22/05/2024 - CANNES 2024: King of venereal horror David Cronenberg draws inspiration from his own grief to deliver a sadly slight techno-thriller

Vincent Cassel and Diane Kruger in The Shrouds

Only two years after his Crimes of the Future [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] premiered on the Croisette, body-horror maestro David Cronenberg has returned to the Cannes Competition with his newest offering, The Shrouds [+see also:
trailer
film profile]. This time, Vincent Cassel takes the lead as Karsh, a 50-year-old widower who is still haunted by visions of his late wife. Tormented by grief, he tries to make something out of it; and what could one create in today’s world that would be both original and practical? That’s right, an app.

As the founder of GraveTech, Karsh is responsible for both the software and the hardware: the former is an original smartphone application, and the latter comes in the shape of a burial shroud equipped with cameras. The purpose of this elaborate technology is – yes, you guessed it – to show continuous surveillance footage of your beloved. From their grave.

In contrast with the elaborate plot, The Shrouds remains a rather minor film with a non-committal aesthetic (with the exception of the shrouds themselves, regal and elegant) and a quartet of (rather underwhelming) performances. Cassel is joined by Diane Kruger (as Becca and Terry), Guy Pearce (as Maury, Terry’s ex-husband) and Sandrine Holt (as Soo-min, Karsh’s new flame). Léa Seydoux was previously attached to the project to play Becca/Terry, but it fell to another, otherwise stellar, actress (Kruger) to portray these two massively underwritten twin sisters. The Canadian writer-director has made a name for himself by linking death and libido throughout his career (think Crash), but perhaps this subject matter hits too close to home. While Cronenberg was open about the fact that the passing of his wife, film editor Carolyn Zeifman, in 2017 inspired the film’s plot, such proximity may have been a hindrance instead.

There is no limit when it comes to technological advances in Cronenberg films, as they either meld with bodies or transform them forever; in the case of The Shrouds, though, the transgression toys with the taboo of death. So, the question that Karsh has to constantly face is this: is GraveTech a simple desecration, or is it the ultimate gesture of devotion?

If we think of the director’s personal loss – an association that is not only implied, but made obvious, with Cassel looking like Cronenberg himself – we’d be inclined to choose the second reading. But there are too many instances where the film opts for a simplification of its (female) characters and reduces desire to the carnal, instead of using carnality to address the metaphysical aspects of love and loss.

For the movie’s look, Cronenberg reunites with Crimes of the Future cinematographer Douglas Koch, whose camera captures emotional exchanges and sex with the same amount of objective disinterest, while the music by Howard Shore lends the feature a ceremonial and ominous veil. But underneath that veil, there is decay, and that’s one thing that seems impossible to aestheticise. For once, Cronenberg would have done better to underscore a subject’s libidinal power more than its romantic properties.

The Shrouds was produced by France’s SBS Productions and Saint Laurent, and Canada’s Prospero Pictures. SBS International handles the film’s world sales.

Photogallery 20/05/2024: Cannes 2024 - The Shrouds

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David Cronenberg, Vincent Cassel, Guy Pearce, Diane Kruger, Sandrine Holt
© 2024 Fabrizio de Gennaro for Cineuropa - fadege.it, @fadege.it