Finally had a chance to watch this puzzler. The effect of the film itself on my psyche can only be described as intrusive, to the point that I've been unable to watch anything else that requires my full attention. These images have lodged themselves front and center, overstaying their visit. It's due to a combination of their sensorial-almost-physical quality and my inability to fully digest their meaning and inter-connections.

L'Intrus is both elliptical and metaphorical. Louis reminded me of the Professor in Bergman's Wild Strawberries re-examining his life, but Louis is a darker character whose past seems to include murder. Bergman's film also goes inside the protagonist's interior (subconscious) but, unlike L'Intrus, the viewer is cued via cinematography as to when the film goes inside. Denis rejected DP Agnes Godard's suggestion to do precisely that, and refuses to provide clues during interviews (that heart on a snowy field belongs inside but other images are of more mystrious provenance) . All she says is that there's a Northern Hemisphere/pre-surgery half and a Southern Hemisphere/post-surgery one, and that her approach this time is not unlike that of Faulkner's Absolom Absalom and Joyce's Ulysses. She calls her film an "adoption" of Nancy's book rather than an adaptation.

The theme of intrusion and several metaphors of intrusion (illegal immigrants crossing the border under cover of night, for example) are central. But the theme of loneliness and alienation of the self-imposed kind struck a chord with me.

And what about the character played by Katia Gobuleva. I'm not sure she fits the label "black marketeer" but she is instrumental in Louis getting the heart, then she "appears" in the second part of the film as a sentinel/embodiment of conscience type of character who may be visible only to Louis.

And what about clips from an unfinished film by Paul Gegauff apparently called "Le Reflux" used by Denis to suggest Louis' previous travel to Tahiti.

Denis in a most experimental mode gives one a lot to chew on.