La prochaine fois je viserai le coeur

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.

There is no denying the fact that much has been written about serial killers in press especially in the print media. However, when it comes to depicting their crimes and shady lives, cinema has not been able to achieve considerable success. It might be due to the fact the cinema glamorizes their images to such a large extent that it is difficult to sift fact from fiction. French film "La Prochaine Fois Je Viserai Le Coeur" is about a unique serial killer. He is one of those rare serial killers who would flagellate himself in order to repent for crimes committed. One doesn't come across such exemplary behavior from most serial killers. French director Cedric Anger gives a detailed description of a police man (serial killer)'s failed romantic relationship with a married woman. However, his film does not answer numerous questions which begin with a big "Why" of all murders which were the handiwork of a police man. The film starts with an important disclaimer. It states : "This film is based on one of the most strange French criminal stories. The facts described here are, for a large extent, taken from official documents, statements and talks with concerned people". It doesn't prevent anybody from putting a question mark on French gendarmerie's ability to detect that something was wrong within their ranks. Next Time I'll Aim for the Heart is not an entertainment film Per Se despite its strong French box office figures of 490,537 tickets sold. Hence, it needs to be watched for the crucial role it is playing in letting the society know about the patterns of a serial killer.

It's winter 1978. French national police gendarme officer Franck Neuhart is a serial killer. He runs down Alice with his car and shots her three times. She survives and Franck writes in a letter to the police vowing "Next Time I'll Aim for the Heart". He starts hunting for young female hitchhikers.

There is a missed opportunity. Otherwise, this is a solid character study of a serial killer. Guillaume Canet plays it like a calm, nice guy. He's not out of control other than the killings. I like that he's messy killer. It's not another one of those precise serial killer TV shows. There is a horror to how normal Franck seems to be until he's alone with the girls. The missed opportunity is the lack of mystery. It could have kept the killer's identity a secret until a surprise midway reveal. Without that mystery, there is a lack of tension early in the movie. It takes a little while for the story to pick up steam. This is a good performance although the movie could have been more exciting.

NEXT TIME I AIM HEART is the perfect example of what could have been a very good movie: one emphasize at first the narrative pulled by a "true story" then one tells the tale with showing the murders with the at least strange behavior of the killer, a french cop in real life - military side. Exactly thus like a TV documentary which does not possess a point of view, the director tells everything whereas the spectator's guessing facts...

What then ? Why this movie would be better that any rag paper as" The New Detective? There is, regrettably, no reason for it because the mechanism of the pathos is played with the regularity of a Swiss clock of one vulgar funny gag of Naked Gun's movie. Not to mention the music which is only re-underlining the drama of the story, in case to we would have understood nothing at all !

Nevertheless in spite of these heavy and dumb brass instruments, the performance of Canet is rather good, and does not suffer by any lack of realism, as well as some ones wrote it in the press critics. And then some sequences add curiously to the suspense of the movie climax - for example the scene of pursuit in Peugeot 604. Nevertheless the movie quotes in forest are worth the manual of a perfect boy scout, but on the other hand, are suffering from giant clichés but hold more or less the road, especially if you have already read Baden Powell back in your life: easy to understand, it is all quite black or all quite white exactly like a suburban sky.

So, cut off the sound and you'll be feeling in the end watching yourself a giallo more or less made in the 70's, sent only straight to video. And I know what I'm talking about...

cold, dark, precise. portrait of a serial killer using details and suggestion. a splendid role of Guillaume Canet. and a lot of questions. because it is not exactly adaptation of a case. but picture of society. because it is not presents motifs or excuses , not gives an anti-hero, not use drops of romanticism. it is only a cold image about a man and his crimes. Ana Girardot is a nice surprise. inspired option for remind another kind of Sonia from Crime and Punishment. the images, the dialogs, the story. nothing as part of a classic crime. only as support of reflexion. about universe as puzzle from Ionesco's small crumbs from his plays.