VINCENT CASSEL, DIANE KRUGER IN THE SHROUDS

DAVID CRONENBERG: THE SHROUDS (202)) - NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL

Excruciating, precise necrophilia may not be your thing; it's not mine

In Competition at Cannes. The titular cloth is fitted with dozens of tiny cameras so the bereaved can watch the decomposition of the beloved in detail after he or she or they is or are buried. The purveyor of these shrouds is one Karsh (Vincent Cassel, standing in for the director), who runs a restaurant with a hi-tech cemetery attached. Diane Kkruger plays the bereaved Karsh's wife, her sister, and a virtual AI avatar. Giving it his respectful but reserved rating of 3/5 stars, Peter Bradshaw in his GUARDIAN review describes The Shrouds as another example of the filmmaker's "eroticised necrophiliac meditation on grief," with his "now very familiar Ballardian fetishes," and lots of "intriguing and exhausting" details in the elaborate plot-line. Hollywood Reporter's Scott Roxborough and Patrick Brzeski talk about how respectful the Cannes audience was, and reserved. The director is 81; his own wife died six years ago. They say this is Cronenberg's is seventh film in Competition at Cannes, and his contribution to the body horror genre "casts a long shadow on the Crousette," reflected recently ih Julia Ducournau's 2021 Palme d'Or Titane and this year in Coralie Fargeat’s' The Substance, "one of this year’s hottest competition titles," starring Demi Moore, Dennis Quaid and Margaret Qualley.

Cronenberg has gone very dark before: think of Dead Ringers. But in a man of 80 thinking about death this took on a special grimness and sadness. A little too close to home, shall we say?

I can only say I wish I had seen The Substance instead. It may be relatively frivolous and simplistic, but while watching The Shrouds I felt I was choking for air and enclosed in darkness. A stifling work that felt interminable. The idea that anyone would want to watch their loved ones decompose in the grave through a hi-tech visualizing device seemed as far-fetched as it was repulsive. The absorption in elaborate precision about details of the whole business became excruciating. The efforts of this distinguished cast were wasted on me - though Vincent Cassel certainly has an elongated, gray, muscular, sepulchral look that is memorable and appropriate. Not recommended.

The Shrouds, 119 mins., debuted at Cannes May 20, 2024, showing also at Jerusalem, Melbourne, Toronto, Saõ Paolo, Hamburg, and New York, where it was screened for this review.
Metacritic rating: 57%.

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©Chris Knipp. Blog: http://chrisknipp.blogspot.com/.