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Le Jeu de la vérité
1961 Crime / Thriller
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Credits
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Director: Robert Hossein
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Script: Robert Chazal, Louis Martin, Steve Passeur, Jean Serge
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Photo: Christian Matras
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Music: André Hossein
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Cast: Robert Hossein (Inspector),
Françoise Prévost (Guylaine),
Paul Meurisse (Portrant),
Jean Servais (Jean-François Vérate),
Nadia Gray (Solange Vérate),
Tiny Yong (Girl),
Perrette Pradier (Florence),
Jeanne Valérie (Françoise Bribant),
Georges Rivière (Bertrand Falaise),
Jean-Louis Trintignant (Guy de Fleury),
Jacques Dacqmine (Guillaume Geder),
Marc Cassot (Etienne Bribant),
Daliah Lavi (Gisèle)
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Country: France
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Language: French
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Runtime: 80 min; B&W
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Aka: The Game of Truth
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Summary
One evening, a group of society friends gather to attend a party. Their host suggests
they play a game of confessions, in which each guest reveals some unknown truths about
him or herself. In the course of the increasingly heated verbal exchanges, a man
is murdered after having tried to blackmail his fellow guests. A police inspector
appears unexpectedly on the doorstep and immediately takes charge of the situation.
The game of truth has only just begun…
Review
This unusual French whodunit was directed by Robert Hossein, who, despite having made
over a dozen films, is better known as an actor (famously starring opposite Michèle
Mercier in the cult Angélique
films of the 1960s). Whilst the film is seductively stylish and strangely redolent
of some of the early films of the French New Wave, its languorous pace, overly theatrical
dialogue and static photography make it a somewhat luke-warm, lumbering affair, not the
slick sophisticated piece that it deserves to be. The absurdity of the plot does
give the film an odd, almost surreal edge, although the anti-Bourgeois messages that come
across are hardly original. What the film does offer is some compelling performances
from some of French cinema’s finest actors – notably Jean Servais, Paul Meurisse
and Jean-Louis Trintignant.
© James Travers 2005
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