Film Review
Bertrand Tavernier followed up one highly respectable period film (
Que la fête commence...)
with another, this time recounting the true story of a 19th century
serial killer who is as notorious in France as Jack the Ripper is in
England. Tavernier uses the story of Joseph Vacher (renamed
Joseph Bouvier in the film) to show up the hypocrisies that were rife
in the political and judicial classes of the 19th century, evidenced by
the famous Dreyfus affair, which is frequently alluded to in the
film. The title,
Le Juge et
l'assassin, is intentionally ambiguous, and could easily refer
to the dual nature of the main protagonist Rousseau, who is shown to be
both a judge and killer - note how the roles of Rousseau and his prey,
Bouvier, are suddenly inverted at the end of the film. This was
the first of Tavernier's films to have an overtly political slant,
demonstrating the director's deep-seated mistrust of institutions,
specifically those standard bearers of authority who use their position for
their own personal gain.
Once again, Tavernier engages the service of Jean Aurenche and Pierre
Bost, the celebrated screenwriting team whose credits date back to the
1940s and include such classics as Claude Autant-Lara's
L'Auberge
rouge (1951) and René Clément's
Jeux
interdits (1952).
Le
Juge et l'assassin was Aurenche and Bost's final collaboration -
Bost died a few months before the film was released. Their
well-honed screenplay bristles with the dark humour for which the duo
are renowned and took the Best Screenplay award at the second
Césars ceremony in 1977. The film also won the Best Actor
César for Michel Galabru and was nominated in four other
categories, including Best Film and Best Director.
In common with most of Bertrand Tavernier's films,
Le Juge et l'assassin is beautifully
photographed and has a very
distinguished cast. Here the cast includes not only established stars such as
Philippe Noiret and Jean-Claude Brialy, but also newcomer Isabelle
Huppert and veteran performer Renée Faure, an actress of stage
and screen who was at her height in the 1940s and 50s. The most
inspired piece of casting was Michel Galabru for the part of the serial
killer Bouvier. At the time, Galabru was better known in France
as a comedic actor, most famous for playing the long-suffering Adjutant
Gerber opposite Louis de Funès's Cruchot in the hugely popular
Gendarme films. In
Le Juge et l'assassin, Galabru
showed that he was also a very capable character actor, and his
portrayal of Bouvier is one of surprising depth and complexity,
sometimes sympathetic, sometimes deeply disturbing. We can never
be sure whether the serial killer is totally insane or is in full
possession of his faculties.
The troubling ambiguity of Galabru's Bouvier is perfectly reflected in
Philippe Noiret's Judge Rousseau, and it is not too hard to see that
the two characters are, to a degree, mirror images of one
another. Both seem to be cynical opportunists who intend to play
on public sympathy for their own advantage. Bouvier's claims to
be a modern Joan of Arc, an anarchist sent by God to wake up French
society, are no less contemptible than Rousseau's attempts to
manipulate the killer and others for his own ends. Noiret was
Tavernier's favourite actor - he appeared in nine of his films, often
cast as a morally ambiguous authority figure, the role that he played
best. Some of Noiret's most memorable scenes in
Le Juge et l'assassin are those in
which he plays alongside Isabelle Huppert, who was soon to become one
of the most sought after actresses in French cinema. Noiret and
Huppert would appear together in Tavernier's later film,
Coup
de torchon (1981), another darkly comedic portrait of the
abuse of power.
© James Travers 2012
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Next Bertrand Tavernier film:
La Mort en direct (1980)
Film Synopsis
France, 1893. When the young woman he is infatuated with rejects
him, Joseph Bouvier, a sergeant in the French army, shoots her and then
turns the gun on himself. Miraculously, both Bouvier and his
victim survive, and the former ends up in a state asylum. Not
long afterwards, Bouvier is released from the hospital and begins
wandering the countryside. Over the course of the next five
years, he rapes and murders around twenty rural teenagers, mostly young
shepherds. Aware that the arrest and conviction of the killer
will earn him considerable prestige and allow him to advance his
career, Judge Rousseau takes charge of the case. Bouvier
incriminates himself by revealing that he visited all of the sites of
the murders but he quickly realises that he may evade execution if he
can convince the authorities he is insane. Rousseau knows that
such an outcome will prove disastrous for his own ambitions and so he
tricks Bouvier into confessing to his crimes, promising that no harm
will befall him...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.