Cannes 2023: Vincent doit mourir (Vincent Must Die)
CANNESStéphan Castang’s Vincent doit mourir (Vincent Must Die) is an often chaotic, spiralling, climatic and thrilling episode of genuine paranoia, ultimately welded – ever so soundly – with what is essentially perfect tonal balance. Throughout Castang’s feature, the viewer will be inundated with the sense of paranoia, and while Good Time and Uncut Gems from the Safdie Brothers have honed this sense of anxiety, this very feeling in Vincent doit mourir is utterly terrifiying at every waking moment. While the specifics and details of the plot are undoubtedly best spared for the viewer to fully feel the sense of atmospheric tension, how Castang alongside editor and cinematographer Manuel Dacosse craft when this feature turns is fantastic. Small, subtle details of which just about run long enough before the feature unleashes. Used multiple times, this technique never tires and, quite brilliantly, adds more texture. In a way, it becomes equally more terrifying when the audience becomes aware and conscious of when said technique is implemented. The stress and encompassing sequence of what this aspect evokes is devastating, and how lead actor Karim Leklou controls and evokes emotive skill with each and every occurrence only adds more to the depth and frightening nature of proceedings.
That being said, Stéphan Castang’s feature, with the talents of Leklou, equally project a more comedic nature for the feature to breathe. It could be argued that perhaps this takes precedent throughout and could further be classed as comedic, but alas, when the darker tone hits through – and Vincent doit mourir touches on these moments multiple times to a great degree of emotional torment – dark comedic elements offer brevity and reprise. Leklou changes and emotes on a whim and in instant dedication for the viewer to feel comfortable or uncomfortable depending on the scene that commences. He showcases wonderfully engaging technique of a character who is forced to grow and find his voice. It’s ever so engaging on a narrative level but without how good Leklou is, Vincent doit mourir would undoubtedly struggle to captivate to the degree it does so.
More so impressive is that Vincent doit mourir is never insulting or tone deaf but evokes moments of compelling terror on the lines of sequences such as death by septic tank or being attacked by small children. Castang does a tremendous job of showcasing horrors or unnerving paranoia but layered for a more accessible experience. Due to the above tonal balance it’s actually quite difficult to make sense or predict in fact where this feature is heading. At one point, it all feels so overly ridiculous it can’t head anywhere, but then director and writer Stéphan Castang and Mathieu Naert, respectively, take the opportunity to add layers of subconscious social commentary on the world. While it never details the feature, if the viewer wants to consciously throw their own interpretation into the mix they are never pushed away and almost invited to do so.
The substance and performances of Vincent doit mourir is not the only thing that impresses. Equally as captivating and often playing in the background is how brilliantly visually composed and crafted this feature truly is. Again back to that tonal discourse, Castang and cinematographer Manuel Dacosse craft great perception depending on tonal desire. The camera is awfully tight on Leklou in times of stress and violence but equally pushes itself away in isolation, finding a middle middle ground on where the character ultimately ends up. Neon lit evenings capture a dense and appealing mood, as does the French countryside of which Leklou spends his days searching for answers about what might be happening to him. All in all, everything feels thought through and states itself with reason depending on what and where the feature needs to process its emotive prowess.
French cinema has had wild moments in the last few years, with Titane taking much of this mantle, and while that maybe more on the wild side, Vincent doit mourir has a wonderfully humanised and immersive engaging nature to it that captivates and captaloults the audience into a strangers worst nightmare. Given very little information on context but thrust into this world following a terrific central performance by Karim Leklou and his supporting side of Vimala Pons, even if the strong violence and mystique of what it all means and is does not quite captivate, Vincent doit mourir’s human story of love and acceptance of who humans are regardless of fears and alienation undeniably will.
