In 1986 Roberto Succo escaped from an Italian mental institution where he had been incarcerated for the brutal murder of his parents, and went into hiding in France. Travelling between the Mediterranean and the Savoy mountains, Succo left a trail of inexplicable murders, rapes and abductions. Kahn's gripping dramatisation of true events gives a terrifying insight into the disturbed mind of a serial killer and follows the desperate attempts of the police investigators. Newcomer Cassetti gives a rivetting, extraordinarily intense performance as the psychopathic Succo.
Roberto Succo was a real-life itinerant Italian sociopath and congenital
liar who, having killed his parents in his teens, escaped from a mental
institution ... more >
Roberto Succo was a real-life itinerant Italian sociopath and congenital
liar who, having killed his parents in his teens, escaped from a mental
institution and fled to France to continue his murderous ways. Cedric Kahn's
compelling case study opens as a holiday romance, with his lead (Stefano
Cassetti) wooing the achingly vulnerable Lea (Isild Le Besco) at the beach
with a tall tale about freelance work for Scotland Yard, but then goes on to
detail an amazingly random crime spree.
Lea isn't the only female who falls for this bestubbled Ginola/Garcia/Jared
Leto lookalike: two of his victims turn out to be a teacher and a doctor,
both grown women, who acquiesce to his demands with remarkably little
struggle and an evident willingness to go along with the stranger, until
they realise just how far he's prepared to go, and how his charm only
stretches so far. The most staggering scene finds the killer picking up
three young women in a nightclub who - even after they've witnessed him
stabbing and shooting their holiday-resort bosses - still want to accept a
lift from him.
The film is full of such disconcerting loose ends, discrepancies and
unexplained tropes which might have a similar effect on the viewer as the
conflicting evidence and witness reports had on the police at the time. It's
over ninety minutes into the film before anybody refers to the male lead of
a movie entitled Roberto Succo *as* Roberto Succo. Hollywood studios often
draft in ad directors to shoot their serial killer movies through countless
filters and on umpteen different film stocks in a bid to convey their
villains' warped worldview, but Kahn here proves that, simply presented, the
facts of such cases are often odd enough in themselves to merit the closest
of attention.
Roberto Succo was a real-life itinerant Italian sociopath and congenital liar who, having killed his parents in his teens, escaped from a mental institution and fled t... more >
Roberto Succo was a real-life itinerant Italian sociopath and congenital liar who, having killed his parents in his teens, escaped from a mental institution and fled to France to continue his murderous ways. Cedric Kahn's compelling case study opens as a holiday romance, with his lead (Stefano Cassetti) wooing the achingly vulnerable Lea (Isild Le Besco) at the beach with a tall tale about freelance work for Scotland Yard, but then details his amazingly random crime spree - a couple of murders, a couple of attempted murders, crimes of humiliation, beatings, several rapes, and a possible kidnapping, carried out (obsessively) in other people's cars, and under a variety of pseudonyms - which baffle the French police, until he crosses the border back into Italy and tries to pass himself off as a Marxist political prisoner and the victim of an innately corrupt society.
Hollywood studios often draft in ad directors to shoot their serial killer movies through countless filters and on umpteen different film stocks in a bid to convey their villain's warped worldview, but Kahn here proves that, simply presented, the facts of such cases are often odd enough in themselves to merit attention. The film is full of disconcerting loose ends, discrepancies and unexplained tropes which might have a similar effect on the viewer as the conflicting evidence and witness reports had on the police at the time. In the opening scene, the film's killer sports a bandage on his right ankle which may or may not have something to do with his escape from custody (we're never told); the script seems at one point to be developing a strand in which the lead detective, cut off from his wife and child, starts up an empathy with the man he's pursuing which allows him to find bullets in toilets where forensics have come up empty-handed - a strand quickly dropped; and it's over ninety minutes into the film before anybody refers to the male lead of a movie entitled Roberto Succo *as* Roberto Succo. Even more disconcerting is the fact Kahn bills Cassetti's character in the end credits as "Kurt", which suggests the director gives more credence than most to the psychopathology of a character who repeatedly screams "I am not Roberto Succo!", or that Succo - labelled a monster by the Italian press - is as real as Keyser Soze, or - even more chillingly - that he is real, and that the *real* Roberto Succo is still out there today.
Kahn is generally more restrained when it comes to sex than it comes to showing the outcome of the violence, but then the facts almost dictate this: the killer preferred (and was used to) cold showers and carnage over carnal coupling. This director's last film, L'Ennui, charted the effect a teenage girl had on a middle-aged man. Roberto Succo's most contentious aspect - but also the aspect which gives the film such an edge - is its study of the effect an inherently bad man has on women. Lea isn't the only female who falls for this bestubbled Ginola/Garcia/Jared Leto lookalike: two of his victims turn out to be a teacher and a doctor, both grown women, who acquiesce to his demands with remarkably little struggle and an evident willingness to go along with the stranger, until they realise just how far he's prepared to go, and how his charm only stretches so far. The most staggering scene finds the killer picking up three young women in a nightclub who - even after they've witnessed him stabbing and shooting their holiday-resort bosses - still want to accept a lift from him. Kahn is playing a dangerous game here - he risks the interpretation that all these women were simply stupid - yet the facts of this case would seem to suggest the women did act in this way, with their hearts rather than heads, and one of the oddest facets of a brilliantly odd film is that these women's eventual testimonies had a significant bearing on bringing this man - Kurt, Paul, Andre, Roberto Succo, whatever he chose to call himself - to justice.
