NEXT TIME I'LL AIM FOR THE HEART/ LA PROCHAINE FOIS JE VISERAI LE COEUR

France, 2014, 111 minutes, Colour.
Guiillaume Canet, Ana Girardot, Jean- Yves Berteloot, Patrick Azam, Douglas Attal.
Directed by Cedric Anger.

An interesting police thriller, set in France in the 1980s. It is also an interesting perspective on the mentality of the serial killer.

It is based on a true story. What makes it different is that the serial killer is actually a local policeman heavily involved in the search for the killer. He seems to be an effective policeman, well respected by the authorities.

The film also shows the policeman as a character, having meals with his parents, taking his younger brother out for rifle practice and devoted to him. He also has a young woman who comes in to do some housekeeping for him who is in love with him.

However, he stalks women, knocking them off bikes, then giving them lifts, killing them, abandoning the bodies, and leaving the cars to be found by the police, always using rental cars. He also writes letters to the police giving information about the killings – which is something of his undoing as the police experts realise that the style of writing and the information given and the way it is given comes from a policeman.

The policeman is played by French actor, writer and director, Guillaume Canet.

1. A police thriller, search for a serial killer? Based on actual events? The 1980s?

2. The setting, the town, the countryside, the family home, the killers apartment, the roads in the fields for finding the injured and the dead? The clubs? The home of the old man who advertised girls and the telephone booths? Authentic feel? Musical score?

3. The atmosphere in the town, the young women, the injuries, their deaths? An atmosphere of fear?

4. The role of the police, the Chief, the investigators, the team? Frank and his presence, with the other men, his sense of responsibility, doing the right thing, the authorities supporting him? The abandoned cars, the approach of the car the explosion in the injuries to the policeman? The telling off from the Chief? Support of Frank? His continuing the investigations? His suggestions?

5. The reality of Frank as the killer? His stalking the girls, driving, knocking off bikes, picking up girls, their confidence, his discussions about being police, the gun, shooting, disposing of the bodies? Abandoning the cars? And his explanation that he used rental cars? And yet his turning up as if nothing had happened?

6. His apartment, soberly and her looking after him, her attraction, his attraction to her? Sexuality, misogynist? The phone booth and the phone number, going to the room, being deceived, his violent reaction? His writing the letters to the police, giving clues? This giving the authorities the awareness that the report were being written by police, terminology and style?

7. His visits to his home, his parents, his younger brother, going out into the woods, the shooting practice, wanting to work in a foreign country, telling his brother about leaving, his support of his brother?

8. The visits to Sophie, her ailing mother and her coming out, the sexual encounter, his dissatisfaction and impotence, the reaction afterwards, Sophie affected?

9. His illness, his compulsions, his violence, the girls, lack of compassion, their bodies, the abandoned cars?

10. The police an indication that the killer was police, the locals and their authority, the outsiders? Frank and his confidence, suddenly being arrested, the interrogations, the reactions of the other men, confiding the chief, otherwise denying what had happened?

11. An interesting portrait of a serial killer, in the context of the police and his deceptions?