Guy

The genre of the fake film is wayward and vigorous, but seldom aimed at a mass audience. Guy is a fortunate exception to this rule. It is a fluent and entertaining erotic thriller that is also subtle enough to serve the lovers of the other kind of faking in film.The film is told from the perspective of the camera of a young film-maker who meticulously keeps herself off camera. In the city she goes hunting a ‘guy’ to capture him visually as intimately as possible. Her victim (very well and convincingly played by Vincent D’Onofrio) resists fiercely at first but gradually becomes more charmed by the attention of the camerawoman. The extreme voyeurism starts to excite him, the permanent attention of the camera is addictive. In a plot with the mysterious film-maker, he also starts to involve his surroundings in the strange watching game. The game starts to get more and more dangerous.Michael Lindsay-Hogg has used elements from reporting and even from home movies in an intelligent way in his film. Guy can certainly be interpreted as a comment on the lack of direct and human communication in an era of ‘techno-wizardry’, but it is above all a pleasurable film. (GjZ)