The story, set in the 1890s, is about investigating judge Rousseau (played by Philippe Noiret) who is determined to obtain a confession from a drifter named Bouvier who has raped and killed two dozen children in the countryside of France. The character Bouvier is closely based upon real-life French serial killer Joseph Vacher (vacher and bouvier both mean herdsman in French). Most French films depict the investigating judge as independent and ethical, but this film depicts an overly ambitious judge who believes that it will help his career if he can get Bouvier to confess to the crimes and have him punished by execution.
Bouvier is clearly mad, but if he is declared insane, he will not be executed, and Rousseau will not get the recognition he seeks. To deal with the question of whether Bouvier is insane, Rousseau selects the doctor who will examine him, which is the prerogative of the investigating judge in France. Rousseau is with his mother and his attorney friend Villedieu when he receives the doctor's report that Bouvier is sane. Rousseau is ecstatic, but Villedieu cynically remarks: "The servility of the medical corps never fails to astonish me. Sometimes it's embarrassing."
When Rousseau's bed-ridden mother scolds him for neglecting his duty to take the statements of witnesses, Rousseau responds: "What is more idiotic than a witness? I wouldn't believe them anyway. I want him to confess." Rousseau's first breakthrough comes when he tricks the mad-yet-clever Bouvier into describing on a wall map his route through France. With a piece of chalk, Bouvier traces his route from north to south, passing through the very places where the rapes and murders took place. Rousseau confronts him, and Bouvier promises to write a confession, which he eventually does.
Although not depicted in the film, the real-life murderer, Vacher, was found to be sane by the criminal court (cour d'assises) of Ain, and he was sentenced to death. The real-life Vacher was executed by guillotine on December 31, 1898.
12 Reviews
interesting and brooding account of a heinous killer and his obstinate pursuer
ma-cortes22 May 2021
Intriguing courtroom drama based on true events , dealing with a nasty murderer called Bouvier : Michel Galabru , based on an actual series killer , proceeding a criminal spree throughout France and a prejudiced judge : Philippe Noiret who has his values challenged when he has to decide if the supect person is insane or no . And eventually, considering if it benefits or harms his career .
A suspenseful, thrilling and surprising movie with historical background during Dreyfuss affaire , and the publication of Emilio Zola's J'accuse....!. A good as well as provoking flick, including drama , thrills , violence and competent performances .The peculiar relationship that develops between the murderer and the judge in the movie's focus . It results to be a nice movie shot in French with English subtitles . Duo of protagonists , Michel Galabru and Philippe Noiriet, are frankly magnificent. They are well accompanied by a fine support cast , such as : Isabelle Huppert as judge's sweetheart , Renee Faure as possessive mother , Yves Robert and Jean Claude Brialy as Procureur.
It displays evocative and shining cinematograhy by Perre William Glenn , showing splendidly the French outdoors . As well as sensitive and moving musical score by Philippe Sarde . The motion picture was compellingly directed by Bertrand Tavernier . Bernard is deemed to be one of the best French fimmakers , writing and directing thought-provoking and interesting pictures , outstanding the following ones : "Captain Conan", "Revenge of the Musketeers" , "L627" , "Daddy Nostalgia", "Life and nothing but" , "Beatrice" , "Round Midnight", "A Sunday in the Country" , "Coup de Torchon" , Spoiled Children", "Death Watch" , "The Clockmaker" , among others . Rating : 7/10 . Better than average.
A suspenseful, thrilling and surprising movie with historical background during Dreyfuss affaire , and the publication of Emilio Zola's J'accuse....!. A good as well as provoking flick, including drama , thrills , violence and competent performances .The peculiar relationship that develops between the murderer and the judge in the movie's focus . It results to be a nice movie shot in French with English subtitles . Duo of protagonists , Michel Galabru and Philippe Noiriet, are frankly magnificent. They are well accompanied by a fine support cast , such as : Isabelle Huppert as judge's sweetheart , Renee Faure as possessive mother , Yves Robert and Jean Claude Brialy as Procureur.
