Unemployed actor finally lands a role: playing murder victims for cops. Method acting gets weird.
Jean, a forty-year-old struggling, out-of-work actor has hit rock bottom. Although open to any kind of work, he can't get a break. At the unemployment office, his counselor has a rather odd proposal: he can get a job helping the police reconstruct crime scenes, by standing in for the dead victim. Jean's obsession for detail impresses the detectives, allowing him to take a leading role in a sensitive investigation in Megève ski resort, during low season, after a series of murders
Acting
Damiens commits fully to pathetic dignity—his corpse work is genuinely moving.
Writing
Bizarre premise grounded in real economic anxiety hits different.
Cinematography
Empty Megève slopes create gorgeous dead-season melancholy.
Director
Jean-Paul Salomé
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Director Jean-Paul Salomé based this on a real French police practice using actors for crime scene reconstructions.
The film satirizes France's RSA unemployment system and the gig economy years before it became a global talking point; Damiens improvised many of his mortuary table reactions.
FR
