Displaying items by tag: Sandrine Holt

THE SHROUDS

Canada, 2024, 120 minutes, Colour.

Vincent Cassel, Diane Kruger, Guy Pearce, Sandrine Holt.

Directed by David Cronenberg.

For 50 years, Canadian writer-director, David Cronenberg has been a highly significant and influential figure in world cinema. In fact, 50 years ago, his first feature film was called Shivers and released with the alternate title, The Parasite Murders. Eerie, a different kind of horror film, a parable about contemporary society, Shivers announced Cronenberg’s interest, his style, his sometimes disgust at the human condition. And, for 50 years a continuing stream of highly arresting films on the topic of the human body.

With the emphasis on horror aspects, commentators began to use the phrase “body horror” and this is always used as short out to indicate Cronenberg’s attention in his films. Definitely the case here as Cronenberg was turning 80, still experimenting in his style, but heavily influenced by the death of his wife of over 40 years.

Celebrated French actor, Vincent Cassel, plays Karsh, a man with technical know-how and funds to support it. His wife contracted cancer, went through all kinds of treatments, died and was buried. Karsh then developed a business, Grave-Tech, a cemetery at the side of an elaborate restaurant, but, a particular focus, Karsh able to keep close contact with his dead wife, a complex shroud in which she is buried but which enables images of her body, decaying, to be seen by a screen on her tombstone. (If that sounds intriguing, there is certainly a great deal more…)

Diane Kruger plays several roles in this film, Becca, the deceased wife in flashbacks, Terry, the lookalike younger sister who is friendly with Karsh as she works as a vet. And, there is an android (who is able to keep changing shape and she cares for and advises Karsh), Huny, who is voiced by Diane Kruger as well.

The other member of the cast is Maury, played by Guy Pearce, morose, dishevilled (almost the opposite of his Oscar-nominated role in The Brutalist). He is also a tech genius and has collaborated with Karsh setting up the cemetery, the technology, in creating Huny.

Part of the drama is the desecration of the cemetery, the mentally disturbed Maury suggesting all kinds of conspiracies, even international and political plots behind the sabotage. There is also a mysterious Hungarian woman, Sandrine Holt, trying to persuade Karsh to establish a similar cemetery in Hungary!

In many ways, The Shrouds becomes even murkier in its plot, focusing on the doctor who treated Karsh’s wife, his disappearance, his possible reappearance in the cemetery. And the visuals become murkier, intense close-ups of the wife’s decaying body, growths on her skeleton, Cronenberg’s constant fascination with the human body, health, sickness, decay, corruption.

Cronenberg always has intriguing and complex plots. This one sometimes goes sidetracking but, ultimately, the focus is on Karsh himself, his grief, the effects of coping with grief, his obsessions.

No question whether Cronenberg fans will want to see this film. But, for audiences who do not know Cronenberg horror, not his fans, a reminder that he has become the master of “body horror”.

1. The title? Death? Burial? Emotional response to death?
2. The work of David Cronenberg, for 50 years, his reputation, the focus on the human body, on death, decay and corruption? “Body horror”?
3. A personal film, almost 50 years career, the illness and death of his wife?
4. The Canadian setting, the city, apartments, the restaurant, the cemetery and the graves, offices and hotels? Atmosphere? The musical score and tone?
5. The story of Karsh, the screen presence of Vincent Cassel? His career? His age, the experience of his wife’s illness and death, the four years passing, Grave-Tech? The collaboration of Maury? The company, the technical development of the shroud, material, shapes, the scene of Karsh wearing it, his wife buried in it, the technology in her grave, the camera mechanism in the shroud, transmitted to the screen on the tombstone? The vacant place for Karsh to join his wife? Audience response to this technology and behaviour?
6. The flashbacks to Becca, love for Karsh, her illness, the treatment by the doctor, the relationship with him? The flashbacks is real, or is dreams, hallucinations? The relationship between the two, intimate, sexuality, nudity, tensions between them?
7. Terry, like Becca, divorce from Maury, her work, vet, grooming the dogs, conversations with Karsh, clashes, attraction, the sexual encounter, consequences? Her comments about Maury?
8. The Hungarian connection, the woman, her husband, the idea of the cemetery, the meals and their discussions, the plans, her wealth? Private planes? The sexual encounter? Her influence, Karsh and his decisions, finally flying with her? The future?
9. Maury, dishevelled, mental distress, technical skills, married to a divorced from Terry, his collaboration with the cemetery, the technology? Asked disturbed by the destruction at the cemetery, the puzzle? Maury and the introduction of wild conspiracies, plots, Russians, particular characters, the doctor who treated Becca, his disappearance, his seeming to occupy the grave next to Becca? The impact on Karsh, on Maury?
10. Suspicions, action, Karsh and the effect? And his final decision to leave this and go to Hungary?