Heart broken Simon travels to Paris to be a douche-bag.
Sounds curt and dismissive but that pretty much sums up the second film from Antonio Campos. Simon (Brady Corbet) arrives in France, still reeling from his recent break up with his longtime girlfriend. Increasingly lonely in a foreign land he seeks shelter in a strip bar where he meets prostitute Victoria (Mati Diop). Seeing her as his only chance for some kind of affection he begins to see her more before getting himself assaulted so that she will take him in. The pair begin to fall in love. In order to get some income Simon decides that they should blackmail Victoria’s clients. After a brief spell of the “good life” Simon’s eye begins to wander and his frustration with the world begins to boil over.
Simon is a frustrating character to have to follow for ninety minutes. We meet him as a husk of a man following his split. Anyone who’s ever been through a bad break up can’t fail to identify with the hopeless loneliness that Corbet and Campos express. His duplicitous nature, sometimes lying for seemingly no reason and getting himself beat up so that he can emotionally blackmail his way into Victoria’s house are compelling character insights. Part you may think you’d do the same if you were desperate. As the story continues Simon’s action begin to worsen. Corbet’s performance doesn’t suddenly switch to crazy mode, but the character becomes more suitably despicable with every scene even if he doesn’t seem to realise it. Simon still thinks Simon’s a good guy, which truly makes him a sociopath. Whilst the character arc (or lack of) is fascinating in theory watching it unfold is much more irritating. Perhaps it falls down to Corbet’s performance. Simon comes across as such a frustrating weasel of a man that he becomes a chore to watch. Bravo for Campos and Corbet for creating a genuinely horrible character but it becomes a detriment to the film when you don’t want to be in that person’s company anymore. I don’t very often fell like that but I did watching Simon Killer.
Mati Diop turns in a finely understated performance as Victoria. A prostitute with an obviously cruel past who does not act the victim or seductress. She is a woman who knows how to read people. To give them what they want so she gets what she wants. Simon clearly sees her as a damsel in need of rescue, because he’s a good guy but at times she appears to be the one pulling his strings.
Some have compared Campos visual style to Michael Haneke. The camera keeps it’s distance – the tightest shots are mids. The screen often pans back and forth from events so you sometimes miss some of the action. It’s a cold, detached way of documenting Simon’s psychological collapse that at certain times borders on student film but it’s affect is noticeable Even as the camera follows Simon through the streets of Paris we are kept at distance just enough to feel as though we are stalking him. It’s a cliched film critique to make, but sometimes you really do feel like a bystander watching events unfold in real life. Which is also thanks in part to the naturalistic style of the film. A nice touch worth mentioning is the use of music throughout. As most of the soundtrack is provided through the headphones Simon strolls around listening to, arbitrarily flicking tracks which instantly changes the mood of a scene. It’s a quirky yet realistic touch that should be used more often. It’s also a soundtrack I would like to own – not that you need to know that but writing it down will remind me to look for it.
So Simon Killer. A film that some will admire, some will loathe. It depends how much you enjoy character studies of unlikable people shot with a steely hand. It’s a film that I’m glad to have seen but could live the rest of my life without ever seeing again. It’s moments of real ingenuity are often spoiled by amateurish feeling staging and an anti-hero who’s frankly too irritating to give the slightest shit about. Maybe I’m the cruel one here.
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