Review of Sombre

Sombre (1998)
4/10
Sombre
3 April 2020
Warning: Spoilers
This French film was previously featured in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, I'd never heard of it beforehand, but being listed in the book I was hoping it was title that deserved its placement. Basically, it is about a sexually frustrated serial killer Jean (Marc Barbé) who follows the Tour de France cycling race in his car. During the journey, he takes a liking to picking up many women, most being prostitutes. Those women he picks up he takes to his room, has sex with or pleasures them, and then murders them, most often by strangulation. One day, a virginal, psychologically troubled and confused young woman named Claire (Elina Löwensohn) and her sister Christine (Géraldine Voillat) have a car breakdown. Jean offers them a lift, but he finds himself attracted to Claire, without feeling any urge to kill her. As Jean continues to follow the race, he continues to murder other women, whilst also maintaining a relationship with Claire. She is unaware of Jean's horrific crimes and finds herself falling in love with him, and vice versa. There is a point when Claire gives herself to Jean, while he later attacks Christine while she's swimming in a lake. It is unclear if his killing stops afterwards, but Claire is interviewed by authorities, but it is clear that the cycling race continues without him. Barbé gives a suitably creepy performance as the demented killer, while Löwensohn is alright as the innocent girl foolishly infatuated with him. The plot is rather thin, it could have been much more dramatic, a lot of the action takes place in the dark which means the visuals are not always clear, but perhaps that is the point, it is very slow-paced as well (apart from the cycling haha), and a little boring, a rather average psychological thriller. Okay!
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