On September 1st, 1905 in rural France, seventeen-year-old seminarian Bruno Reidal brutally murders a young boy by decapitation and promptly surrenders himself to authorities. In prison, at the direction of a panel of doctors including forensic scientist Alexandre Lacassagne, Bruno writes his memoirs. This true story is the subject of writer/director Vincent Le Port’s feature debut, Bruno Reidal, Confession of a Murderer.
The film opens with the viewer staring up into the determined face of Bruno Reidal (Dimitri Doré) as he saws his way through the offscreen victim’s head with a knife. Blood splatters across Bruno’s shirt. The subsequent shot displays the victim’s headless body on the forest floor. A silent and blood-soaked Bruno makes his way out of the forest and into his village of Raulhac, Cantal, where he turns himself in. He has no remorse, but knows what he’s done is wrong. It’s a violent and graphic start that sets expectations for a tough watch.
The film jumps between past and present as seventeen-year-old Bruno recounts his life in his memoirs, providing voiceover narration throughout the film as we move between Bruno at ages six, ten, and seventeen. The introduction immediately raises the obvious question amongst viewers: why did Bruno kill the boy? Le Port treads a fine line in answering that question. He focuses more on presenting the circumstances and inner struggles that helped shape Bruno as a person in order to create some empathy among viewers rather than actually answering the question itself.
Bruno’s harsh childhood as part of a large family in a rural village includes beatings from his parents, severe sun stroke, and learning to associate slaughtering a pig (and by extension, man) with cause for celebration. By age six, he already has violent thoughts about bleeding and killing humans. At age ten, while tending the fields, he is raped by an adult male passerby. In school, Bruno experiences jealousy and sexual thoughts tied with extreme violence towards his academic male classmates. He finds some relief from his thoughts by masturbating incessantly to his violent fantasies, but feels guilty afterward due to his Catholic faith. His Catholic religion, repressed sexuality, and hidden violence create pent up tension, and Bruno throws himself into his studies to buy himself time from committing murder, which he views as inevitable.
By cementing Bruno’s violent thoughts very early on in his childhood and the narrative, Le Port indicates his intent to actively not offer a reason for Bruno’s murderous impulses (after all, his siblings experienced the beatings and pig slaughter as well), and, importantly, refutes the problematic connection between Bruno’s repressed sexuality and his murderous tendencies. While they are very much tied together, neither is the reason for the other; an important distinction.
Le Port largely leaves psychoanalysis out of the film, choosing to focus on Bruno’s account of his own life and inner struggles by keeping us firmly planted in Bruno’s point of view. We never really delve into the mind of Alexandre Lacassagne (Jean-Luc Vincent) or the other doctors analyzing Bruno in prison, or the psychology of what makes a killer. It’s not a “true crime” story or a police investigation; it’s a character study of a boy who develops violent thoughts early in childhood and fights against them until he succumbs one fateful day. Le Port’s decision to drive the film through Bruno’s perspective largely stemmed from his fascination with the real Bruno’s memoirs, for their personal revelations about Bruno’s inner life and particularly “the literary force” of the text itself. It is reflective of Bruno’s intelligence and strong academic results in school, which Bruno largely focused on as a way to stave off his increasingly violent impulses.
The actors who play Bruno at different ages are well-cast. They carry themselves similarly, build upon each other’s performances, and also bear a resemblance to one another. Doré sets a taciturn and brooding precedent for the character. Alex Fanguin plays Bruno at six years old, a small, mousy little boy who is simultaneously cute and haunting with his dark under-eye circles and silent observation. It ties in with the hunger and harshness of his early childhood. Roman Villedieu gives a strong performance as ten-year-old Bruno, crafting a balanced development for the character midway through the narrative that sees Bruno grow into his violent thoughts and brooding look.
Le Port is an accomplished short filmmaker who makes a solid, albeit sometimes unnecessarily graphic, feature debut with Bruno Reidal, Confession of a Murderer. The film premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival as part of Critics’ week.
Score: B-