'Staying Vertical' Bizarre but Fascinating

As the holy temple of cinematic art, Cannes is always open to controversial experiments, pushing the border of what films can portray and the extent to which they can portray it (for reference, see our review of “Love” from last year’s Cannes). So when the audiences at Cannes are shocked by a film’s graphic nature, that’s saying a lot—but French director Alain Guiraudie’s new film, “Rester Vertical (Staying Vertical),” manages to achieve just that. The absurd and haunting dark comedy features explicit sex, a close-up long take of childbirth, and other audacious artistic choices certain to polarize audiences.

It does take some time to realize that “Staying Vertical” is a comedy; at first, the film is just perplexing. The characters do not have clear backgrounds or motivations. They simply meet each other; wallow in awkward silence or talk about nothing of significance; and sometimes have sex. By the film’s conclusion, almost every character has had sex with another, with couplings between both the same and the opposite sex, similar age and those much younger or older. However, not a single sex scene is shown as erotic: They seem almost to be taken out of educational videos, and many times, they confuse the audience with regard to why they happen. This portrayal is in tune with the rest of the film, in which the protagonists’ actions simply occur, leaving little space for empathy or explanation.

Still, as the plot progresses, the audience is provided some background about the characters. The protagonist, Léo (Damien Bonnard), is an untalented screenwriter severely pressured by his agent to finish a script he has been working on for as long as the film is concerned. When he sets out to the countryside, perhaps to find inspiration (the film never specifies), he meets a bored shepherdess (India Hair), with whom he soon strikes up a sexual relationship, and a young man whom he wants to cast for his film but who has no interest in cinema. Throughout “Staying Vertical,” Leo travels in Sisyphean circles to deal with these two people and their aged guardians. Cowardly and sheepish, he is never truly able to persuade anyone to make definitive choices. Instead, he discovers that everyone has a confusing dark side.

To some extent, this film is a biopic of the most impotent coward in the world, a man who has as little control over his life as the audiences watching it. However, while being such a person would be quite miserable, witnessing Léo’s life is unexpectedly fascinating. He is a completely original figure, and every time he inches toward relatability, he takes a surprising direction with his life. It is the same with the others in the film: They are all bizarre, but each in his or her distinctive way, and it is tempting to wonder what will befall them.

The title “Staying Vertical” seems (again, it is never clear) to refer to Léo’s stoic attitude towards the world––that no matter what happens, the best solution is just to stand tall, look tough and pretend to know what is going on. Manifestations of this philosophy make up the film’s most bizarrely funny moments. Although unsettling occurrences take place all the time, everyone is seemingly fine with them; in the rare moments where they have to react to anything together, they look into each other’s eyes with great calmness and do nothing—or have sex. At times, it is questionable whether the characters actually know more than the audience about what they are doing. While this lack of awareness could be a nightmare to many viewers, to the rest, the film is a funny, creative and daring aesthetic experiment that both shocks and entertains.

At a philosophical level, “Staying Vertical” raises the question: Does a film have to be relatable? The film’s inherent, unapologetic weirdness is exactly the charm of it. Guiraudie is surely resolute in following the path of Kafka and Beckett to continue the tradition of the absurd. Regardless of whether a mainstream audience can accept the its style, “Staying Vertical” is definitely a success in its chosen path.