La Raison d'état (1978)
Directed by André Cayatte

Film Review

Director André Cayatte devoted much of his career to attacking injustices that were endemic in French society, not just deficiencies in the legal system (something that Cayatte knew a great deal about, being a former lawyer), but also more deep-seated failings in the wider social and political sphere.  In La Raison d'état Cayatte aims higher than he has ever done before, condemning France's morally dubious arms industry and the dodgy political manoeuvring that underpins it.  At the time, a series of high profile political scandals had shaken the French public's confidence in the establishment, so films such as this, so-called néo-polars, were enormously popular.  However sensational their plots were, they always contained more than a grain of truth.

La Raison d'état brazenly kicks the lid off one of the most scandalous aspects of government activity, namely flagrant behind-the-scenes involvement in the arms trade.  The film's title is the excuse employed by successive French governments to justify any despicable, morally indefensible act they wish to keep from the public - anything it seems can be justified in the 'interest of the state', even cold-blooded murder. The Kafkaesque nightmare that the film's heroine (a suitably neurotic Monica Vitti) is subjected to is all too believable, particularly as Jean Yanne is so convincing as the Satanic functionary whose job it is to protect the darkest of state secrets. 

Cayatte does allow his enthusiasm to run away with itself, to the detriment of the script which occasionally comes across as a didactic, anti-establishment rant.  The demarcation between good and evil is more clearly established than in many of Cayatte's other films, and consequently there is an unfortunate drift towards caricature.  As a result, the director somewhat undermines the force of his argument, but not to the extent of weakening his compelling narrative.  With an excellent cast to support him, Cayatte makes an effective assault on the double standards of governments that use a blinkered notion of national self-interest as a justification for all manner of immoral misconduct.  Forty years on, La Raison d'état is still scarily pertinent.  Governments may come and go, but the same skulduggery goes on forever...

Film Synopsis

Just as he is about to attend a conference in Italy, Professeur Marrot, a world-renowned biologist, comes across a compromising document.  A committed pacifist who has long militated against the arms trade, Marrot is delighted that the document contains incontrovertible evidence that France, in particular a senior civil servant named Jean-Philippe Leroi, was implicated in the deaths of 240 African children.  It appears that the plane which was transporting the children was shot down by missiles which had been illegally sold by the French government.  Before Marrot can attend a press conference to reveal his findings he is killed, his death made to look like a fatal road accident.  His Italian collaborator Angela Ravelli isn't fooled by this deception, but how long will it be before she suffers a similar fate at the hands of the French security services...?