The Memory of a Killer

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Starring: Koen De Bouw
Rated: R (Restricted)
Type: DVD
Directed By: Erik Van Looy
Studio: Sony Pictures
Release Date: 2006-02-21
Running Time: 123 minutes
His memory impaired by Alzheimer's, veteran assassin Angelo Ledda (Jan Decleir) is appalled to discover his intended target is a 12-year-old girl. Refusing to kill her, Ledda breaks his contract, only to have his boss carry out the hit instead. Incensed, Ledda vows vengeance and sets out to find the man who ordered the child's death. Systematically wiping out middlemen and go-betweens, Ledda leaves a blood trail that is followed by Chief Inspector Vincke (Koen De Bouw), a police detective who's desperate to learn what links the dead girl with the most powerful men in Belgium. And so, with the cops one step behind him and his memory fading fast, Ledda finds himself in a race against time as he tries to avenge a child whose face he can no longer recall.

Swan Dive
Angelo Ledda (as in Yeats and mythology's swan Leda, he notes) as portrayed by Jan Decleir is a man on the edge. He has spent most of his life as a murderer, most of it paid, some not. But now, as the movie begins, he is in the throes of something way beyond him: Alzheimer's. And for a man who has seemingly always had the details of his life in line during his long, conflicted life...this is not a good thing. Nor is it something that he understands...nor something that he can control. Ledda knows that he is near death and that makes him dangerous and gives him the kind of freedom that only those who are near death possess.
Director Erik Van Looy's "The Memory of a Killer" is basically a policier: a film with layer upon layer of storyline that ultimately come together by way of Angelo, D.C.I. Vincke (a wounded, sad-sack performance by Koen de Bouw) who form a sort of bond based on their shared backgrounds of deserted parents, un-successful love affairs and amazing intellect. What's particularly interesting is that this "relationship" is formed by way of phone calls and crime scene clues left by Angelo. They don't actually meet until well into the film. Vincke and Ledda share more in life experience than either of than would like to admit and that adds friction and ambiguity that gives this film its substantial bone structure.
There is a very funny and strange scene about mid film in which Ledda wakes up in bed in the throes of an Alzheimer's episode after having sex with a sexy short haired platinum blond, looks around and forgets who she is and what he has just done to her: scary and patently real.
There are many ways in which "The Memory of a Killer" reminds me of Helen Mirren's PBS series, "Prime Suspect" in that the police are just as messed up psychologically and morally conflicted as the criminals. And this brings a certain verisimilitude to the proceedings: we are after all human, all capable of the best and the worst in human behavior and like Leda: "mastered by the brute blood in the air."

The Memory of a Killer
Interesting but the subject is a bit revolting. Dealing with Alzheimers was a new twist and the story was well presented. The European air left me with a bit of a "who cares" whim but it was time well spent.

Fascinating convergence of thriller and psychological drama
Set in Belgium, this unusual thriller has as its protagonist an anti-hero--a 57-year old hitman who's beginning to experience symptoms of Alzheimer's. His brother, older and residing in a nursing home, has an advanced form of the same disease. But the hitman, Angelo Ledda, has enough of his wits about him to know what's going on; he does have some slips in memory from time to time, though, and these throw him off, to some extent at least, in the context of remembering what he's just done or where he just was--or who he might have just executed.

The acting is superior; this in combination with a smart storyline with sharp dialogue makes for an engrossing two hours. As is true of many modern noir tales, this one involves corruption in high places, as a result of which murders ensue--some committed by Ledda, some not.

The pacing here is pretty much flawless. The back and forth between the cops, the hitman, and the evil higher-up guys is spot on. This is a great companion piece to the recent French policier "36 Quai des Orfevres" directed by Olivier Marechal which, unfortunately, is not available on DVD here in the US, but is available in a non-region 1 European DVD release.

Highly recommended.

