Simon Killer (2013)

Disturbing yet enthralling

Brilliant and touching

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

After leaving his girlfriend behind in America, recent graduated student Simon (Brady Corbet) travels to France in order to chill out and do nothing, and try to meet other people avoiding being alone the best way he can, usually enjoying female companies. First he meets a prostitute (Mati Diop), of whom they get to know a little better and he starts to help her with some problems; later on he gets the attention of another girl and her friend. With all those connections we get the final image that he's always up to make schemes, taking advantage of everyone he meets and trying to make everything favorable to himself. The problem with this Tom Ripley kind of character is that he is unsympathetic to the audience to the point where you really want to punch him instead of understanding his "pain".The movie? Self indulgence at its best. And worst: part of the audience buys it very easily. There's no greater message, no big and interesting portrayal of how sociopaths act and it's not even a good movie. It threats to be but it never quite reaches the limited potential it has. This time director Antonio Campos imitates "Last Tango in Paris" by using minimal dialog, going from nowhere to nowhere, filled of empty and boring sequences in between with characters we can't find anything worth relating or understanding. And just like Bertolucci's classic there's the sex. The way it was portrayed and filmed, well, those were remarkable, I give you that. Really playful and exciting.The only thing that impressed me about "Simon Killer" was Brady Corbet, once again involved in a project that proves some provoking challenges for an actor to play with and he's bold enough when the movie is not stranded in its catatonic state. Corbet is in "Mysterious Skin", "Melancholia" and the remake of "Funny Games", so with that list in mind you already know he's up to something really dark or controversial, great materials. Even though writing the story here, and probably creating the best moments for himself (oh yeah those sex scenes and that includes one truly daring moment - best scene, very original but I warn you beforehand that it can be problematic to close minded folks), he's up to no good. This doesn't generate enough interest as a cinematic experience.And once again, Mr. Campos employed poor technique methods of cinematography and editing to convey its story the way it must be seen - the voyeuristic look of someone who spies someone at a distance and behind a person's back. It should help the movie but it's artistically dull and empty. The photography was better used in here than it was in "Afterschool", this time providing good looking shots of a Paris a little emptier than usual which reflects the main character's unbearable loneliness. He captured a good atmosphere of the place combined with the character souls - dark and cold but always trying to be colorful, close and animated, danger closer than everyone thinks, and in every corner. But he still doesn't know how to edit a movie, doesn't know how to take advantage of cuts instead of just using static images. Inaudible or whispered dialogs tortures us from time to time. And has this guy never heard of captions? To leave Simon lost without understanding what people are saying to him in this foreign country is acceptable but Mr. Campos leaves us as well in the dark and for long periods every time there's a conversation in French. There's talent in there, the problem is that he doesn't know how to use it rightly. He desperately needs to know how to write a story without creating too much artificial things, make it more human instead of transparent experiences.Spare me from saying that it was an enigmatic or philosophical experience. Rubbish. Campos almost fooled me with "Afterschool" (a good film, not great), but he's not fooling me with this. Tedious and shallow but with two or three good things. 5/10

This is an interesting film directed by Antonio Campos about a young man from New York who has apparently just finished a degree in neuroscience (he turns out to be a liar, so this may not be true, and in the film's last line he says to a customs official that he studies French literature), and is spending a few weeks in Paris living in the apartment of a family friend. What starts out as a story about an American student in Paris about to start his tour around Europe gradually turns into something darker as Simon, the eponymous character, meets an attractive French prostitute in a hostess bar. Simon cunningly inveigles himself into her life and soon moves into her apartment. We are not yet sure whether Simon is just a slippery character or a full-blown grifter, but at this point the plot reminded me of Jim Thompson's novels so I was gratified to learn from one interview with Campos that Thompson was indeed one of the inspirations for the film. Simon then persuades Noura (the prostitute he met at the hostess bar) to blackmail her customers with his help. So far, this is a fairly common film noir plot, but this unusual movie has much more to offer. Brady Corbet's acting as Simon is very good, Antonio Campos employs interesting visual techniques and other innovative elements, and the movie has an outstanding soundtrack. Corbet does a good job of keeping us guessing about just who, and how sinister a character, Simon really is. Is he just a bright student who opportunistically turns to blackmail to finance his holiday in Paris, or is he a professional con man who is potentially violent and dangerous? The dark and sexual themes, stalking camera (hostile strangers lurk just around the corner in Pigalle or accost Simon as he tries to pick up Parisian girls on the street), and memorable pop music score, reminded me of Blue Velvet, and it had me wondering if Simon is closer to Jeffrey Beaumont or to Frank Booth. As the suspense builds and things become ever darker, I also began to compare the film to The Comfort of Strangers, another tale of sexual attraction, perversion, deception and violence on a holiday in a picturesque European city (a film that brought together Paul Schrader, Ian McEwan, Harold Pinter and Christopher Walken... what a team!) But I digress. Antonio Campos does some really interesting things visually in this film. For example, there are strange light effects both at the very beginning of the movie and again to separate different parts of the story, like section breaks (these are accompanied by haunting songs with lyrics such as "It takes a muscle to fall in love"). I was intrigued by these light effects and Campos explains in one interview that he tried to recreate the lights you see as you press against your closed eyes with your fingers. Campos created these effects by removing the lens from a certain type of camera and filming Christmas lights which thus left only the imprint of their colours. These light effects are particularly appropriate in the film as Simon's thesis work (if he wasn't lying) involved the connection between the brain and the eye. Other interesting aspects of the movie include the bilingual script and way language is used. Simon often pretends not to understand when another character says something in French, and uses this to his advantage in his deceptions and tricks. Simon also often communicates non-verbally by an odd assortment of grunts, whimpers and yelps. Campos says that Brady Corbet actually worked out a whole system for these sounds, one for "angry Simon," another for "sad Simon," another for "anxious Simon" and so on. If you like Jim Thompson, Blue Velvet and The Comfort of Strangers, Simon Killer just might be your cup of tea.

