After seeing the stylised Neo-Noir chamber piece of The Woman with Leopard Shoes (2020-also reviewed),I got set to unleash the second French title in the Frightfest section of the 2021 Glasgow Film Festival.
Note:Some plot details in review.
View on the film:
Losing away from what little sanity he had left in the opening sequence, Kevin Mischel gives a blistering turn as Leo, whose mumbled, garbled speech patten, tatty beard and dead eyes to the world as his blood lust is released, are wonderfully used by Mischel to express the on a knife edge,ticking time bomb murderous insanity Leo is always a moment away from revealing itself again.
Unveiling that even when doing normal activities Leo is thinking about the next women to kill, via his Pogo dance moves turning into him screaming like a manic and doing imaginary stabbing motions on the dance floor (!),writer/director Marc Fouchard & composer /cinematographer Pascal Boudet present a filthy, grubby Grindhouse portrait of a serial killer, with the burning blood red from the killings, (edited in jolts by Coban Beutelstetter) being the lone colour in a dour, dead world.
Driving into meeting Leo with him being a taxi driver, the screenplay by Marc Fouchard jabs at the staples of the "Psycho Loner" genre, from Leo struggling to tell the difference in reality and fiction for his love interest, to a dream/nightmare ending,where Leo interacts with one of his victims. Uncovering scares from childhood abuse Leo suffered, Fouchard focus on Leo's psychological mind-set, brings out a grisly quality to the anonymous,innocent women murdered,as Leo heads out of this world.
