Tuer un homme (2016 TV Movie)
8/10
Justice est faite?
10 August 2021
The spirit of André Cayatte ,a director too often unfairly dismissed by the highbrows, is still living on...

"Tuer un homme" broaches the subject of self-defence with a great sense of decency ; the now de rigueur brilliant lawyer takes a back seat to the tragedy of the accused person; and it avoids the main danger: to find the hero's case taken over par extremists ,the far right ;it's only hinted at ,with the rugby coach and the posters of an election near the supermarket.

"Tuer un homme" is pure psychological drama: where are the limits of self-defence? Why shoot twice? Do you react to fear ..or to a fit of anger? Although supported by the public opinion, the unfortunate hero ,a self-made man who struggles hard all his life to own his jeweller store ,who's been burglarized twice , is more and more bewildered :"They treat me like a criminal!" His robber was only 23, just a kid, agonies of remorse begin to spoil his life:a good citizen ,a good father and a good husband, he sees his wife (whose life he thought he had saved ,but a revelation calls everything into question) turn away from him ,his daughter and his son have their doubts .

The victim 's side is not passed over in silence : some people have put a makeshift memorial with photographs ,flowers and candles (the daughter's attitude has completely changed in the last sequence) ; one sees glimpses of the life of these underdogs in their HLM (public housing project/council housing estate)where one can hear a baby wail;and one comprehends the violence of the widow's words whose toddler " will never know his dad" .

Well acted ,particularly by both principals ;panoramic shots come back to show an apparently nice town in the south of France .

In one of his most famous classic ,"justice est faite" (1950) ,André Cayatte ended his film with a question mark ."Tuer un homme" ,although life goes one apparently peacefully, leaves us with many questions which remain unanswered.
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