One of the best movies I've seen this year.
The Memory of a Killer (Erik van Looy, 2003)

How is it that, until I watched this movie, I had never heard the name Jef Geeraerts, upon whose book this movie is based? There is a crime going on here somewhere, and I mean to find it. If the book is a tenth as good as the film, the English-speaking world has been kept in the dark about one of the best crime writers going today. Yeah, I realize that every once in a while mediocre (or just plain bad) novels get made into great movies, but still, I'm playing the odds on this one. Most movies aren't as good as the books on which they're based, and The Memory of a Killer is a very good movie.

Angelo Ledda (the great Jan Decleir) is a French contract killer who is sent to Belgium to take out a minor official after retrieving a certain metal box from him. Once he has completed that assignment, his contact, Seynaeve (Gene Bervoets) orders him out on a related contract: the murder of a child prostitute, Bieke Cuypers (Laurien Van den Broeck). When Ledda discovers Cuypers' age, he refuses to take the contract, saying no one in his profession will kill a child. That night, on the news, he hears she's been shot, and sets out to find out who was behind the murder and why. Meanwhile, Eric Vincke (Koen de Bouw), a Detective Chief Inspector who was assigned to the Cuypers case, is also trying to figure out who killed Bieke Cuypers. When their paths cross, the game of cat and mouse begins-- will Ledda get to each person higher on the food chain before Vincke? And does Vincke really want to stop him? Complicating matters is the fact that Ledda is slowly sliding into Alzheimer's-related dementia.

There are a great many things to love about The Memory of a Killer, but all discussion of how good the film is must start with Jan Decleir, who quite simply owns this role. Decleir is wonderful as Ledda, the aging killer with a conscience. Everything about him is calm, precise, understated... unless it's not, of course. When Ledda's facade shows signs of wear and tear, that's when you can see how excellent a performance this is. Opposite Decleir you have de Bouw, the harried detective, who's not only chasing a killer who's baiting him, but is encountering resistance from places where it doesn't make sense, not least of all his partner. de Bouw's vision of Vincke as the guy who just puts his head down and bulls his way through, damn the torpedoes and full steam ahead, is just as capable as Decleir's vision of Ledda. This would be a great movie if it were just the two of them sitting in an interview room its entire length (viz. Closetland). But there is a plot to go along with it, and that a police procedural can be fresh and inventive in an age of endless Law and Order clones is impressive in itself. That screenwriter Carl Joos drops the biggest plot twist in such a way that you may not even notice how you've been fooled by this script through its entire length is just brilliant.

I'm not sure I can recommend this movie highly enough. If you haven't yet had the chance to see it, do so at your earliest convenience. **** ½

A Thriller Set in Belgium? Decleir is a Great Find.
Belgian films are quite rare and so it was for the novelity that I bought 'The Memory of a Killer.' That said I was not disapionted. The story starts with a disturbing scene as the Antwerp Police break a child prostitution racket. A scene in which the child's pimp is her own father. The film then moves on to a French hitman named Angelo Leda, being hired to carry out two murders in Antwerp, which it turns out is his home town. He carries out the first murder, of a corrupt town planner, with the expected professionalism.

His second victim is the thirteen year prostitute rescued earlier by the police. When he sees her and recognises that she is a child, he refuses to carry out the hit. His boss then tries to kill him. When he fails, Leda sets out to kill all those involved in the child prostitution racket.

He may be doing this because he knows he is starting to suffer from Altzemers and he is seeking to redress all the evil things he has done in his life or he may be angry that he has been asked to break his uinderworld code by murdering a child. In a telephone conversation with a Belgian Policeman he says he is killing off these people becasuse the Police cannot, which would tend to the first idea.

I am afraid the Altzemers theme does not really work, Leda may be losing his mind but that does not stop him remaining one step ahead of both the Police and the underworld. In reality an Altzemers victim would have fallen victim to the Police or the gangsters quite early. It would have been more realistic to have had him suffer fron cancer or some other illness.

Having said that this film is worth a couple of hours of your time and proof that Belgians can make a good gangster film. As a fan of the genre I hope they make more. All the actors are good and Jan Decleir is great as the hitman. I hope we see of him in the future and I would not complain if he was playing another Belgian gangster.