It displays evocative and shining cinematograhy by Perre William Glenn , showing splendidly the French outdoors . As well as sensitive and moving musical score by Philippe Sarde . The motion picture was compellingly directed by Bertrand Tavernier . Bernard is deemed to be one of the best French fimmakers , writing and directing thought-provoking and interesting pictures , outstanding the following ones : "Captain Conan", "Revenge of the Musketeers" , "L627" , "Daddy Nostalgia", "Life and nothing but" , "Beatrice" , "Round Midnight", "A Sunday in the Country" , "Coup de Torchon" , Spoiled Children", "Death Watch" , "The Clockmaker" , among others . Rating : 7/10 . Better than average.
Less about the "assassin" and more about real life judges and other rich individuals who "judge" others
JuguAbraham7 October 2021
A very cursory appraisal of the film would term it as a tale of a true murderer and rapist who killed, raped and sodomized over a dozen shepherd women in rural France before being captured and guillotined. The film is much more than that. The film is more about the respected, educated judges of France who sit in judgement of the evils of less privileged evil-doers, while they are more evil in their actions and scoff at the writings of Emile Zola, that strikes a chord with the average French citizens. One judge is called "Judas" by prisoner who has been tricked, another commits suicide as he reflects on his own past actions that mirror the actions of another. Religion plays a major but discrete role--free lunches for the poor and illiterate are free only if petitions that serve the rich are signed. A judge helps a sibling of an Asian he has condemned to death by ensuring the sibling becomes a Christian and serves him for the rest of his life. Anti-Jewish posters are pasted on outer church walls. Social comments include unwritten restrictions of a Frenchwoman being allowed to marry an Asian. A judge's mother of higher classes, providing cherries in brandy to a lower-class worker but not readily approving her to be the daughter-in-law marked by a silent disapproval when she is brought home. A judge avoids visiting his girlfriend's daughter in hospital but brings flowers for the sick person. The film is less about the "assassin" and more about real life judges and other rich individuals who "judge" the less privileged.
The film is top-notch French cinema, with notable direction and casting, a superb screenplay, good cinematography and fine performances. Tavernier and Noiret made a great team, ever since Tavernier's debut film "The Clockworker of St Paul." It is a pity that this work of Tavernier is rarely discussed and appreciated.
The film is top-notch French cinema, with notable direction and casting, a superb screenplay, good cinematography and fine performances. Tavernier and Noiret made a great team, ever since Tavernier's debut film "The Clockworker of St Paul." It is a pity that this work of Tavernier is rarely discussed and appreciated.
A film I have always wanted to see
theowinthrop28 November 2005
I can't make a real judgment on this film, although the other reviews are rave ones. I just want to add that the story is based on an actual case of the 1890s in France. Joseph Vacher was the real life murderer who is the basis for Michel Galabrue's Joseph Bouvier. Like Vacher he was a former soldier, and he went about the countryside slaughtering young boy shepherds and young girl servants. His destruction of these victims (in terms of mutilations) rivaled his contemporary Jack the Ripper (Vacher was known as Vacher the Ripper). Although he was quite insane the public demanded a death penalty - he was guillotined in 1898. His crimes briefly took public attention off the matter of Captain Alfred Dreyfus.
The Philippe Noiret character is partly based on the noted criminologist Professor Alexander Lacassagne, who (despite considerable evidence of insanity) determined that Vacher was sane, and deserved the death penalty.
