 | MOVIE DETAILS • Name: Laissez Bronzer les Cadavres) aka Let the Corpses Tan) • Year: 2017 • Country: France, Belgium • Director: Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani • Main cast: Elina Löwensohn, Stéphane Ferrara, Bernie Bonvoisin • Runtime: 90 minutes • Production company: Anonymes Films, Tobina Film, Canal+ • TRAILER
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This 50th edition of the Sitges Film Festival also counted on the presence of the directors Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani (Amer (2009), L’étrange couleur des larmes de ton corps (2013)) which presented their new title Laissez bronzer les cadavres (2017), a western by the sea with their particular style and staging. Although I haven’t been following their work properly, I believe it all possesses a very strong character, based on the way they tell a story, on the choices of what is shown and how, and the color palette combined with the sound and music. This new movie also has their personal signature: a work on the border of art, that confirms their savoir-faire as directors and probably divides the critics again for being such a particular visual experience.
When the directors came to the stage to present Laissez bronzer les cadavres, they acknowledged the festival’s trust in their work and career: being part of the godchildren of Sitges, they had the chance, over the time, to release here all their previous movies. Since the very beginning were they here: they remembered back in the year 2000, when they had their first short film in the Brigadoon section of the festival, and counted only 8 people among the audience. They have come a long way since then: now, by this release, the Melià theatre looks almost full (and it’s a huge one), and their work is undoubtedly known across the world among the genre fans.
Laissez bronzer les cadavres plays tribute to the Giallo Italian subgenre; a thriller containing slasher and crime, eroticism and sensuality achieved with very literal and close shots, and very suggestive sounds amplified until the point they become as protagonists as the images and colours themselves. A feast for the senses, their approximation to the battlefield is as original as personal and intense and asks for an understanding from the audience, an acceptance of the storytelling rules that will last until the end of the film. I personally found it an amazing audiovisual show, inspiring and with some moments of genius, but maybe the 90 minutes become too long for keeping the same intensity all along the ride. The story, an adaptation of a novel by Jean-Pierre Bastid, tries to follow all the characters that are involved in the plot, giving them all a very unjudgeable approach (like the cop, who does not appear either as the good or the bad cop, just as one more in the battle field), and while I find this interesting, it also may loose some of a character strength -which normally is defined by the personal relationships and their vision of the world-, and since this happens in the background, I believe consequently the so important empathy with the spectator gets lost in the way.
After all, though, I believe the work of Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani is inspiring and worth watching until the end. Bruno said he probably wouldn’t be doing movies if it wasn’t for Hélène, his wife, who has the need of creating. Let’s hope they keep this need fed, and we find them back in Sitges soon enough.
RATE: 7/10
IMDB URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5827212
