Some skilled lawyer from Paris moves to a town in the countryside because he thinks life is going to be simpler and quieter.
Well, he clashes a little bit with the locals because he doesn't agree with their ignorant and petty ways. He also gets into problems with the local nobleman who uses his position and wealth to abuse the system. This is, of course, your everyday average innocent ethical lawyer dumped into a crooked world.
The main plot concerns him trying to defend the pig of some local gypsies which is brought to trial for supposedly killing someone. He also falls in lust with a girl of that band a la Frollo.
Great costumes, cinematography, and sets. It's a great picture for getting immersed in medieval France (as long as you excuse the fact that all the dialogue is in English).
As a legal drama it's a bit weak. Not many grandiloquent appeals to the jury or shocking secret witnesses (in fact there are two trials - one he loses and the other has such modest stakes that it's difficult to feel invested in it).
With regard to the law and legal system itself, anyone who's not a legal historian probably won't know precisely what's goin on at trial - the legal order is just too different from today's to understand it well by watching some trials in passing. However, we do get a gist of the nature of the judicial apparatus of the time - that it was mixed with religious law, rather illogical, cruel, and easily manipulated.
You'll be treated to a healthy dose of pointless nudity and sex, but also strong acting. I will also commend the defeatist nature of the resolutions to most issues. No, justice was almost assuredly not going to be found in medieval courts or society.
Whatever small victories or reversals the people of that era could hope to enjoy once they got themselves involved in a problem would be hollow either because they came at a huge price or ended up being insufficient to right the original wrong. It's almost always better to avoid having to get to the point of litigation in the first place.
Pretty much the same as today.
Honourable Mentions: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996). Despite the fact that all or most of the promotional material has the protagonist and white women (I'm sure they had a good reason for that... not), the main romance here is between the protagonist and a roma woman. It's reminiscent of the 1996 Disney classic where the plot centers around a "love prism" (for lack of a better term to love square) composed of three men and a gypsy woman.
Well, he clashes a little bit with the locals because he doesn't agree with their ignorant and petty ways. He also gets into problems with the local nobleman who uses his position and wealth to abuse the system. This is, of course, your everyday average innocent ethical lawyer dumped into a crooked world.
The main plot concerns him trying to defend the pig of some local gypsies which is brought to trial for supposedly killing someone. He also falls in lust with a girl of that band a la Frollo.
Great costumes, cinematography, and sets. It's a great picture for getting immersed in medieval France (as long as you excuse the fact that all the dialogue is in English).
As a legal drama it's a bit weak. Not many grandiloquent appeals to the jury or shocking secret witnesses (in fact there are two trials - one he loses and the other has such modest stakes that it's difficult to feel invested in it).
With regard to the law and legal system itself, anyone who's not a legal historian probably won't know precisely what's goin on at trial - the legal order is just too different from today's to understand it well by watching some trials in passing. However, we do get a gist of the nature of the judicial apparatus of the time - that it was mixed with religious law, rather illogical, cruel, and easily manipulated.
You'll be treated to a healthy dose of pointless nudity and sex, but also strong acting. I will also commend the defeatist nature of the resolutions to most issues. No, justice was almost assuredly not going to be found in medieval courts or society.
Whatever small victories or reversals the people of that era could hope to enjoy once they got themselves involved in a problem would be hollow either because they came at a huge price or ended up being insufficient to right the original wrong. It's almost always better to avoid having to get to the point of litigation in the first place.
Pretty much the same as today.
Honourable Mentions: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996). Despite the fact that all or most of the promotional material has the protagonist and white women (I'm sure they had a good reason for that... not), the main romance here is between the protagonist and a roma woman. It's reminiscent of the 1996 Disney classic where the plot centers around a "love prism" (for lack of a better term to love square) composed of three men and a gypsy woman.