By Design

From Juno MacGuff’s front-yard recliner to Alex Owens’ water-soaked prop in Flashdance, cinema has long loved a good chair. But not as much as Camille (a remarkable Juliette Lewis) loves the chair at the center of the latest vision from writer-director Amanda Kramer (Please Baby Please, Frameline46). Envious of the beautiful piece of furniture’s ability to effortlessly garner admirers, Camille swaps bodies with the chair.

In addition to Lewis’ committed performance, By Design features Mamoudou Athie (Kinds of Kindness) as the dejected, chair-loving pianist Olivier, while a disembodied Melanie Griffith functions as a one-woman Greek chorus delivering deliciously deadpan narration. By merging elements of stage plays, performance art, modern dance, and body horror film, Karmer’s latest work embraces surrealism, all while rejecting traditional narrative conventions. At its absurdist center, By Design has a queer sensibility: It pushes Camille (and the audience) to explore what it means to be perceived — to be desired — without the burden of performing one’s self for the world.

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