In Vincent must die, Stephan Castang’s first feature film, Karim Leklou plays an ordinary man whom everyone he sees suddenly wants to kill for no apparent reason. “The question is not why we want to kill him but how he will survive,” explains Stephan Castang to 20 minutes.
This absurd comedy, discovered at the Critics’ Week of the last Cannes Film Festival, leads to a beautiful love story, when the hero meets a waitress played by Vimala Pons.
“This is a film of genres, and I insist on the plural because I do not want to be confined to just one of them,” insists the director. I was as nourished by the cinema of Robert Bresson as by that of John Carpenter. » The filmmaker has made the most of his eclectic cinephilia to offer a film that is pleasantly confusing before seducing with its originality and freedom of tone.
An unclassifiable film
“Flirting with genders allows you to have another experience of the present,” explains Stephan Castang. A good example of this is Parasite by Bong Joon-ho who is difficult to classify, which did not prevent him from conquering the whole world. » Vincent must die exudes the same type of charm as the Korean film. That of speaking about human nature without taking oneself seriously, which leads to an all the more salutary reflection.
The duo on the run and their dog (wonderful Suzie who would have deserved the Palm Dog) could be anyone and everyone, which makes them very endearing. “The social side is present in the story, but it is not the driving force, which allows us to move away from a naturalism that is sometimes too strong in French cinema,” insists the director.
Tenderness and paranoia
Burlesque is not far away when the world is unleashed on this uneventful graphic designer whose life turns into an absolute nightmare. “I didn’t think of any particular event but rather of the atmosphere of violence that constantly surrounds us. We often have the impression that people are just waiting for an excuse to come to blows,” says the filmmaker.
The paranoia in which a good guy could lose himself, no longer able to trust anyone, is tempered by the tenderness of a touching romance. From gore to romantic comedy, comedy and action cinema, Vincent must die juggles with everything a range of emotions, and that’s why we love it.