Let the Corpses Tan

2017, 92 MIN, DCP
BELGIUM, FRANCE

Language: French

Director: Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani

Distributor: Kino Lorber

Belgian directors Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani’s first two features (2009’s Amer and 2013’s indelibly titled The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears) were international festival phenomena, garnering worldwide acclaim and broad-reaching theatrical and home video release. Each film is a highly stylized and beautifully crafted homage to the Giallo films of the 70s and 80s most notably associated with Italian maestro Dario Argento. With their follow up, the sensationally titled (and just plain sensational!) Let The Corpses Tan, the duo has again put their mark on the world of cinema with this modern twist on another classic style of international genre fare. This incredibly stylish and riveting tribute to the bloody poliziotteschi crime capers of the 1970s looks and feels like an undiscovered classic of the period, only better!

Although the directors root their films in the style inherent to the 1970s golden era of international cinema, they refine and amplify that style, elevating what might in lesser hands be a tired genre rehash, to a masterful ode to one of the most exciting periods in cinema history. Taking showy techniques of the time and perfecting them into a glorious mise en scène all their own, every frame bursts with stylish sophistication. Each bit of choreography with the actors, each camera movement, each lighting scheme, each foley sound, and each jump cut is meticulously planned to achieve the highly stylized and fun-as-hell-to-watch results.

After making off with a truckload of stolen gold bullion, a gang of thieves becomes embroiled in a daylong shootout with pursuing cops among the ruins of their remote Mediterranean hideout. This premise provides the perfect set up for Cattet and Forzani to go off, taking the audience on a delirious sensory journey through a beautifully constructed day of carnage.

If you are a fan of international cinema particularly Giallo, spaghetti westerns, poliziotteschi, and other Euro-crime films of the 70s, I implore you not to miss this incredible nostalgia-inducing-but-wholly-its-own cinematic adventure, complete with a soundtrack featuring gems from Ennio Morricone’s revered ouvre! (Scott Braid)

 

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