Vicky Krieps steps into the frame and everything tightens. The new trailer for Viggo Mortensen’s western The Dead Don’t Hurt leans on her gaze, her silences, and a love story torn by war. It lands like a promise: more feeling than noise, more character than gunfire.
Here is the context right away. The film premiered at Toronto International Film Festival in 2023, then rolled into release in the United States on 31 May 2024. Written, directed, and scored by Viggo Mortensen, it pairs Mortensen with Vicky Krieps as Vivienne Le Coudy, a woman holding her ground in a frontier town while the man she loves goes to fight. The trailer brings her front and center.
Bande-annonce Vicky Krieps : what the trailer reveals without ruining the story
The cut favors tension over spectacle. You feel distance, letters, and time stretching, then the town’s moral rot creeping in. No full plot dump, just snapshots that resemble memory. That restraint already fits Krieps’ style since Phantom Thread in 2017, a film that earned 6 Academy Award nominations and introduced many viewers to her quiet steel.
The voice of the film stays intimate. Shots fold around Krieps’ character rather than the landscape, which signals a western built on interior stakes. Viewers who fear spoilers get relief here. The edit hints at a reckoning, a choice, and a return, but holds back the outcome.
There is a pulse too. The music – Mortensen composed it – rides low, strings and space, giving the images a heartbeat that never shouts. It’s the sort of tonal control that made Corsage such a jolt. At Cannes 2022, Krieps received the Un Certain Regard Best Performance Prize for that film, and the trailer seems to chase a similar electricity.
Cast, dates, and the festival trail: the essentials behind the footage
Facts first. The Dead Don’t Hurt is Viggo Mortensen’s second feature as director after Falling in 2020. It world premiered at TIFF 2023, extended its festival life through late 2023, and hit U.S. theaters on 31 May 2024. The trailer now circulating condenses that pedigree into two potent minutes.
On screen, Vicky Krieps plays Vivienne Le Coudy. Viggo Mortensen appears opposite her as Holger Olsen. The supporting cast includes a town boss and his enforcers – faces you may recognize – but the cut keeps them secondary to Vivienne’s arc. That choice signals where the film puts its weight: on agency, not just frontier mythology.
Krieps’ recent run backs up the buzz. Phantom Thread arrived in 2017 and shifted her trajectory. Corsage shook up 2022 with that Cannes prize. Between them: steady, risk-taking parts across Europe and the U.S. The trailer taps this history and sells the role as another step rather than a pivot.
Why viewers care: performance, themes, and where to catch the trailer
Many trailers tell you what to think. This one asks you to lean in. The images frame work, waiting, and a community turning its head at injustice. That everyday violence, shown sparingly, feels closer to the thruth of the time than a barroom shootout. It’s also where Krieps excels – the micro-gesture that flips a scene.
Common trap with prestige westerns: lush vistas, thin characters. The footage resists that. When the camera lingers on Krieps, the story moves with her, not around her. You see how a choice costs something. That is persuasive marketing because it suggests depth you can actually watch unfold.
Looking for the practical side. The official trailer is available on studio and distributor channels tied to the May 2024 U.S. release, as well as the TIFF 2023 pages that logged the premiere. For anyone exploring Krieps’ range before hitting theaters or VOD, pairing this trailer with Phantom Thread (2017) and Corsage – which brought her the Cannes 2022 Un Certain Regard performance award – offers a fast, revealing pathway.