Olivier Assayas’s post-millennium brain-bender DEMONLOVER is only a corporate thriller up to a point. A business deal over distribution rights to commercialize fetish content stirs discord among French enterprise, Japanese production houses, American entrepreneurs, and the hidden forces repeatedly shifting the levers of power. DEMONLOVER the movie becomes as compromised as its playactors: Unanticipated plot shifts, unclear linearity, harsh sound design, and claustrophobic cinematography lend a pervasive feeling between not getting the whole picture and already seeing too much.

DEMONLOVER is a very ‘noisy’ film in more ways than one. Writer, movie lover, and noise connoisseur Natalie Marlin is maybe the only person up to the challenge of explaining what that means!

Find Natalie…

On Twitter and Bluesky
On Letterboxd at @framingthepic
In the byline for Noise Music, a forthcoming entry in Genre: A 33 ⅓ Series book about the noise genre and its influences on and intersections with culture
On Trylove episodes about THE THIRD MAN (1949), CHESS OF THE WIND (1979), RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD (1985), MAD MAX: FURY ROAD (2015), MILLENNIUM MAMBO (2001), THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999), LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT (2018), ZARDOZ (1974), NOSTALGHIA (1987), SECONDS (1966), THERE WILL BE BLOOD (2007), THE HEARTBREAK KID (1972), STAR WARS (1977)

Give to these causes in need during ICE’s occupation of Minnesota:

Support Minnesotans defending their communities from ICE: https://www.standwithminnesota.com/
@sanctuarysupplydepot: Mutual aid group in Mpls getting basic necessities to our houseless neighbors https://linktr.ee/sanctuarysupplydepot
@mplsmutualaid: Clearinghouse of mutual aid for our neighbors: https://linktr.ee/mplsmutualaid
ISAIAH, an interfaith group fighting for racial and economic justice in MN: https://secure.everyaction.com/G8TCnxFlE0qd9zlUEYjjeg2
Show love to North Minneapolis families in crisis: https://www.gofundme.com/f/show-love-to-north-minneapolis-families-in-crisis

References:

“Toward a Cinema of Noise: Demonlover (2002)” by Natalie Marlin for Perisphere, the Trylon blog
BLACK IS (1965) , dir. Aldo Tambellini
“A Conversation on Electronics and Black TV with Aldo Tambellini” from Artscanada (1968)
Check the calendar, preview upcoming series, and buy tickets
Contribute to Perisphere, the Trylon blog

#BadCompany19FilmsFeaturingEvilCorporations #35mm

Follow us on Twitter at @trylovepodcast, Bluesky at @trylovepodca.st, and email us at trylovepodcast@gmail.com to get in touch!

Show art by Emily Csuy. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Outro: “Move Away” by Sonic Youth from the DEMONLOVER soundtrack.

Timestamps

0:00 - Episode 376: DEMONLOVER (2002)

5:05 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary

6:38 - Defining noise as a cinematic genre

23:38 - What Assayas does and doesn’t show you and why

27:21 - The important turn at the midway point

32:34 - Patterns of control and subjugation in the worlds of fetish, commerce, and corporate interest

38:41 - Sexuality and the dehumanization of women for profit

1:00:43 - Web 1.0 and the ending of the movie

1:14:26 - The Junk Drawer

1:30:21 - To All the Loves We’ve Tried Before: 2002

1:36:08 - Cody’s Noteys: Seamenlover (seafaring trivia with tangent connections to films)

Episode 376: DEMONLOVER (2002) with Natalie Marlin