Louis Malle

Black Moon

Lily (Cathryn Harrison) is attempting to seek refuge amidst an apparent gender-based civil war in which men and women are systematically killing one another. On a rural road, she encounters men executing women by firing squad, and flees with her car into the woods, following an overgrown road. There, she encounters a flock of sheep gathered around their shepherd, who has hanged himself from a tree. She later comes across a group of women donning military gear and torturing a young man. She abandons her car, fleeing on foot, and falls asleep in a meadow, where she hears the flowers beneath her crying in pain. Moments later, she witnesses a brown unicorn pass by, followed by a man on a horse, and a number of naked children who begin herding the sheep. Lily trails the man to an apparently abandoned château located beyond overgrowth on a hill. While exploring the house, she finds it fully furnished, but inhabited by numerous animals. Upstairs, she finds an elderly bedridden woman (Therese Giehse) chastising her pet rat, Humphrey. The woman proceeds to attack Lily before contacting an unknown person on a transistor radio, making cruel observations of Lily's appearance and revealing details of how Lily arrived there that she should have no way of knowing. A number of alarm clocks inexplicably go off, and the old woman tries to strangle Lily. When Lily slaps her, the woman dies. Outside, Lily's attention is diverted by a man (Joe Dallesandro) singing in the garden. Via telepathy, he communicates to her that his name is also Lily. His sister, also named Lily (Alexandra Stewart), whom Lily had mistaken for a man earlier, arrives on horseback. Lily attempts to explain to Brother and Sister Lily that their mother is dead, but they are impervious and refuse to speak to her. When she follows them upstairs, she witnesses the old woman return to life before Sister Lily breastfeeds her. Brother and Sister lock Lily in the room with the old woman, sending Lily into a rage. While exploring the room, she eats a piece of cheese and looks through a photo album containing pictures of the old woman, whilst the old woman continues to make observations about her to the unknown person the radio. To the old woman's anger, Lily looks out the window and again sees the black unicorn. Lily climbs out the window and down the wall, and chases the unicorn around the sprawling property as it continuously eludes her. She is horrified when she stumbles upon the corpse of a soldier. Brother picks the corpse up and buries it in a grave. The unicorn appears again, and Lily chases it until she is attacked by the band of nude children. The unicorn once again appears to Lily, and tells her she is mean. The unicorn also tells Lily the old woman upstairs is not real. In the house, Lily observes Sister serving the children dinner. Upstairs, Lily tries to comfort the old woman after another fight with Humphrey, and agrees to breastfeed her. Later, Lily plays Tristan und Isolde on the parlor piano. The children sing along, while Sister paints Brother's face and the two reenact the opera. At dawn, Lily finds the old woman has disappeared. A hawk flies into the house, which Brother decapitates with a sword. Brother and Sister then battle one another in the garden as Lily watches from the window. Brother beats Sister with a stick, and Sister bashes him in the face with a rock as sounds of gunfire emanate from the woods. Lily climbs into the old woman's empty bed and tries unsuccessfully to use the radio, after which a snake slithers onto the bed. Outside, a large crowd of sheep and turkeys surround the house. After falling asleep, Lily awakens to find the unicorn seated in front of the fireplace. Lily prepares to breastfeed the unicorn.