The premiere of the revenge thriller Love Lies Bleeding starring Kristen Stewart ended in chaos for visitors in Brussels due to homophobic and misogynistic statements.
The revenge thriller Love Lies Bleeding celebrated its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival at the beginning of the year and also thrilled numerous film fans at the Berlinale a few weeks later. Now the film starring Twilight star Kristen Stewart was shown at the BIFFF in Brussels, where the premiere ended in chaos.
As Variety reports, there were homophobic and misogynistic statements from the audience during the screening, prompting more than 60 viewers to leave the theater. There are said to have been at least three incidents of physical violence
Homophobic behavior in the audience causes chaos at Love Lies Bleeding premiere in Brussels
In Love Lies Bleeding, Kristen Stewart takes on the role of gym manager Lou, who falls in love with aspiring bodybuilder Jackie (Katy M. O’Brian). The love affair between the two women takes up a large part of the movie, with several explicit sex scenes. According to Variety, this prompted parts of the audience in Brussels to comment loudly on what they had seen in both queer-hostile and sexist terms
(Kristen Stewart in Love Lies Bleeding)
Spectator Elina Fischer told Variety that she found the event “traumatic and horrible”, which is why she and over 60 other people from the queer community decided to leave the cinema, which was packed with around 1,400 people:
Things got out of hand. […] We were afraid for our lives, because people who say things like that during a movie screening are also the people who attack us. So we were scared and had to get out of there.
In a joint statement, others in attendance described the incident to Variety:
‘We know the difference between simple jokes and lesbophobic slurs and comments. When viewers applaud during a rape scene, when they mimic masturbation and catcall the actresses by shouting ‘take your clothes off’, ‘she wants dick’, ‘disgusting’ and ‘dirty lesbians’ at the slightest hint of lesbian intimacy, and other viewers then stand up and ask for respect, only to be booed, insulted and physically attacked, and numerous lesbian viewers leave the theater in tears, [. …] then we cannot speak of a ‘good-natured’ atmosphere.
The Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFFF) commented on the incident afterwards and made it clear that discriminatory behavior during their screenings would not be tolerated under any circumstances. However, viewers like Elina Fischer would have liked the film to be contextualized with a corresponding introduction within the festival programme in order to avoid such incidents from the outset