The Philippe Noiret character is partly based on the noted criminologist Professor Alexander Lacassagne, who (despite considerable evidence of insanity) determined that Vacher was sane, and deserved the death penalty.
a serial killer story in the time of Dreyfuss
dromasca9 August 2023
Director Bertrand Tavernier and actor Philippe Noiret collaborated in 9 films. The 1976 'Le juge et l'assassin' is the third film they made together and is a remarkable film in many ways. The story takes place in the last decade of the 19th century, in a France that is still living through the trauma of the Paris Commune and the defeat in the Franco-Prussian war, a country deeply divided by the Dreyfuss case, crushed by social inequalities that gave impetus to the socialist movement but also encouraged anarchist groups and terrorist attacks. Against this background, Bertrand Tavernier together with Pierre Bost and Jean Aurenche wrote the screenplay of a film describing the case of a serial killer, a kind of French Jack the Ripper, focusing on the characters of the criminal and of the judge who does everything to catch and condemn him.
Sergeant Joseph Bouvier is a veteran of the wars of France. He loves a young woman who rejects him, and in desperation he decides to kill her and commit suicide. Neither the assassination nor the suicide succeed, he is declared irresponsible, but after a few years the doctors consider him cured and release him. Adopting a vagabond life, prey to chronic physical and mental suffering and a morbid mysticism, he crosses France from North to South, killing and raping 12 victims on his way, most of them children or teenagers. Judge Emile Rousseau leads a typical bourgeois life in a provincial town, with a possessive mother and a mistress of lower social status. The Bouvier case gives him an opportunity to stand out, but to do so he must secure a conviction, prevent the serial killer from being declared insane, and turn him into a symbol of all that is rotten in France. Sort of a serial killer Dreyfuss. The confrontation between the two is not just a meeting between an accuser and a criminal. Rousseau has on his side not only the intelligence and cunning that will enable him to win Bouvier's confidence, but also a whole legal and political machine at the service of a social class that fears the changes that will sooner or later take place . In the end it is a confrontation between two faces of France, both corrupt and destructive.
Philippe Noiret is, of course, formidable as always. The role of the cunning, ariviste and morally corrupt judge suits him perfectly. The most remarkable acting performance, however, belongs to Michel Galabru, an actor who until then had only made himself known on screens in comic roles (among them a gendarme from Louis de Funès' troupe in Saint-Tropez). The role of Bouvier allows Galabru to create a complex character, in which madness mixes with passion, mystical fervor with intellectual poetry. The cast also features Isabelle Huppert, who at 23, in the secondary role of Rose, the judge's mistress, was beautiful and already master of that mysterious expression that would mark her great roles to come. Bertrand Tavernier has always known how to collaborate with classy professionals. Pierre-William Glenn's cinematography is impressive, especially in the nature scenes. Philippe Sarde's music plays a very important role. There are several sung scenes in the film - by an officer declaiming a patriotic song about lost Alsace and Lorraine, by a troubadour singing a ballad to the murderer-turned-folk-hero, by working women demonstrating for their rights in the final scene. These, together with the very carefully designed sets and costumes, make 'Le juge et l'assassin' an extremely expressive film in rendering the atmosphere of the era. The biggest problem with the script is the overly obvious rhetoric, which doesn't want to leave any doubt about the political views of the screenwriters and of the director. I didn't think that was necessary. The story itself is quite strong and speaks for itself, and the level of acting plus the Noiret - Galabru duel are expressive enough without being explicit. Bertrand Tavernier could have let the cinema art that he mastered so well tell the whole story. It would have been sufficient.
Sergeant Joseph Bouvier is a veteran of the wars of France. He loves a young woman who rejects him, and in desperation he decides to kill her and commit suicide. Neither the assassination nor the suicide succeed, he is declared irresponsible, but after a few years the doctors consider him cured and release him. Adopting a vagabond life, prey to chronic physical and mental suffering and a morbid mysticism, he crosses France from North to South, killing and raping 12 victims on his way, most of them children or teenagers. Judge Emile Rousseau leads a typical bourgeois life in a provincial town, with a possessive mother and a mistress of lower social status. The Bouvier case gives him an opportunity to stand out, but to do so he must secure a conviction, prevent the serial killer from being declared insane, and turn him into a symbol of all that is rotten in France. Sort of a serial killer Dreyfuss. The confrontation between the two is not just a meeting between an accuser and a criminal. Rousseau has on his side not only the intelligence and cunning that will enable him to win Bouvier's confidence, but also a whole legal and political machine at the service of a social class that fears the changes that will sooner or later take place . In the end it is a confrontation between two faces of France, both corrupt and destructive.
