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Kathryn Bigelow’s underappreciated “Strange Days” features a line that goes something like “The issue isn’t whether you’re paranoid. The issue is whether you’re paranoid enough.” Although that film is set in 1999, it’s an aphorism that would work equally well in Stéphan Castang’s fun, violent, high-concept “Vincent Must Die,” as a punchy summation of post-pandemic — rather than pre-millennial — nervousness and malaise. Who among us has not gazed in dismay at a world that’s not just increasingly bad-tempered, but seems to hold against each one of us some focused, individual grudge? The times have doubtless always been bad, but they hit (and hit and hit) differently now, like this time, it’s personal.

Vincent is initially not paranoid enough/at all. A bit uninspired, perhaps. Low-level depressed, possibly. And carrying his inevitable thirtysomething disillusionment in a little schlub around the midriff, for sure. But not...

Exclusive: Paris-based Goodfellas has unveiled a raft of deals on French genre title Vincent Must Die by Stéphan Castang following its buzzy world premiere in Cannes Critics’ Week in May.

In Europe, it has sold to Benelux (O’Brother), Switzerland and Germany (Ascot Elite), Spain (La Aventura), Greece (Cinobo), Italy (I Wonder), Portugal (Alambique), Scandinavia (Njuta), Bulgaria (Beta Film), Yugoslavia (McF), Hungary (Ads), Romania (Independenta), Poland (Moonshot Company) and Cis (Russian Report).

Outside of Europe, it has been acquired for Turkey (Bir Film), Japan (Pflug), South Korea (Contents Panda) and Taiwan (Av Jet).

As previously announced, a buyers consortium consisting of Flawless, XYZ Films and Tea Shop Productions acquired all English-speaking territories during Cannes, including the North America, the UK and Australian and New Zealand.

The thriller stars Karim Leklou, best known internationally for his role Netflix hit The Stronghold, as a graphic designer who starts coming under attack from...

Flawless, XYZ Films and Tea Shop Productions have acquired the Cannes Critics’ Week selection “Vincent Must Die” for all English-speaking territories from Goodfellas.

Flawless, the pioneering film technology company and a leader in the field of visual translation, recently announced it has launched a partnership with XYZ Films and Tea Shop Productions to acquire rights to foreign-language films, converting them to English for distribution in relevant markets.

Directed by Stéphan Castang, “Vincent Must Die” is written by Mathieu Naert, produced by Thierry Lounas and Claire Bonnefoy, and stars Karim Leklou and Vimala Pons. In the film, an ordinary man finds himself fighting for his life after he goes out one day and is mysteriously attacked by random strangers in the street with the intent to kill him.

This is the first film from the production company Wild West. Goodfellas and Capricci joined forces to create Wild West, a production company...

In an early scene of French director Stéphan Castang’s Cannes Critics’ Week entry Vincent Must Die, a colleague of the film’s titular protagonist whacks him around the head with his laptop. A little later, another workmate stabs him in the arm. “He’s just an average guy who wakes up one morning to discover that everyone wants to kill him,” Castang explains. The debut feature follows in the wake of Julia Ducournau’s Raw and Just Philippot’s The Swarm as French genre titles to be championed by the first and second film-focused Critics’ Week.

Castang came late to film directing after spending two decades working as a theatre actor. “I always wanted to write and direct films but then I took a very long detour,” he says. He finally started exploring filmmaking with a short film, French Kids — in which a group of rebellious high school students...

Recently split from his co-worker girlfriend, Vincent (Karim Leklou) is having a bad day at the office. First, a young intern batters him over the head with a laptop, and then Yves from accounting stabs him savagely with a pen. And after a meeting with human resources, the poor guy is left with the curious feeling that, somehow, he deserved it. Even his shrink, who has a print of J.M.W. Turner’s ironic masterpiece “The Fighting Temeraire” on his wall, thinks so, planting further seeds of doubt in Vincent’s mind. “I think you’re looking for attention from those who attack you,” he decides.

Vincent’s “crime” is to make eye contact, and after a further series of interactions — notably with a middle-aged female motorist, who tries to run him down, and, crucially, his upstairs neighbor’s young children — Vincent drops everything and heads to his family’s country home.