New Jersey Stage logo
New Jersey Stage Menu


?>

 

REVIEW: "You Go To My Head"


By Eric Hillis, TheMovieWaffler.com

originally published: 02/26/2020


With his solo debut feature (having previously co-directed 1995’s The Blue Villa with Alain Robbe-Grillet), You Go to My Head, director Dimitri de Clercq evokes everything from the psychosexual dynamics of 1940s melodramas to the dusty desolation of Ozploitation, with dashes of Hitchcock, Nicolas Roeg and Richard Stanley thrown in for good measure. The result is a heady brew that doesn’t always work, but for long periods of its narrative, de Clercq’s film keeps you gripped, and marks the veteran producer turned newbie director as one to watch.

Like Coralie Fargeat’s RevengeYou Go to My Head is an unsettling game of gender chess that plays out against a desert backdrop. Here it’s the Sahara, where a 35-year-old Belgian woman, Dafne (Delfine Bafort) pulls herself out of the wreck of a crashed jeep, leaving a male corpse behind in the driving seat. After walking for miles, she finally succumbs to fatigue, collapsing in the sand. Later she is discovered by another European transplant, Jake (Svetozar Cvetkovic), a wealthy and reclusive 54-year-old architect (in a nod to Vertigo, to which this owes a considerable debt, his surname is Ferguson).

Jake takes Dafne to a hotel and calls for a doctor, who assumes the woman is Jake’s wife and informs him that she is suffering from amnesia, a condition that could last for days, weeks, months, years, or perhaps forever. Jake takes the idea of Dafne being his spouse to heart, and when she wakes he gaslights her into believing she is his wife, ‘Kitty’. Jake takes Kitty back to his self-designed home in the desert, where with the aid of false memories created by Jake, she begins to piece together a life she never lived, settling into a relationship she was never a part of.

It’s a cracking set up for a thriller, yet while many viewers will likely link it into contemporary #MeToo era examinations of how men manipulate women, this is by no means a new concept. Dozens of melodramatic thrillers of the 1940s dealt with similar premises, with women duped into leading lives that suited controlling men rather than themselves (I don’t think it’s a coincidence that this wave of movies emerged during wartime, when women were taking on roles traditionally denied them). The trouble with You Go to My Head is that it seems to feel it’s above the suspense potential of the material, preferring to indulge in arthouse atmospherics, which it admittedly does very well.

De Clercq sets his story in the hottest piece of land on the planet, only to deliver a movie that’s positively chilly in its withdrawn mood. Jake’s house is little more than a few walls, a swimming pool and a set of steps in the garden that lead nowhere, an unfinished Dali painting rendered in three dimensions. It’s a striking case of a film’s production design playing a key role in its storytelling, as the incomplete physical environment Dafne/Kitty finds herself in reflects the reset conscience she’s attempting to rebuild.




Promote your shows at New Jersey Stage! Click here for info



What’s most interesting about You Go to My Head is also its most frustrating element. You’re never quite sure whose side de Clercq wants you to take. While his treatment of Dafne is despicable, Jake is never portrayed as posing any kind of physical threat to her, and there’s a tragic sympathy to his loneliness. Conversely, Dafne seems a little sinister, and there are suggestions that if she does recover her memories, she may not like what she finds. This makes for an intriguing dynamic, one that doesn’t take the easy route of taking sides in this psychological battle of the sexes, but it sucks out much of the potential for suspense. For the bulk of the film, De Clercq never gives us a glimpse of the world outside of Jake’s residence in a way a more naturally genre oriented filmmaker might. We’re never afforded a sense that the net is closing in on Jake until very late on, and de Clercq never manages to pull off Hitchcock’s trick of duping the audience into rooting for the antagonist. As sad a figure Jake is, we’re never not on the side of Dafne, but to fully invest in her plight we need more crumbs she might follow on her path to discovering the truth. Ultimately, the most effective part of You Go to My Head is its ending, and the disturbing implications it leaves you wrestling with.

3 ½ Stars out of 5

Directed by: Dimitri de Clercq; Starring: Delfine Bafort, Svetozar Cvetkovic, Arend Pinoy, Omar Sarnane, Laurence Trémolet



Eric Hillis is a film critic living in Sligo, Ireland who runs the website TheMovieWaffler.com



Promote your shows at New Jersey Stage! Click here for info


FEATURED EVENTS

ART | COMEDY | DANCE | FILM | MUSIC | THEATRE | COMMUNITY

To narrow results by date range, categories,
or region of New Jersey
click here for our advanced search.


How

How to Train Your Dragon in Concert

Friday, July 11, 2025 @ 7:00pm
Mayo Performing Arts Center (MPAC)
100 South Street, Morristown, NJ 07960
category: film


 

How

How to Train Your Dragon in Concert

Saturday, July 12, 2025 @ 2:00pm
State Theatre New Jersey
15 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ 08901
category: film


 

FREE

FREE SUMMER MOVIE: Moana 2

Tuesday, July 15, 2025 @ 7:00pm
State Theatre New Jersey
15 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ 08901
category: film


 

FREE

FREE SUMMER MOVIE: Moana 2

Tuesday, July 15, 2025 @ 10:30am
State Theatre New Jersey
15 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ 08901
category: film


 

FREE

FREE SUMMER MOVIE: The Wild Robot

Tuesday, July 22, 2025 @ 7:00pm
State Theatre New Jersey
15 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ 08901
category: film


 



Advertise with NJ Stage for $50-$100 per month, click here for info





 

EVENT PREVIEWS

The

The ShowRoom presents: UNSTREAMABLE CINEMA – Four Daring Films You Won't Find Online

(ASBURY PARK, NJ) -- This summer, The ShowRoom proudly launches UNSTREAMABLE CINEMA—a provocative new series showcasing four bold and controversial films that are currently unavailable on any streaming platform. These are rare, one-night-only opportunities to see these uncompromising works on the big screen, where they belong.



Fall

Fall 2025 New Jersey Film Festival Preview

(NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ) -- The New Jersey Film Festival returns to Rutgers University September 5 through October 10, 2025. As it has done the last few years, the festival will include select in-person screenings with all films available via video on-demand (VOD) as well. There are also a few screenings available only via VOD. Twenty films will have their New Jersey or Area Premiere (Middlesex County).



The

The Levoy Theatre hosts the CUT International Short Film Festival

(MILLVILLE, NJ) -- The Levoy Theatre hosts the CUT International Short Film Festival September 19-20, 2025. The festival's motto is 'Short Films for Quick Minds'. Its aim is to become the premier festival in New Jersey for short form films.



Count

Count Basie Center for the Arts presents An Evening With Francis Ford Coppola and screening of "Megalopolis"

(RED BANK, NJ) -- Legendary director, Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, The Outsiders) is bringing his monumental 2024 film, Megalopolis, to select cities across the country. The tour kicks off at the Count Basie Center for the Arts on Sunday, July 20, 2025 at 7:00pm.



The

The Williams Center to Screen "Wayward Kin" by David Joseph Volino

(RUTHERFORD, NJ) -- After a four-year-long production process, filmmaker and New Jersey native, David Joseph Volino, is sharing the full-length feature, Wayward Kin, with local audiences. See the film for one night only at The Williams Center in Rutherford on Wednesday, July 23, 2025. The screening begins at 7:00pm with the cast and crew in attendance.