The successor | Heavy legacy

“Unlike a police drama, in a film noir, you always hope that the police will arrive before the end. But she never comes,” Yves Jacques told us in an interview to promote the Successor.

If we take up this remark from the actor, whom we met last week, it is to explain the hybrid nature of the new feature film by French director Xavier Legrand. A strange proposition, half-comic, half-tragic, which advances perilously on the tenuous thread of an Oedipal suspense.

In The successor, Marc-André Grondin plays Ellias Barnès, artistic director of a famous haute couture house. Exiled since his early twenties in France, this “new prince of fashion” is on the rise as a designer. He changed his first name (his baptismal name is Sébastien), and took on a Parisian accent as quickly as Diane Tell… He’s going to be on the cover of Harper’s Bazaar for his first collection as artistic director.

But in the middle of a photo shoot for this magazine, Ellias learns of the sudden death of his father, the victim of a second stroke in three years. A father he hasn’t seen for 20 years, having rebuilt his life in Paris and cut all ties with his past. An only child, he had no choice but to go to Montreal for funeral arrangements and empty the house, because his father lived alone in Repentigny. He thinks he can sort everything out in two or three days. And ask for “the express formula” from the funeral home director…

“You must never return to the hidden times of your childhood memories,” sang Barbara. And the son will make a stunning discovery in his father’s business. From then on, Ellias/Sébastien will be haunted by the heavy legacy left by his father, a man he never wanted to be like. But his legacy will be worse than his fragile heart.

Despite our reservations, The successor, a Belgium, France and Quebec co-production, keeps us in suspense until the end. The acting is excellent; the production, well done. However, the strings are thick and certain scenes are not very credible.

This drama – loosely adapted from the novel The ascendant, by Alexandre Postel, by Quebec filmmaker and screenwriter Dominick Parenteau-Lebeuf – mixes cinematographic registers too much. This is not a film for purists. And Hitchcock would turn in his grave seeing this “neo-film noir” signed by the director of Up to the hilt.

Strong performers

In the skin of Ellias Barnès, Marc-André Grondin is exceptional. The actor plays in (almost) every scene and his character goes through borderline stages, ranging from despondency to horror to resignation. In 48 hours, he will experience more twists and turns than in a lifetime.

Yves Jacques plays Dominique with finesse, the friend and “cosmic brother” of the deceased. A caring, gentle character… and a little mysterious. During the brief ceremony at the funeral complex, Dominique pays tribute to Ellias’ father to the music of Do like the bird, by Michel Fugain and the Big Bazar. Another moment where the director plays on the comic and dramatic registers at the same time.

Finally, Anne-Élisabeth Bossé and Vincent Leclerc are suave as empathetic funeral advisors. “They are there to make life easier” for Éllias, they repeat. Without suspecting for a second that the latter is already in hell.

Indoors

Drama

The successor

Xavier Legrand

With Marc-André Grondin, Yves Jacques, Anne-Élisabeth Bossé…

1:52 a.m.

7/10