Philippe Noiret is, of course, formidable as always. The role of the cunning, ariviste and morally corrupt judge suits him perfectly. The most remarkable acting performance, however, belongs to Michel Galabru, an actor who until then had only made himself known on screens in comic roles (among them a gendarme from Louis de Funès' troupe in Saint-Tropez). The role of Bouvier allows Galabru to create a complex character, in which madness mixes with passion, mystical fervor with intellectual poetry. The cast also features Isabelle Huppert, who at 23, in the secondary role of Rose, the judge's mistress, was beautiful and already master of that mysterious expression that would mark her great roles to come. Bertrand Tavernier has always known how to collaborate with classy professionals. Pierre-William Glenn's cinematography is impressive, especially in the nature scenes. Philippe Sarde's music plays a very important role. There are several sung scenes in the film - by an officer declaiming a patriotic song about lost Alsace and Lorraine, by a troubadour singing a ballad to the murderer-turned-folk-hero, by working women demonstrating for their rights in the final scene. These, together with the very carefully designed sets and costumes, make 'Le juge et l'assassin' an extremely expressive film in rendering the atmosphere of the era. The biggest problem with the script is the overly obvious rhetoric, which doesn't want to leave any doubt about the political views of the screenwriters and of the director. I didn't think that was necessary. The story itself is quite strong and speaks for itself, and the level of acting plus the Noiret - Galabru duel are expressive enough without being explicit. Bertrand Tavernier could have let the cinema art that he mastered so well tell the whole story. It would have been sufficient.
Then came Tavernier!
dbdumonteil10 March 2005
And with him,the French cinema regained all that it had lost with the nouvelle vague:magnificent cinematography(I urge everybody to see this film in a movie theater),elaborate screenplays,Clouzot's Renoir's and Duvivier's bite ,all that made once the French cinema great."Le juge et l'assassin " is his sophomore effort ,after "l'horloger de Saint- Paul",but it was one which firmly and finally placed Tavernier among the greatest,most ambitious artists of the French cinema.
First of all,he did with Michel Galabru -who used to play in mediocre comedies - what Claude Chabrol did with Jean Yanne ("le boucher" "que la bete meure") :this actor is playing his lifetime part,revealing a talent which one would never expect from him.
France,end of the nineteenth century;anti-Semitism is rampant :twice ,a poster appears :"La croix (the cross): a paper against the Jews as no one can";Brialy's character:"we all need an outlet for our bad deeds:I have chosen the Jews,because it's safe";Renée Faure,the judge's good mother,serving the "mercy bouillon" to the Poor,provided that they sign a petition against captain Dreyfus .After the 1870 war,France was humiliated and the song a buck officer sings speaks volumes about the loss of Alsace and Lorraine.A world which Zola -whose books were burned- depicted ,where 2,500 children died in the coal mines... The killer killed 12 of them..
This is not a serial killer who comes out of the blue.Tavernier takes time to describe his mind :he was bitten by a rabid dog (or more like as one scene in a church tells us ,he was raped by a priest),he served in the army but was discharged,and mainly the girl he loved did not want him anymore.He tried to kill her and to take his own life but he failed twice,and in the asylum,they wrecked his brain.Although he is a killer,he is actually a political prisoner:he realized that as far his crimes were concerned ,the blame had to be put on a criminal society:in a remarkable scene ,the judge's mother reads the reports concerning the awful crimes as if she 's reading the tittle-tattle of the town.The serial killer identifies himself with Jesus and Joan of Arc ...
