employs a palette rich in vibrant reds and blues, alternating between extreme close-ups of eyes and mouths reminiscent of Spaghetti Westerns and Argento-inspired images of blades and stilettos piercing skin. This film allows the camera to simply tilt upward and back down to transition the narrative from present to past and from one fiction to another. It showcases images pulled from nightmares—like a giant millipede crawling over a corpse—as well as creative visuals, such as a gown worn by one of John D's female accomplices, crafted entirely from sequins the size of two-euro coins, capable of darting in every direction like glimmering daggers, leaving havoc in their path.”

      Watch the trailer below.