Michel Racine is notorious in his place of work as a strict judge who on principle hands out sentences of a minimum of ten years. His colleagues dislike him and he fails to win anyone’s affection in his private life. One day, however, one of the female jurors in the trial of a man accused of murder conjures up the past and awakens in him emotions of which he was unaware.
Michel Racine is a formidable judge, known for his harsh verdicts: his minimum sentence is always at least ten years. He is unpopular with his colleagues and there are various rumours about him going around, but Racine ignores it all. Indifferent to everything in his midst, he enters the courtroom in judicial robes lined with ermine, the very essence of the unshakable executor of justice. Until, one day, during the trial of a man accused of murder, he recognises one of the female jurors. He had encountered her six years previously when she treated him at a hospital in a neighbouring town. Recently divorced and suffering from loneliness, he now wants to be noticed by the dark-haired Danish doctor with blue eyes whom he lacked the courage to love back then. From this point on his perception of everything going on around him gradually starts to change, including his perspective on the court case. Although the film is set primarily in a courtroom, this is not a tale of the judicial system and its accompanying rituals, but a portrait of a man who discovers unsuspected qualities within himself that he had hitherto suppressed.
Eva Zaoralová (2012)
98 min / Color, DCP
Director Christian Vincent
/ Screenplay Christian Vincent
/ Dir. of Photography Laurent Dailland
/ Music Claire Denamur
/ Editor Yves Deschamps
/ Art Director Patrick Durand
/ Producer Matthieu Tarot
/ Production Albertine Productions
/ Coproduction Gaumont, Cinéfrance 1888, France 2 Cinema
/ Cast Fabrice Luchini, Sidse Babett Knudsen
/ Sales Gaumont
Christian Vincent (b. 1955, Paris) graduated from the prestigious IDHEC film school. He began as a director of short features with Best To Say Nothing (Il ne faut jurer de rien, 1983) and Classique (1985), and in 1987 he shot the short documentary The Accursed Share (La part maudite). His first feature The Discreet (La discrète, 1990), featuring Fabrice Luchini, won three César awards in 1991. He also turned up trumps with Set Fare (Beau fixe, 1992), The Separation (La séparation, 1994), What’s So Funny about Me? (Je ne vois pas ce qu’on me trouve, 1997), Save Me (Sauve-moi, 2000), The Children (Les enfants, 2005), Four Stars (Quatre étoiles, 2006 – screened in the Horizons section at KVIFF 2006), and Haute Cuisine (Les saveurs du palais, 2012). He generally writes the screenplays for his films.
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