In direct contrast to hîm,we have the judge :admirably portrayed by Tavernier's favourite actor ,Philippe Noiret,he epitomizes the bourgeoisie,the man who wants to keep the world as it is;this is a very complex opaque character:nearing 50,he stills lives with his mother,and he's got nasty habits (see the scene when he buggers Isabelle Huppert).
There are a lot of things to say about "le juge et l'assassin":the film successfully recreates the atmosphere of the period,not only by its hints at Dreyfus,at a country which is bent on revenge ,at a Church which feels its power slip away (the priest thundering against "school without God" ,about 10 years after Jules Ferry instituted secular education,and about 10 years before the separation of the Church and the State in France).But it even recreates it with its original songs ,which is quite a feat.We really feel we are in the time machine,and that's the main reason why Tavernier's movie is so precious:no one can find echoes of the seventies in France,which would have dated and marred the film.Even if the socialists appear at the end of the movie,there's no connection with their impending coming in the eighties.
A masterpiece ,Tavernier's best film along with "la vie et rien d'autre".
First of all,he did with Michel Galabru -who used to play in mediocre comedies - what Claude Chabrol did with Jean Yanne ("le boucher" "que la bete meure") :this actor is playing his lifetime part,revealing a talent which one would never expect from him.
France,end of the nineteenth century;anti-Semitism is rampant :twice ,a poster appears :"La croix (the cross): a paper against the Jews as no one can";Brialy's character:"we all need an outlet for our bad deeds:I have chosen the Jews,because it's safe";Renée Faure,the judge's good mother,serving the "mercy bouillon" to the Poor,provided that they sign a petition against captain Dreyfus .After the 1870 war,France was humiliated and the song a buck officer sings speaks volumes about the loss of Alsace and Lorraine.A world which Zola -whose books were burned- depicted ,where 2,500 children died in the coal mines... The killer killed 12 of them..
This is not a serial killer who comes out of the blue.Tavernier takes time to describe his mind :he was bitten by a rabid dog (or more like as one scene in a church tells us ,he was raped by a priest),he served in the army but was discharged,and mainly the girl he loved did not want him anymore.He tried to kill her and to take his own life but he failed twice,and in the asylum,they wrecked his brain.Although he is a killer,he is actually a political prisoner:he realized that as far his crimes were concerned ,the blame had to be put on a criminal society:in a remarkable scene ,the judge's mother reads the reports concerning the awful crimes as if she 's reading the tittle-tattle of the town.The serial killer identifies himself with Jesus and Joan of Arc ...
In direct contrast to hîm,we have the judge :admirably portrayed by Tavernier's favourite actor ,Philippe Noiret,he epitomizes the bourgeoisie,the man who wants to keep the world as it is;this is a very complex opaque character:nearing 50,he stills lives with his mother,and he's got nasty habits (see the scene when he buggers Isabelle Huppert).
There are a lot of things to say about "le juge et l'assassin":the film successfully recreates the atmosphere of the period,not only by its hints at Dreyfus,at a country which is bent on revenge ,at a Church which feels its power slip away (the priest thundering against "school without God" ,about 10 years after Jules Ferry instituted secular education,and about 10 years before the separation of the Church and the State in France).But it even recreates it with its original songs ,which is quite a feat.We really feel we are in the time machine,and that's the main reason why Tavernier's movie is so precious:no one can find echoes of the seventies in France,which would have dated and marred the film.Even if the socialists appear at the end of the movie,there's no connection with their impending coming in the eighties.
A masterpiece ,Tavernier's best film along with "la vie et rien d'autre".
In the right hands, it could have been Noiret's film ...
