Simon Werner a disparu... (2010)
Directed by Fabrice Gobert

Film Review

Of all the emotions, fear is arguably the one that is most difficult to fake convincingly, which is perhaps why most films that rely on fear to create tension and suspense often end up appearing faintly camp and absurd.  The most striking characteristic of Fabrice Gobert's debut feature Simon Werner a disparu... is how authentically it evokes a climate of fear amid a group of over-imaginative teenagers in a small suburban community.  At the start of the film, it is revealed that a college student has gone missing.  Straight away, the boy's classmates begin to formulate wild speculations as to what may have happened to him, and in no time they all become prey to their worst imaginings.  It is as if Friday the 13th has suddenly become a terrible reality, and as more of the students go missing the vice-like grip of paranoia tightens to terrifying proportions.  It is a truism that the world is at its scariest when you are a teenager, and Gobert's daring and inspired film reminds us of this fact with a cruel, mocking relish.

The similarities with Gus Van Sant's Elephant (2003) are not hard to miss.  Not only is Gobert's film set in the same milieu, it also borrows the structure of Van Sant's film - four segments, each depicting events from the point of view of one characters.  It is an old technique and Van Sant certainly did not event it - the great Japanese cineaste Akira Kurosawa used it to great effect on his 1950 masterpiece Rashomon and Belgian filmmaker Lucas Belvaux did it justice with his acclaimed 2002 Trilogie. Gobert's innovation is to adopt a subtly different style of mise-en-scène for each of the segments, each reflecting the personality of the leading character.  For instance, Rabier, the most introverted and solitary of the protagonists, is seen mostly in long and mid-shot, reminding us that he is very much the outsider in the group, and consequently the most enigmatic and sinister.  Another inspiration that is readily apparent is David Lynch's Blue Velvet (1986), most visibly through the setting - a seemingly safe middle class haven beneath which something sinister and dangerous obviously lurks.  By setting the story in the early 1990s, Gobert gives his protagonists a greater sense of vulnerability by denuding them of mobile phones, tablets and all those other wonderful of gadgets which now connect every teenager on the planet to every other teenager.

Simon Werner a disparu...  effectively combines the elements of the classic teen movie and slasher movie but it has a very distinctive identity that sets it apart from such well-worn genre offerings.  The constantly roving camera conveys an unrelenting sense of restlessness and the artificial autumnal lighting lends a subtle hint of nightmarish unreality that adds to the imperceptibly mounting mood of oppression.  It is a pity that the stylistic flair that Gobert shows in his mise-en-scène is not so apparent in his screenplay, which is hampered by clichés, a general lack of narrative coherence and a hurried denouement that fails to be entirely satisfying.

To some extent, the shortcomings on the writing front are masked by the stark realism of the performances from a talented ensemble of largely inexperienced actors.  Making her presence felt in her first significant film role is Ana Girardot, daughter of the distinguished screen actor Hippolyte Girardot, and the charismatic Jules Pélissier similarly looks as if he might be destined for better things.  More than anything, it is the authentic nature of the character portrayals that makes Simon Werner a disparu... such a memorable and compelling film.  By drawing on many familiar influences, Fabrice Gobert manages to create an original piece of cinema that offers the most truthful and disturbing portrayal of adolescence that French cinema has given us in years.

Film Synopsis

In March 1992, a small town just outside Paris is seized by fear and suspicion as a result of a series of seemingly inexplicable disappearances.   It all began when a teenage boy named Simon Werner suddenly went missing.  All that the police had to go on were a few drops of blood found in his classroom.  For days afterwards, Simon's disappearance became the only topic of conversation among his classmates.  Was he kidnapped?  Has he committed suicide?  Or has he just run away from home?  The other possibility - that he has been murdered - wasn't overlooked.   It was only a few days later before a second pupil in the same class went missing, and then a third.  The only thing that connects the three missing teenagers is that they were in the same class in the same school.  The police are completely stumped and a mood of barely contained anguish pervades the district as further developments are anticipated.  Then, one evening, a group of drunken adolescents are messing about in the woods when they stumble across a lifeless body...