SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Ensofter Overrated and overhyped

Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Myriam Nys A young man has great difficulty in feeling something. The ordinary joys and satisfactions of life do not gladden him, nor do the ordinary disappointments and sorrows sadden him. In a desperate bid to feel something - anything - he tries to conjure up strong sensations, by any means possible. It's the beginning of a descent into hell : as his quest robs him of his humanity, he needs ever stronger kicks to know, or feel, he's alive, which in turn pushes him towards ever greater crimes and betrayals. Devoid of any kind of insight in his condition, and moved by cruel and shameful drives, he is convinced that he is becoming his true self : a hunter, born to hunt his inferiors.This, in a nutshell, is the subject matter of "La prochaine fois", a movie based on the real-life crimes of one Alain Lamare. Lamare seems to have been insane - later on, psychiatrists would conclude that he suffered from a rare form of schizophrenia. As his mind deteriorated, he went on a vicious crime spree, while working as a "gendarme" on the task force charged with investigating the selfsame spree. As if all of this wasn't confusing enough, he sent taunting letters to the task force and thus, by extension, to himself. He might have been caught earlier if the gendarmerie, in a fine display of corporate touchiness, hadn't concluded that none of its strapping young men could be a criminal. "La prochaine fois" is a well-made and well-acted movie, intelligent and restrained. Apart from a few nature scenes the movie is executed in a drab, drained or chilly colour palette : a fitting metaphor for the desolation of the perpetrator's life. The various sets and locations too, breathe sadness, decay and solitude.So this is a very powerful work. Still, it focuses so exclusively on the life and viewpoint of the protagonist that it threatens to become claustrophobic. Even two or three short scenes about the impact on wider French society would have added extra variety and interest.Although the movie itself restrains from drawing wider political or societal conclusions, I think it should be made into mandatory viewing for experts charged with determining the mental health and fitness of people such as soldiers, policemen and security guards.

Martin Bradley This French serial killer movie is based on fact but an intertitle at the start tells us that it is also a work of 'imagination'. It's the kind of film the Americans do better but it has a clammy quality nevertheless and revealing the killer in the opening minutes actually adds to the tension and it's well acted and it's well directed by Cedric Anger. For reasons that will become clear very early on it concentrates very much on the police investigation while at the same time giving us a good, detailed psychological portrait of the killer. Unfortunately the film doesn't appear to have had much of a distribution so it's very possible it passed you by.

punishmentpark Quite a sober, depressing and eerie account of a true tale (different names and some details, though) about a serial killer (he got caught pretty early on, but until then it seems he was only warming up), in which the viewer mostly just follows the main character's actions; a frustrated young man who works as a policeman whose history is mostly unclear, but there are little hints about his utter frustrations and how "his sensitive side was destroyed by a careless society" (or words to that effect), as he himself states at some point in the film.It will be difficult, if not impossible, to prove that the aforementioned details were exactly as in the Alain Lamare case, but the film easily succeeds in presenting a haunting portrait of a man gone completely crazy, but at the same time shows a lot of restraint, has the perfect cover, is quite intelligent and physically apt. Though I will readily admit he made a silly mistake by leaving his fingerprints on those car plates - which is how he got caught.Guillaume Canet plays Franck Neuhart with much conviction, but really, none of the cast members fail; Ana Girardot, as the burdened woman who unwittingly strikes up a relationship with Franck, deserves a special mention as well. The atmosphere and cinematography are appropriately depressing (almost to point of being dreamlike, which reflects the strange state in which Franck is in), in which the beautiful countryside of France - mostly filmed at night, or when it rains or it is misty - helps a lot.9 out of 10.

GUENOT PHILIPPE First, let me explain what a gendarme is, for no french viewers: a gendarme is a sort of military who is in charge of police duty. So, this said, this story is inspired from actual events that occurred thirty six years ago, in the north of France. A serial killer killed many young women, without rape, and it appeared that the murderer was a gendarme, who also investigated on his OWN crimes. Of course, every movie buff will think of Joseph Lewis' SO DARK THE NIGHT, where Steven Geray had the nearly same character Guillaume Canet has here. Guillaume Canet is outstanding in this film. I think he has never been better anywhere else. An astonishing performance. Nothing to argue about the film making or acting. A tremendous piece of work.