Let the Corpses Tan

“Makes Ben Wheatley’s Free Fire look like the proverbial vicar’s tea party.” -The Hollywood Reporter

Burnt-out scribe Bernier passes away his retirement in his idyllic abode overlooking the Mediterranean with his girlfriend Luce. Their Bohemian lifestyle is shattered one sweltering summer afternoon by Bernier’s acquaintance Rino, who shows up with his gang and a giant payload of gold bullion that they just knocked over an armored car for, killing one guard. Looking for a place to lay low, Rino and his crew left enough of a breadcrumb trail to lead a couple of detectives and other interested parties to Bernier and Luce’s hideout. What ensues is an intense 24-hour standoff that will forever alter their once peaceful existence.

And that’s way more plot than one comes to expect from the Belgian directing duo of Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani. Having conquered the giallo style in Amer (2010) and The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears (2014), Cattet & Forzani turn their attention to the Italian Eurocrime films of the 70s and the Spaghetti Western, mashing up the two genres with an equally fetishistic fervor. Using staccato editing, lush photography and an assaulting soundtrack, Let the Corpses Tan is a sensory feast that you can’t take your eyes from.