Next Time I'll Aim for the Heart (French: La prochaine fois je viserai le cœur) is a 2014 French film directed by Cédric Anger and starring Guillaume Canet.
The story is based on the Alain Lamare case that happened in France in 1978-1979. Franck Neuhart (Canet) is a gendarme (a French law-enforcement officer) and he is also a serial killer, who kills or seriously wounds young women. As a gendarme, he is even part of the team that works on the serial killer case.
Next Time I'll Aim for the Heart provides examples of:
- The '70s: The film is set in 1978-1979 and this time period is accurately reconstructed (the fashion, the cars...).
- Action Prologue: The prologue shows Franck chasing a teenager on a moped and shooting at her, leaving her seriously wounded.
- The Alibi: Invoked. Franck tries to set up a quite complex alibi. He persuades one of his colleague to simulate a car chase with the serial killer. Since Franck would be one of the cops chasing the serial killer, he could not be the serial killer himself. It fails because other cops see their car chasing nobody.
- Alone with the Psycho: Happens to the two hitchhikers that Franck Neuhart picks up.
- Ax-Crazy: Franck Neuhart is deranged (in the end, he is even declared mentally unfit to stand trial for his actions) and he is a serial killer who kills young women at random.
- Based on a True Story: The story is based on the "Alain Lamare Case
" (1978-1979), a (wannabe) serial killer case. Events like the Booby Trap actually happened. - Booby Trap: Franck Neuhart plants a booby trap in a car that he has stolen. When the cops find the car, one of them is burnt in the explosion.
- Book Ends: In the beginning and in the end of the film, the camera focuses on a photograph of a young woman by David Hamilton that is hanging on a wall in Neuhart's flat.
- Car Fu: In the opening scence, Franck Neuhart rams the moped of a teenager with his car in order to kill her. She finally falls from her moped and he shoots at her with a gun.
- Chekhov's Skill: As part of his self-harm routine, Neuhart has baths of icy water. Later, he uses this skill to escape from the police: he hides out in the icy water of a stream.
- Detective Mole: As a gendarme, Franck Neuhart is part of the team that investigates the murders that he committed.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Even if he is a psycho killer, Franck Neuhart seems to care for his younger brother. He likes hanging out with him in the woods.
- The Film of the Book: The film is based on the novel Un assassin au-dessus de tout soupçon (1984) by Yvan Stefanovitch, which is based on a real-life case.
- Gun Nut: Franck Neuhart owns many guns. The cops find many of them when they raid his flat.
- Hostile Hitchhiker: Inverted. Franck Neuhart picks up female hitchhikers to murder them.
- Internal Reveal: When Neuhart's colleagues realize that he is the serial killer. The audience knew that from the start.
- Interservice Rivalry: There is a rivalry between two law-enforcement services: the Gendarmerie and the Police judiciaire. Each service tries to outsmart the other in the search of the serial killer. In particular, Franck Neuhart, who is a gendarme, hates the Police.
- Killer Cop: Franck Neuhart is a gendarme and a serial killer.
- Reed Snorkel: Neuhart hides out in the icy water of a stream to escape from the police. He uses a hollow reed to breathe.
- Reverse Whodunnit: From the beginning, the audience knows that Neuhart is the killer. The film is about how he gets caught.
- Road Block: There are road blocks in the region to try to catch the serial killer. After a murder, Franck Neuhart has to ride through one. Then the police chases him.
- Roman à Clef: The names of the protagonists of the Alain Lamare case have been changed. For example, the serial killer is named Franck Neuhart instead of Alain Lamare.
- Self-Harm: Franck Neuhart hurts himself: he flogs himself, he has baths of icy water, he hurts his arm with barbed wire...
- Serial Killer: Franck Neuhart tries to kill several young women in separate incidents. Somehow Deconstructed, because he regularly fails to kill them due to his tendency to look away while shooting them and just leaves them seriously wounded and because he is declared mentally unfit to stand trial for his actions in the end. The film actually ups the kill count, in Real Life Alain Lamare only successfully killed one person due to the aforementioned reason.
- Speed Sex: When Franck makes love with Sophie, it is very quick. Sophie tells him that it does not matter.
- Sympathetic Adulterer: Sophie cheats on her husband with Franck, but this is justified by the fact that her husband is handicapped because he has syphilis. It is implied that her husband got it because he was unfaithful to her.
- They Have the Scent!: The police finds Neuhart's car. They bring dogs to track him. Finally, he hides out in the icy water of a stream and he manages to escape.
- Trash of the Titans: When the cops raid Franck's flat, it is full of trash.
- Villain Protagonist: Franck Neuhart is the protagonist of the film and he is a serial killer.
- "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: In the end, a caption tells that Franck Neuhart was declared mentally unfit to stand trial for his actions and that he is still in a mental hospital. It also tells Sophie fell apart when she heard that Franck was a serial killer.
