2012 Cannes Film Festival Predictions: Antonio Campos’ Simon Killer

Gist: The antithesis of Woody Allen’s postcard image, this plants us firmly in off the tourist map areas of the City of Lights (we also get landmarks and skylines, but Antonio Campos dresses them differently) with enfant terrible Brady Corbet (Melancholia, Funny Games) playing the film’s amoral core character, loose cannon type of character that either lost his way seasons or decades back and fetches some empathy from the auds, that is until he meets up with a prostitute (a convincing Mati Diop) on his path towards redemption or… deeper dodo.

Prediction: I remember thinking,”what’s a Cannes Film Fest/Euro-centric film doing in Sundance?” through-out my first sitting Simon Killer. Kudos to Redford’s gang for landing the premiere, but Cannes will be looking to land the international premiere – essentially grabbing the best thing coming out of Sundance. We think this should be making an appearance in the Un Certain Regard section – the exact lieu where Campos got his start with Afterschool, and where the Borderline Films produced, Martha Marcy May Marlene was shown.