Review by norbert-plan-618-715813

Dominik Moll's talent is no longer to be demonstrated. Only The Animals (2019) was an impressive film with its dramatic structure and rich story. Here with The Night Of The 12th, the dramatic line of the film is more direct, traditional. With a femicide, the investigation, the suspects, the cops and their problems. The film is embodied by its characters, that is to say by its actors who give the required forms, first of all, to the policemen with Bastien Bouillon all in power, Bouli Lanners rather in nominal mode (he makes the same character in many films), but also and especially the complementary actresses, all of them characters who exist and bring a lot of emotions in a natural way. This natural way gives a documentary patina to the film, which we imagine well documented.

The tone of the film, all in objective description of the reality and emphasizing the human nature, is what makes the film exciting in spite of its subject, dark, just like the photography of the film. In particular this photography is dark and grainy. It embodies the climate, the darkness, the horrific fact, and the dark story, especially in the content of the end and the frantic search for the culprit very difficult to identify.

The crime film is dramatic, as is this story when we learn how this story ends. Moreover, one of the challenges of the film is to revive it with the character of the judge played by Anouk Grinberg. A character that did not exist before in the film, but that makes it even more hypnotic.