After the impressiveUntil custody, Xavier Legrand always returns in the kind of thriller withThe Successor, which just comes out in physical format. The opportunity to look again at this impressive feature film with a toxic atmosphere, which confirms Xavier Legrand's talent as a director.
Sideration film
Ellias (Quebec City)Marc-André Grondin) is the brand new director of a large haute couture house in Paris. Although he had long cut off the bridges with his father still residing in Quebec, his death following a heart attack forced the young man to return to his native lands. The estate cases that he will have to settle there will prove infinitely more inextricable than he could have imagined when he left...
His thrillerUntil custodyhad marked public and critical. It must be said that withThe SuccessorHe's not losing his hand. If it takes some time to install its decor and this story of young man evolving in the middle of fashion, the feature film will very quickly take an anxious turn to the particularly successful atmosphere. And if the spoil is to the maximum excavated from this critique, the sideration felt in front of this film will only be greater for a spectator who will venture into this heavy history of virgin succession of the most information possible...
Hereditary thriller
A symbol goes through everythingThe SuccessorThat of the spiral. From the poster where it appears on the bald skull of the main character to the funeral directors where a strange spiral staircase climbs up the floors of the building, the spiral also appears in the initial fashion parade and in the recurring movements of circular cameras.
The spiral is the geometrical figure intimately linked to the number of gold, designated in mathematics by the Greek letter and supposed to be the paragon of harmony. Present in nature on living or mineral organisms, it is also a recurrent pattern of art especially since the time of Pacioli and his book illustrated by Da Vinci,The Divine Proportion. FromThe Birth of VenusFrom Botticelli through the architecture of the Corbusier, by making detours through the sculptures of the Greek nudes, we find (almost) everywhere this famous divine proportion.
An idea of artistic perfection that is reflected in the physical proportions, in the image of this gallery of models scrolling for Ellias at the beginning of the film. Ultra calibrated in their almost unreal physics to respond to theoretical beauty cannons much more than biological... This idea of "human perfection" is linked to the number of golds and goes back to Leonardo da Vinci. An interesting track for a thriller centered entirely on a character anchored in the fashion formatted medium and participating in the diffusion of this quasi-morbid imagery of so-called physical perfection.
However, the spiral is also a central element in biology because in addition to the many natural helical organizations (shells, the shape of a galaxy, mineral organization, phyllotaxis phenomena, etc.), it is the basis of every form of life on Earth that is organized in spiral: the double helix of DNA. And genetics, it's definitely about inThe Successor...
For if Ellias is moved to return to his native lands to take care of the estate of a father with whom he no longer has any contact, it is not just out of pure family obligation. Certain of himself suffering from a heart disease, the cause of the death of his father (a heart attack) leads him selfishly to dig his origin. He who so wanted to break all ties with his father, here he finds himself again intimately connected with him in a more insidious and invisible way: genetics.
Worse still,The Successorwill orchestrate in his plans another form of inheritance, even more violent and to which Ellias was absolutely unprepared. If we cannot say more without spoiling the viewing for the spectator who has not yet discovered the film, it goes without saying that the parallel will be obvious for the one who has already been taken away by Xavier Legrand's work.
The basement of fear
ForThe Sucessor, Xavier Legrand will have fun starting his film with a shot-down bridle: brilliant music, rhythmic editing, blurred eyes, we quickly understand that a threat will soon come to light despite the apparent banality of what is happening on the screen (a fashion show). And as the film progresses, Legrand will amuse to dilate this jumpscare window by extending his plans, cutting all music, sticking to the Basques of his main character. Haletant, the plan harbours an invisible threat that will delay its emergence. And this out-of-field art participates in the indescribable swelling of suspense that will take the spectator to the throat to let go, exsangue, that at the end of the film.
A mastery of the tension, which makes the viewing galvanizing and offers moments of pure fear almost on the side of horror. And without falling into the eye, Legrand distills in his account of the touches of style carried out with a bluffing technical perfection (in particular a sense of the ellipse which is not without recalling certain plans ofThe Green Knight).
In short, in two films Legrand is an indispensable director and simultaneously offers two titles more than memorable in a genre that sometimes falls too easily into the remâché and the absence of surprise(s).The Successoris a real success, that it is now possible to (re)see thanks to its release in physical format!
Data sheet
DVD Zone B (France)
Publisher: Blaq Out
Duration: 108 min
Release date: 16 July 2024
Video format: 576p/25 - 2.39
Soundtrack: French (Quebec) Dolby Digital 5.1 (and 2.0)
SubtitlesFrench
[...] The Successor, second film with Marc-André Grondin and second round of force! Definitely, this is the name to [...]