Vinyan

{{Short description|2008 drama horror film}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2023}} {{Infobox film | image = Vinyan_poster.jpg | caption = Theatrical poster | director = Fabrice du Welz | producer = {{unbulleted list | Cédric Jimenez | Nadia Khamlichi | Adrian Politowski}} | writer = {{unbulleted list | Fabrice du Welz | Oliver Blackburn | David Greig}} | starring = {{unbulleted list | Emmanuelle Béart | Rufus Sewell | Julie Dreyfus}} | music = François-Eudes Chanfrault | cinematography = Benoît Debie | editing = Colin Monie | studio = The Film | distributor = Wild Bunch Distribution <small>(France)</small> | released = {{film date|df=yes|2008|8|30|Venice Film Festival}} | runtime = 96 minutes | country = {{unbulleted list | France | Belgium | United Kingdom | Australia}} | language = English }} '''''Vinyan''''' is a 2008 drama horror film directed and co-written by Fabrice du Welz and starring Emmanuelle Béart, Rufus Sewell, and Julie Dreyfus. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival on 30 August 2008.

==Plot== Jeanne and Paul are a wealthy couple who lost their son, Joshua, in the Boxing Day Christmas tsunami of 2004. Six months later, having stayed over in Thailand, they view a film at an orphanage fund-raiser made by Kimberly Park, just back from the Andaman Coast, of Moken and Salone natives in the South Tanintharyi division. A restricted area only accessible by boats through a triad of Thaksin Gao who has military ties that smuggles girls to bars in Myanmar. Jeanne sees a vague figure in the distance she believes to be Joshua. Discouraged by Jeanne's lead, Paul gives in to contacting the triad's leader Thaksin Gao and hiring one of his boats for an exorbitant 'one-time' fee. At first taken to a false decoy in the Mergui Archipelago where male orphans, the females not present, cast balloons at night to ward of the vinyan spirits, the French couple is further misled, as indicated by pointing on a map, to an uninhabited island south of Macleod Island (west of Zadetkale Island) where, their resources depleted, find themselves equally lost in a region of lost male orphans.

==Cast== * Emmanuelle Béart as Jeanne Bellmer * Rufus Sewell as Paul Bellmer * Petch Osathanugrah as Thaksin Gao * Julie Dreyfus as Kim

==Release== The film had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on 30 August 2008.<ref name="Corliss">{{cite magazine |last1=Corliss |first1=Richard |title=Vinyan |url=https://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1838333_1838342_1838328,00.html |access-date=9 July 2023 |magazine=Time |date=3 September 2008}}</ref> In North America, the film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on 5 September 2008.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Miska |first=Brad |date=2008-08-24 |title=TIFF '08: A Whopping 29 Images From 'Vinyan' |url=https://bloody-disgusting.com/news/13405/tiff-08-a-whopping-29-images-from-vinyan/ |access-date=2023-07-09 |website=Bloody Disgusting! |language=en-US}}</ref> It was released to DVD on 7 April 2009.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Vinyan |url=https://www.amazon.com/Vinyan-Julie-Dreyfus/dp/B001QMCJ28 |access-date=9 July 2023 |publisher=Amazon}}</ref>

== Reception == On Rotten Tomatoes, ''Vinyan'' has an aggregated score of 53% based on 19 reviews.<ref name="RT">{{cite web |title=Vinyan |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1208926-vinyan |website=Rotten Tomatoes |access-date=9 July 2023}}</ref>

David Jenkins of ''Time Out'' said the film is "a menacing pseudo-horror thriller with arty aspirations".<ref name="Jenkins">{{cite news |last1=Jenkins |first1=David |title=Vinyan |url=https://www.timeout.com/movies/vinyan |access-date=9 July 2023 |work=Time Out |date=29 September 2009}}</ref> He also gave praise to Béart, saying she "supplies a dose of credibility to a tale that not only gets less compelling and plausible as it goes on, but becomes side-tracked by odd musings on motherhood and death."<ref name="Jenkins" /> In contrast, Andrew Pulver of ''The Guardian'' wrote, "Du Welz never manages to generate enough menace – this is no ''Apocalypse Now'' – and the film never really solves the dubious plot anchor of westerners terrorised by anonymous Asiatics."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Pulver |first1=Andrew |title=Vinyan |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/oct/01/vinyan-review |access-date=9 July 2023 |work=The Guardian |date=1 October 2009}}</ref> Richard Corliss of ''Time'' heavily criticized the film, calling it "an affront to cinematic decency".<ref name="Corliss" />

==References== {{reflist}}

== External links == * {{IMDb title|1029241}} * {{Rotten Tomatoes|1208926_vinyan}} * [https://medias.unifrance.org/medias/117/164/42101/presse/vinyan-dossier-de-presse.pdf Press kit]

Category:2008 films Category:2008 English-language films Category:English-language French films Category:Films set in Thailand Category:2000s psychological drama films Category:2000s psychological horror films Category:2008 psychological thriller films Category:Films set in 2004 Category:2000s buddy drama films Category:Films set in Myanmar Category:2008 horror films Category:British buddy drama films Category:British drama films Category:French drama films Category:Australian drama films Category:Belgian drama films Category:Films directed by Fabrice Du Welz Category:2008 drama films Category:2008 British films Category:2008 French films Category:2008 Belgian films Category:English-language horror films Category:English-language thriller films Category:English-language buddy drama films Category:Umedia films