The Shrouds, a typically remote, intellectually rich affair, where provocative ideas are presented sincerely, is notable for being David Cronenberg’s saddest film; steeped in grief, the loss of the director’s wife in 2017 is present throughout this singular work. Vincent Cassel, deliberately styled as a Cronenberg surrogate, plays Karsh, a tech entrepreneur still grieving the death of his wife Becca (Diane Kruger), who has invented a system allowing mourners to monitor the decomposition of their loved ones via headstone screens. But when his wife’s plot is among several desecrated in an act of vandalism, Karsh starts to believe he is the focus of a conspiracy involving Becca’s twin sister, Terry (also Kruger), her ex-husband Maury (Guy Pearce), and Soo-Min (Sandrine Holt), the enigmatic wife of a dying Hungarian tycoon who wants to open one of Karsh’s cemeteries in Budapest.

Notes by David O’Mahony