One of our favorite films of the year so far is “Thirst Street,” an indie about obsession, delusion and romance. Starring indie actor Lindsay Burdge (“A Teacher”), the film is arch and dreamy, and features a deliciously sly narration by Academy Award-winner Anjelica Huston. Our review described it as “a wry and disturbed look at lust and longing… delightfully twisted.”
Directed by Nathan Silver the filmmaker told us in a quick email interview he wanted to write a lead part for Burdge who had a role in his previous film, “Actor Martinez.” “[My co-writer] Chris Wells and I were working on a bunch of script ideas and he had coincidentally written part of a script for Lindsay a few years prior, in which she goes to Paris and this was immediately appealing,” he explained.
Of the film’s influences he said, “We discussed all the Cinema du Look movies from the 80’s as well as foreign directors who’d gone to Paris to make dark and sexual work like Andrzej Żuławski, Walerian Borowczyk, and Roman Polanski.”
And how did Silver score Anjelica Huston as his inspired choice of narrator? “Anjelica’s voice is amazing, but also because she plays a lovelorn flight attendant in Woody Allen’s ‘Crimes And Mideameanors’ — it just made perfect sense,” he said. “I couldn’t believe it. I still can’t.” Here’s the official synopsis:
Alone and depressed after the suicide of her lover, American flight attendant Gina (Lindsay Burdge, A TEACHER) travels to Paris and hooks up with nightclub bartender Jerome (Damien Bonnard, STAYING VERTICAL) on her layover. But as Gina falls deeper into lust and opts to stay in France, this harmless rendezvous quickly turns into unrequited amour fou. When Jerome’s ex Clemence (Esther Garrel) reenters the picture, Gina is sent on a downward spiral of miscommunication, masochism, and madness. Inspired by European erotic dramas from the ’70s, THIRST STREET burrows deep into the delirious extremes we go to for love.
Samuel Goldwyn Films will release “Thirst Street” in limited release on September 20th in New York and September 29th in Los Angeles. Check out the exclusive clip below.