Cristi_Ciopron7 July 2008
Warning: Spoilers
The leads are both very goodNoiret being perhaps the best of the two
--yet without having much stuff to play. The two central characters are poorly written, with not much intrinsic interest. I expectedI must confessa thrilling hunt gamea wild hunt, in an ever accelerating pace; a savage confrontation of energiesor, at least, a game of subtlety, intelligence, wit and cunning. Yet, the film is but a police procedural, too well performed by Noiret and Galabru; the truth is that this crap director did not deserve such actors. The characters remain unexplained, unexplored and indifferent to the viewer, despite the prodigious art of Galabru and Noiret. While Noiret elegantly, impassibly exercised his mastery, Galabru looked very willing to invest, to create, to find his character's life
.The director is inept, the script is crap. THE JUDGE AND THE ASSASSIN has nor the excitement of a largerthanlife manhunt ,neither that of an abundant deploy of intelligence, shrewdness, intuition, psychology. The whole movie is wrongwrong from the concept. It amounts to no more than a police procedural, without excitement, atmosphere or suspense. It also ends on a dignified crap note of social vindication. The viewer has the feeling, the perception that everything in this movie was irrelevant, insipid. No excitement, of whatever kind; no life, that is,in it,and no valid creation. Only a pretentious leftist police procedural. The actors are firsthand, Noiret reopens the drawer with ambiguous, eerie characters (his character here is not without reminding the one in LA GRANDE BOUFFE);yet the movie does not find its tonethat is, the director does not find the film's tone.
Histoire de la Francais dans affaire Dreyfus par despotisme
raskimono28 February 2008
The judge and the assassin is a strange and ironic title for this film. It does not represent what your mind immediately leads you to believe. It is about the arrest and trial of a psychopath, alas French auteur style. It bears in odd-about way a resemblance to Lacombe Lucien which was released two years earlier. Featuring a bravura performance by Michel Galabru ( he worn the Cesar, the French Oscar) as the serial killer, his trial becomes a study into the mind and evil of nation at the turn of the last century. Dealing with anti-semitism, civil unrest, disobedience and the tyranny of the France and the Church can make anyone crazy and an assassin. With strong performances by Tavernier favorite actor Philippe Noiret and a young Isabelle Huppert, it is a fine film in the tradition of French cinema prior to the advent of the New Wave.
Justice is not interested in a madman.
brogmiller5 December 2022
This stupendous film by Bertrand Tavernier is set against the background of the Dreyfus Affair and the workers' struggles which led to the formation of the Confédération Générale du Travail. Under the spotlight here is the abuse of power by institutions and the inequalities of the justice system.
The two leading protagonists are serial rapist and murderer Joseph Bouvier, based upon real life Joseph Vacher and played to the hilt by Michel Calabru whilst judge Fourquet has here become the unscrupulous Rousseau and is personified by the immaculate Philippe Noiret. His character is not, as an earlier reviewer has suggested, based upon forensic doctor Etienne Lacassagne who is here named Degueldre and is played by Yves Robert.
Bouvier and Rousseau could be said to represent both sides of the same coin. Bouvier is undeniably a monster but is clearly insane(or is he?) whilst Rousseau is in full possession of his faculties and is determined to have Bouvier guillotined in order to further his own ambition, even to the point of cleverly gaining Bouvier's trust so as to extract a full confession.
Ambiguity reigns supreme here and who better to play Rousseau than Noiret whose working relationship with Tavernier, numbering nine films, is a marriage made in heaven. Tavernier not only gifted Noiret challenging roles but wisely gave him free rein in performance. It is understandably Michel Calabru's tour de force as Bouvier that earned him a well-deserved César. His is inspired casting for he was mainly known for his appearances in the popular 'Gendarme' series and there was nothing in his cinematic CV that would suggest he was capable of a performance of this magnitude. His tenure throughout the 1950's with the Comédie Francaise undoubtedly stood him in good stead for this demanding role.
Marvellous support from Jean-Claude Brialy, veteran Renée Faure and moving up the ranks, the twenty-one year old Isabelle Huppert who would again work with Tavernier and Noiret in 'Coup de Torchon' and is here just one year away from her iconic role as 'La Dentelliere'.
