Demonlover

“They watch, but they don’t understand …” So observes Diane de Monx (Nielsen) in Olivier Assayas’s hallucinatory neo-noir thriller and media critique in which nothing—not even the film itself—is what it appears to be. de Monx, a Volf Corporation executive turned spy for rival firm Mangatronics, is embroiled in a corporate battle over the lucrative 3-D hentai market. But Diane may not be the only player at Volf with a hidden agenda: both romantic interest Hervé (Berling) and office enemy Elise (Sevigny) seem to know her secret and could easily use it against her for their own purposes. Set against an original score by Sonic Youth, Demonlover is a fascinating exploration of the ways in which new media has desensitized us to violence.