Presented at Cannes at the Week of Criticism, Vincent must die slalom between genres to offer us a mad movie, mixing humour and ultra-violence. On the occasion of his presentation at the NIFFF, its director Stéphan Castang and lead performer Karim Leklou folded into the Q&A exercise. Here are some reflections of this session...
His face doesn't come back...
Vincent works quietly when the intern at his company takes him violently, before blowing his computer on his skull. If this gesture is attributed to a stroke of transient blood, Vincent may become the target of totally arbitrary ultra-violence attacks, forcing him to live in recluse while the phenomenon is growing.
The discussion between Karim Leklou, Stephan Castang and the audience at the end of the screening is therefore the opportunity to increase this brief summary of the various tracks outlined by these guests, in a few quotations:
Vincent and the editorialists
« [Elisabeth Lévy's voice] It's the most horrible thing in the movie. »
Stéphan Castang refused to explain this epidemic of violence, but did not make it an apolitical film. Indeed, many of the voice-over incursions from the radio parasitize the image and confirm that the violence does not seem confined to Vincent's entourage. And the interest of making this editorialist appear "on the right or even on the far right" is, according to Castang, to show that no matter what the subject (he evokes the anti-feminism of the editorialist, his position vis-à-vis migrants???) the brouhaha of this part of the media caste will inexorably remain the same: fault to the other.
Parano-romantico-horrifico-comic thriller
« It was an opportunity to play in a romance in a brutal world [...] a love story of wounded characters »
Because yes, if Vincent must die Adorned by the paranoid thriller, zigzaging between the codes of zombie film and pure horror, it is also a romance. A complicated romance between Vincent (Karim Leklou) and Margaux (Vimala Pons). A magnificent film couple, offering a touching, physical and poetic performance between two wounded souls: he to the first degree, vis-à-vis the attacks he is the victim of, she by an addiction that puts his dealers to the chases and love upset by the violence she feels poin in her. A poetry that is born, among other things, from the sex scene, clumsy, hesitant, blowing the hot and cold between the impulse of desire and the reminder to reason (and the use of a pair of handcuffs, in case Margaux would want to start hitting him).
Vincent beats up
« The idea was to make a fight, action movie, with people who don't know how to fight. »
A whole bunch of genre adjectives have been attributed in the previous paragraph – as long as it is better to put the feature film in "out-of-category" – but Vincent must die It's also a lot of castagna. And this work mentioned above by Leklou is felt on the screen: all the hits resonate in the viewer's head! Whether it's really catchy sound design and background work with stunters, the director was keen to offer his audience a good uppercut. And it's done!
Vincent alias Buster Keaton
« [Karim Leklou] He's a great burlesque actor. He works with his body. With what he is, his forces and his awkwardness [...] a little like a Buster Keaton »
"He'll just try to adapt and make it go as badly as possible," says the director, referring to a feature film scene taking place in the police station. Comic in its tone, but eminently tragic in the background. Vincent "will have to try to take the train on," he adds, exactly like Buster Keaton. A flattering comparison for Karim Leklou, but amply deserved so much his performance in this film is impressive.
Vincent's in trouble.
« I'll never do this again! »
One of the film's most striking scenes – apart from a segment on a motorway ramp – takes place in the miasms of a septic tank. Sensitive souls and light stomachs abstain! And a film that wasn't very restful for the actors either, since Leklou confides to love having done it, but that he will never do it again! More than a day of shooting in a mud pool to chain body-to-body fighting, there's more than one to throw away.
Anyway, Vincent must die is a French genre film not to be missed. Unclassifiable, it is the guarantee of an escape from the beaten path, between ultra-violence and poetic romance! To be discovered in theatres from November 15, 2023 !
[...] video review and exchange with the director at the end of the article (and NIFFF Q&A here). And if with a simple glance our next ones began to want to assassinate us [...]