Much of Misericordia takes place in beds, but there’s very little sleeping. After a baker in a rural French village dies, one of his former employees returns to offer condolences to his surviving wife (Catherine Frot) and adult son (Jean-Baptiste Durand). But Jeremie (Felix Kysyl) doesn’t seem very welcome. The son, Vincent, suspects him of having sexual designs on his mother (designs she seems willing to entertain); a neighbor (David Ayala) only looks at him sideways; and the village priest (Jacques Develay) stares at him with an expression whose blankness contains multitudes. Jeremie ends up staying for a few days, sleeping in Vincent’s former bedroom, but by the movie’s end other beds will have become involved. Writer-director Alain Guiraudie (Stranger by the Lake) explores Patricia Highsmith-Alfred Hitchcock territory, though Misericordia has a coolness that never allows it to pierce the skin the way works by those masters do. Stunning on every account, however, is the cinematography by Claire Mathon (Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Saint Omer). Working with an autumnal setting, Mathon manages to give each tree its own light, while also allowing the dark, mysterious undergrowth to add an unsettling darkness. Such shots are the most troublingly beautiful element of the movie.
(11/21/2025)
