Two years after “Crimes of the Future”, David Cronenberg is back in competition at the Cannes Film Festival with his new film “Shrouds”. Did this more personal feature film convince festival-goers?
David Cronenberg is back at Cannes, two years after Crimes of the Future, with a new, more personal film. Even if the Canadian filmmaker is still passionate about the transformation of bodies, new technologies and questions about the future, he turned to the intimate thriller for his new feature film, Les Linceuls, presented in Competition at the 77th Festival from Cannes.
Carried by Vincent Cassel and Diane Kruger, Les Shrouds tells the story of Karsh, a renowned fifty-year-old businessman. Inconsolable since the death of his wife Becca, he invents a revolutionary and controversial system, GraveTech, which allows the living to connect to their loved ones in their shrouds. One night, several graves, including that of his wife, are vandalized. Karsh then sets out to find the culprits.
If the film mixes new technologies, transformation and surveillance of bodies and conspiracyism, it above all serves as a great declaration of love from David Cronenberg to his wife Carolyn Cronenberg née Carolyn Zeifman, documentary director and editor, who died following an illness in 2017.
The first opinions on “The Shrouds” by David Cronenberg
The Shrouds is a cathartic experience for David Cronenberg who delivers a moving experience on the way of the cross that is mourning and all the dark stages and thoughts that cross the soul when the loved one disappears.
So, what did festival-goers think of this more intimate and personal proposition from David Cronenberg in Cannes? Here is a selection of the first mixed opinions on Les Linceuls (The Shrouds, in original version).
“Deeply moving”
“David Cronenberg’s #TheShrouds is a deeply personal look at loss that finds plenty of time to get scary but never loses sight of the fact that it’s a film about grief.”
“#TheShrouds REVIEW: Emotional, unsettling and deeply moving. A gruesome exploration of grief with the tension you feel. Impactful cinematography. An experience that truly leaves you feeling happy. This isn’t just another horror movie, it’s “Is the best David Cronenberg film of all time! A beautiful ending #Cannes”
“Such a waste”
“‘The Shrouds,’ which just premiered at Cannes, is David Cronenberg at his most personal. If only it weren’t so empty of life.”
“‘The Shrouds’ review: body horror master David Cronenberg loses the plot in a tangle of conspiracy theories.”
“The Shrouds” is a story of grief as only David Cronenberg would have thought of making one: sardonic, unsentimental and often so stiff and cadaverous that the film itself seems to suffer from rigor mortis.
The film “The Shrouds” by David Cronenberg will be released in theaters on September 25, 2024.