Staying Vertical

Daring French director Alain Guiraudie follows up his 2014 festival hit Stranger by the Lake with Staying Vertical, another look at freedom and desire—this time through the cycle of procreation, birth, and death. A filmmaker heads to the French countryside looking for inspiration but instead meets a shepherdess who, after a few dalliances, quickly becomes pregnant with his child. The film shapeshifts in a number of surprising and scandalous directions, making it one of the most talked-about features at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. (100 mins., DCP)

Note: no one 17 or under admitted.