The Shrouds

In the 2000 cult thriller The Crimson Rivers, Vincent Cassel is called to investigate the desecration of a grave. 24 years later, the French actor now stars in The Shrouds as a grieving widower, whose world is turned upside down yet again when he finds his wife’s burial ground vandalised. The elaborate camera setup he installed in her coffin to watch her decomposing body at all times is no help in finding the culprits, but seems inevitably linked to the attack.

With his upswept white hair and slightly oversized blazers, Cassel’s look in the film immediately identifies Karsh as a stand-in for Cronenberg himself. With knowledge of the calamity in the director’s private life, one cannot help but feel that this must be an immensely personal story for him. This depth to the film’s meditation on mourning is its most successful component.

Karsh’s obsessive yearning manifests in acquiring pictures of her teeth from their shared dentist, just so he could get another look at a small, constituent part when the entirety of her eludes him. Equally, the satirical elements criticising the decisive power technology has been given in our lives (such as self-driving cars taking the characters to a pre-programmed destination point), work well. The whole opening sequence of Karsh introducing a blind date to his cemetery, complete with the titular shrouds and an app, is a comedic highlight in Cronenberg’s filmography, its grotesque extremes gradually making the viewer realise that the possibility thereof is not so far-fetched.

During the Canadian auteur’s last visit to Cannes, some critics were unhappy with the interpretative narrative style of Crimes of the Future. In response, for The Shrouds, Cronenberg chooses a more amenable approach by introducing his talking points within the plot of a conspiracy thriller. However, it is this trojan horse approach where the film disappoints. Despite the incredibly powerful imagery and setup, many scenes are laden with dialogue that slows down the unfolding mystery.

Diane Kruger takes on a triple role: portraying the wife, her living sister and the voice of an artificial intelligence, yet she is still reduced to not even a love interest but merely a sex interest. Whether or not her former partner (Guy Pearce) can be trusted isn’t particularly compelling to the audience because they aren’t introduced to him as a figure of importance in any of their lives.

Even as its main story leaves much to be desired, Cronenberg remains such a unique craftsman, excelling in world-building and atmosphere that The Shrouds is still worth looking into for fans of the bizarre.

Selina Sondermann

The Shrouds does not have a UK release date yet.

Read more reviews from our Cannes Film Festival 2024 coverage here.

For further information about the event visit the Cannes Film Festival website here.