Simon Werner a disparu (2010)

Directed by: Fabrice Gobert | 93 minutes | drama, thriller | Actors: Jules Pélissier, Ana Girardot, Audrey Bastien, Selma El Mouissi, Arthur Mazet, Serge Riaboukine, Laurent Delbecque, Yan Tassin, Esteban Carvajal-Alegria, Laurent Capelluto, Arthur de Donno, Louis Farge, Edith Proust, Barthélémy Guillemard, Catherine Bernard Nissile, Marie Cuvelier, Barthélémy Goutet, Olga Grumberg, Laetitia de Fombelle, Alice Butaud, Jean-Philippe Goudroye, Agnès Akopian, Chiko Mendez, Matthew Nadu

‘Simon Werner a disparu’, a French film with a styled, American High School look, is set in the recent past. Vinyl singles are played at parties and it is vintage headphones through which the music flows that temporarily take girls and boys away from their daily worries. And of course the clothes are a bit different. All those time indications are casual. The fact that we are talking about the early 1990s is especially noticeable because of what is missing: mobile phones, laptops, social media. Edge phenomena have come and gone, but otherwise everything in Simon Werner’s world is undoubtedly as it is today for high school students in their senior year.

‘Simon Werner’ is the first feature film directed and written by Fabrice Gobert. And Simon Werner is the first schoolboy to disappear without a trace in the film. The first, because there are more to come. We experience the story of Simon and his followers from the perspectives of different characters, to whom each chapter is devoted. You could compare it to the classic subjective style of Kurosawa’s ‘Rashomon’ (the Rashomon effect has even become a scientific term), were it not that subjectivity is not so much a theme here, as an intriguing method of telling the story. . A risky method, because it quickly seems contrived and artificial. In this case, she actually amplifies the film. ‘Simon Werner’ tells the story of some French high school graduating students: beautiful early-adult Alice, her smaller shadow Clara, the undeniably confident jock Jéremie, punk girl Laetitia, the nerd Jean-Baptiste Rabier (who also has the bad luck that he one father is a teacher at the same school). And Simon himself of course, with his tough leather jacket and wild plans for the future. Gossip, secrets, rumours, identity questions, numbers and existential insecurities play a major role in their lives. Their social education and laborious quest for adulthood mainly take place out of the sight of parents and teachers. Precisely by repeatedly showing a certain confluence of circumstances, a history, from different perspectives, Gobert aptly portrays the confusing world of the adolescent. ‘Simon Werner’ plays a game with knowledge and ignorance, fact and suggestion. Gobert succeeds in this by mainly showing us scenes that take place just before and just after decisive moments. Each time you become a little wiser, but just not enough.

The film starts with Alice, who parades on endless legs – as if on a catwalk – to Jéremie’s house. Jéremie celebrates his birthday to the music of Killing Joke’s Love Like Blood. Boys dance and drink up the courage it takes to approach a girl. Girls drink to prevent them from snapping in such a case. When Luc, a friend of Jéremy, goes to get some fresh air with Clara, they end up in a piece of forest. Clara has to pee. A scream. A body. Simon Werner’s disappearance has been solved, you would think. But as the film progresses, more students disappear. Enough clues – a teacher allegedly assaulted students, another man received suspicious packages and held mysterious soirées. And the students themselves? One is unexpectedly aggressive, the other is teased with his puny horseheads-spencer, and they cheat on each other. Everything unfolds very carefully before your eyes, step by step. Each new perspective leads the viewer with a steady hand to new revelations, just as the ghost of Jacob Marley once gave Ebenezer Scrooge a new look at life.
But what is the relationship of all those revelations with the disappearance of Simon Werner? As you search for an answer, and the camera lingers in a school hallway or near a tree lit by a street lamp, you suddenly realize that the confusion you experience is itself the subject of the film: you have stepped into the skin of a seventeen-year-old. And Sonic Youth’s iconic soundtrack – each character gets its own ‘sound’ – won’t let you escape until the last line of the credits has passed. Perhaps the students are portrayed a little too schematically. Perhaps Gobert is holding the viewer a little too emphatically on the line by loading each image with suggestion. You must be able to appreciate the game this slumber thriller clearly plays with your ability to (pre)judge and make connections. Furthermore, this debut by Gobert is worth mentioning. ‘Simon Werner’ proves that in film it’s not about how big a story is, but about how you tell it.