‘At Night All the Cats Are Black’ is a stylish, sexually-charged and deliberately strange cinematic exercise

At Night All the Cats Are Black, a stylishly-crafted, deeply unusual and deliberately scandalous new queer thriller, concerns a film crew is shooting a surreal and sexually-charged costume drama in the French countryside.

When Valentin, the film’s director, suddenly disappears, the local police set out to investigate. The shoot continues, but takes an odd turn as dreamlike visions portend doom for their beloved maestro and Robin, the cameraman and director’s lover, soon follows through on a mysterious promise he made to his missing partner.

If that sounds strange, you may be surprised to find that the film itself is actually stranger than described. Made without a finished script, At Night All the Cats Are Black was entirely improvised by the cast and crew and has been described by filmmakers Valentin Merz and Robin Mognetti, who plays versions of themselves, as “dreamy, impulsive, coherently illogical, shamelessly artsy and hell bent on surprising its viewers.”

However you feel about the aggressively experimental finished product, the film is packed with bold visual delights and is never afraid to push the envelope in terms of sexuality or structure.

Watch the (not safe for work) trailer for At Night All the Cats Are Black below. The film is now available to stream on Dekkoo.