It’s time to set your c(l)ocks back to 1979 France for this exclusive double bill of a 2018 Cannes Competition wild card entry, and what is considered to be the best French gay porn ever made.

Set in 1979 on the eve of the AIDS epidemic, Knife + Heart (1h 42m) follows Anne (Vanessa Paradis), a gay porn producer on the hunt for a mysterious masked murderer who has been knocking off her actors one by one. Scored by the director’s brother (Yann Gonzalez of M83), Knife + Heart re-creates a period of sexual freedom and optimism that, like its subjects, was under nascent threat by unseen forces that would soon do irreparable damage.

Equation to an Unknown (1h 34m) is a labyrinth of male fantasies that still leave their protagonist dealing with loneliness as he rides around France’s countryside. Restoring the lost French porn from a film negative, writer-director-musician Yann Gonzalez (M83) credits Equation to an Unknown as his muse for his work in Knife + Heart.

There will be a 20 minute intermission between films.

Queerly Beloved is presented in partnership with Paradise.

• • “Yann Gonzalez delivers a queer spin on a Brian De Palma-style thriller” – Variety (Knife + Heart)
  • “…a raunchy time capsule wrapped in the most tender blanket of romance.” – Film Threat (Knife + Heart)
  • “The most melancholic porn film I’ve ever seen.” – Yann Gonzalez on Equation to an Unknown