Vincent Must Die
Directed by Stéphan Castang
Running time: 1hr48 | REVIEWED BY CATHERINE BRAY
Karim Leklou stars in Vincent Must Die
Most people have, at some point, experienced the feeling that everyone is out to get them. But most people will never experience what the eponymous Vincent goes through in this witty, watchable French-Belgian film, which is that everyone really is out to get him – and not just metaphorically, as he finds himself the target of increasingly frequent random physical attacks. This is a wonderful premise, and one that could be applied to science fiction, horror, action, or even a deeply philosophical art-house enquiry into the nature of the self. But personally, I’m delighted that director Stéphan Castang chose to take this set-up and make a comedy – and not just any comedy: this is one of the funniest films I’ve seen in a while.
Karim Leklou is the perfect choice to play Vincent. His expressive, hangdog face recalls sad clowns and silent movie stars, which enables the film to strike the perfect balance between ensuring we’re rooting for him but are kept in complete suspense as to whether he will ultimately survive or not. If you cast someone too tough-looking, a lantern-jawed hulk, it would alter the complexion of the film considerably; you’d have that sense of a man-on-a-mission film. Even a lean, mean Jason Statham type (and in some ways, the premise is not unlike early high-concept Statham films like Crank) would signal a likely victory for Vincent.
The potential problem with a set-up like this is that an endless series of attempted assassinations has the potential to grow boring after a while, especially if you’re keeping the setting otherwise fairly realistic, once we suspend our disbelief around the central concept. Vincent works in a normal office, with normal people, in a believably prosaic city. This means that a Matrix-style escalation in stunts and set-pieces can’t be employed to keep things interesting without breaking the rules of the storyworld. Instead, Castang and screenwriter Mathieu Naert have thought deeply about the different human dynamics expressed and touched upon by the attacks in order to help give a sense of development to the narrative. Being attacked by an intern at your office has a difference resonance from being attacked by a homeless person, and it’s different yet again if you’re attacked by a small child – for one thing, a child in a homicidal frenzy raises the immediate problem of how much self-defence is defensible. Could you taser a kid if they went for your jugular? These are the kinds of questions you’ll find yourself asking as you watch this film, which immediately helps it to stand out from the vast majority of cinema.
VINCENT MUST DIE (Vincent Doit Mourir) (2023) Written by Mathieu Naert | Shot by Manuel Dacosse | Edited by Méloé Poillevé
Playing at the 76th Cannes Film festival as a special screening in Cannes Critics’ Week
