Cinefranco: Next Time I’ll Aim for the Heart Review

Next Time I’ll Aim for the Heart (2014)

Cast: Guillaume Canet, Ana Girardot, Jean-Yves Berteloot
Director: Cédric Anger
Country: France
Genre: Thriller

Editor’s Notes: The following review is part of our coverage of the 2015 Cinéfranco Francophone International Film Festival. For more information visit cinefranco.com and follow Cinefranco on Twitter at @cinefranco.

Based on actual police reports surrounding the events of a series of murders in France in 1978, Next Time I’ll Aim for the Heart follows a duplicitous murderer through his dual life as a serial killer and policeman (technically a gendarme). The killer prepares to fulfill his dark fantasies as he travels through streets captured with a muted color pallet that makes the film look like films from the era it portrays. He sees himself as the embodiment of evil riding through the night like a tortured, dart-eyed murderer from a Doors tune, carrying out a sacred ritual that secretly keeps him from embracing his latent homosexual urges. He punishes himself in sadistic acts of self-flagellation in an attempt to channel these urges and maintain control of himself and his environment, but cracks emerge and his methodical techniques to avoid getting caught begin to break as he loses control of his mind.

[Next Time I’ll Aim for the Heart] is more a Kieslowskian study of morality than a thrilling and exploitative romp through the streets of Oise…

Next Time I’ll Aim for the Heart is underplayed and less dramatic than typical thrillers as it focuses on the damaged psyche of the killer and the confused code of morality that he has adopted to hide who he really is. It is more a Kieslowskian study of morality than a thrilling and exploitative romp through the streets of Oise, choosing to focus more on the killer’s eyes as he rides through pastel tinted midnights on the hunt for his next victim than the actual murders. The cinematography is as underplayed as the content of the narrative, but shining exceptions create visual intrigue like when a CRT screen flickers to cast ghosts across the room of a potential victim, showing a noir from another time with its own rulebook of tropes to contrast with the cold hearted malaise of a new generation of villains who murder because they feel society is lonely, cold, and broken.

Tension builds through the killer’s daytime interactions, creating audience discomfort as he takes his younger brother through the woods on a seemingly innocent primer on basic serial killer skills, teaching the proper use of a gun with unsettling detached malaise. Old family conflicts give context to the man’s broken psyche as he is “harmlessly” tormented and marginalized by his parents that hail from a generation that believed you could humiliate people into behaving a certain way. While that type of “well-intended” humiliation didn’t create a generation of sociopaths, it certainly nurtured sociopathic tendencies that were already there in some unfortunate souls.

The cinematography is as underplayed as the content of the narrative, but shining exceptions create visual intrigue like when a CRT screen flickers to cast ghosts across the room of a potential victim, showing a noir from another time…

Next Time I’ll Aim for the Heart is a slow burning atmospheric thriller that explores the psychological maelstrom that bubbles under the surface of a man who does everything in his power to hide who he is. He is uncomfortable with his sexual urges so he punishes others for what he perceives to be the moralistic decay of society. He hides behind his role as a law enforcement officer and uses his skills to keep himself undetected, but secretly wishing to be discovered and freed of the torment raging in his mind. He is less menacing than he is tortured, allowing us to empathize with him despite the horrendousness of his actions and see that evil is often borne from an unwillingness to accept things as they truly are so one can come to terms with their identity.