I read the reviews about the film and they stimulated my interest in seeing this flick at Pifan 2013 in Bucheon, South Korea. The movie seemed to go in several directions, but yes, I found the film a bit hard to like, especially the ending.Simon is a recent college grad who visits Paris after breaking up with a longtime girlfriend. He befriends Victoria, who works as a prostitute, and soon moves in with her despite planning to hit other places in Europe. He tries to scam her other customers and trouble starts brewing.I found that Simon wasn't a likable guy at all. He had a couldn't-care- less attitude like the character Zach Galifianakis played in "The Hangover." I also found implausible Victoria immediately liking Simon and letting him into her troubled life, and he ends up making things more complicated for her. He seems to really show what a true a-hole he is toward the end.I'm glad I watched it but would I recommend it? Not sure.

"Simon Killer" is an odd, bleak and deeply unsettling film that I simply could not get to grips with. It tells the story of a young American neuroscience graduate, Simon (Brady Corbet). Simon leaves the United States and goes to Paris in an attempt to get over the somewhat traumatic break-up of a five-year relationship with his girlfriend Michelle (a character who does not appear in the film). There is something not quite right about Simon. He is a bit like Patricia Highsmith's well-known anti-hero Tom Ripley: cold, unfeeling, amoral and emotionally unintelligent. He is also a compulsive liar. Soon after his arrival in the French capital (where he initially stays with a cousin of his - who is, in fact, not really a relation but a friend of the family), Simon goes into a sex club where he pays for sex with one of the resident prostitutes, Victoria (Mati Diop). As a result of that encounter, he develops a relationship with her and later moves into her small flat. Victoria opens up to Simon and tells him intimate details of her past, including the fact that she miscarried some time ago. Simon is less willing to disclose information about himself to Victoria. Indeed, one of the many problems with the film is that the viewer is given little or no hint as to what actually motivates Simon and why he frequently behaves so oddly. Part of that oddness is his attitude to women, whom he seems to view as nothing more than objects of sexual desire. At the same time, he attempts to blackmail some of Victoria's "customers" in order to finance his stay in Paris. He later meets another attractive young woman, whom he had bumped into earlier in his stay, and begins a brief relationship with her. This understandably upsets Victoria. Things move on from there. "Simon Killer" is a very unpleasant film. It is full of graphic sex scenes, many of which are quite unnecessary in that they add little or nothing to plot or character development. In addition, Simon is a deeply unsympathetic character. It is left to the viewer to decide why he is like he is. There are hints that he has some sort of Oedipus complex or perhaps a personality disorder (or both). What is clear is that he is an extremely selfish and shallow person who lacks any sort of empathy for other people. Much of the plot has the feel of improvisation about it. And it's really not at all clear what the message of the film is. In addition to all that, I was simply not convinced by the relationship between Simon and Victoria, in particular why, of all her many "customers", she would choose him as someone with whom to have a serious relationship. Although the conclusion of the film is well done, much of what precedes it is ponderous and lethargic and, as a result, extremely boring. The soundtrack, however, is one of the best of any film that I have seen. But when all is said and done, "Simon Killer" is an unsatisfactory film that is difficult to recommend. 5/10