This film takes its audience back to the 70s and the political struggles that took place in the aftermath of the 1968's revolution in France.
As a young man accused of a double murder and numerous hold-ups, Pierre Goldman is depicted as a terrorist, radicalised by his communists parents (jews from Poland who left the pogroms back in the 20's) and by the people he met "along the way" in Poland, Cuba and Venezuela. As stubborn as impulsive, he seems to hold a grudge against the whole world, the cops and the heirs of aristocracy above all.
Will this be a enough to declare this man guilty of a murder ?
Will the French society of the seventies will decide to bury the values of the revolution of 1968 with this trial ?
Is he the scapegoat that everyone was expecting to blame the 68 revolution or a dangerous murderer ?
The fantastic adaptation of this trial will give some anwers for sure on that matter.
Beyond the suspense concerning the character, this film is to me a fantastic depiction of the French society of the 70's with the opposition betweeen conservatism ( those who clearly lean right and who are represented by DeGaule's supporters very keen to defend patriarchy and old bourgeois way of life) and some revolutionary's aspirations of the lefties (inspired by French intellectuals like Simone DeBeauvoir or other communists's supporters also present in the court).
Tensions, and moral values will pull their weight in this trial . The main character interpreted by Arieh Worthalter who definitely deserves an award for his performance (he finally got the Cesar) as well as the other actors (the lawyers, the witnesses, attorneys and prosecutor) are just perfect in the way they express themselves, in the tension and the moral stake they put in the middle of the room. The whole trial looks perfectly genuine and it's highly interesting to see what was at stake morally speaking back in those days.
In Europe, the 1970's are years of rebellion, violences and massive opposition between liberalism and communism. It is this struggle of ideas that is portrayed in this film.
A fantastic adaptation and reproduction of a trial that most of us have forgotten but that could have changed France for good.