We owe Tavernier a debt of thanks for having brought legendary writing duo Jean Aurenche and Pierre Bost in from the cold and as one would expect from exponents of 'cinéma de qualité', their script is beautifully crafted, intelligent and trenchant. Tavernier's unerring sense of place and period and his eye for detail are in evidence here whilst his preferred cinematographer Pierre-William Glenn ensures gorgeous rural images. Inspired score by another of Tavernier's regulars Philippe Sarde with the final song based upon revolutionary tunes from the Commune.
The final caption which points out that although Bouvier's unfortunate young victims numbered twelve, no less than twenty thousand children perished in the mines, serves as a stark reminder of how elusive was the concept of 'Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité'.
The two leading protagonists are serial rapist and murderer Joseph Bouvier, based upon real life Joseph Vacher and played to the hilt by Michel Calabru whilst judge Fourquet has here become the unscrupulous Rousseau and is personified by the immaculate Philippe Noiret. His character is not, as an earlier reviewer has suggested, based upon forensic doctor Etienne Lacassagne who is here named Degueldre and is played by Yves Robert.
Bouvier and Rousseau could be said to represent both sides of the same coin. Bouvier is undeniably a monster but is clearly insane(or is he?) whilst Rousseau is in full possession of his faculties and is determined to have Bouvier guillotined in order to further his own ambition, even to the point of cleverly gaining Bouvier's trust so as to extract a full confession.
Ambiguity reigns supreme here and who better to play Rousseau than Noiret whose working relationship with Tavernier, numbering nine films, is a marriage made in heaven. Tavernier not only gifted Noiret challenging roles but wisely gave him free rein in performance. It is understandably Michel Calabru's tour de force as Bouvier that earned him a well-deserved César. His is inspired casting for he was mainly known for his appearances in the popular 'Gendarme' series and there was nothing in his cinematic CV that would suggest he was capable of a performance of this magnitude. His tenure throughout the 1950's with the Comédie Francaise undoubtedly stood him in good stead for this demanding role.
Marvellous support from Jean-Claude Brialy, veteran Renée Faure and moving up the ranks, the twenty-one year old Isabelle Huppert who would again work with Tavernier and Noiret in 'Coup de Torchon' and is here just one year away from her iconic role as 'La Dentelliere'.
We owe Tavernier a debt of thanks for having brought legendary writing duo Jean Aurenche and Pierre Bost in from the cold and as one would expect from exponents of 'cinéma de qualité', their script is beautifully crafted, intelligent and trenchant. Tavernier's unerring sense of place and period and his eye for detail are in evidence here whilst his preferred cinematographer Pierre-William Glenn ensures gorgeous rural images. Inspired score by another of Tavernier's regulars Philippe Sarde with the final song based upon revolutionary tunes from the Commune.
The final caption which points out that although Bouvier's unfortunate young victims numbered twelve, no less than twenty thousand children perished in the mines, serves as a stark reminder of how elusive was the concept of 'Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité'.
Political wit.
DukeEman27 April 1999
A French provincial town in the late 1890's where a Judge attempts to advance his political power by trying to prove that a soldier was not insane at the time of committing murder, which means soilder gets the guillotine and not the mad house. A movie that is more about the social turmoil in France.
Well-crafted but wrongheaded film
gridoon202412 July 2014
Warning: Spoilers
"The Judge And The Assassin" is a technically well-crafted film, with top-notch performances by Philippe Noiret and Michel Galabru (as well as by a young Isabelle Huppert in a small early role). It's also a wrongheaded film that tries to force a sense of moral complexity on the viewer. The attempts to create sympathy for the human monster played by Galabru are misguided at best, there is a gratuitous rape scene for shock value only, and the final blow is delivered at the very end, when we are informed that, although Galabru's serial killer had brutally raped and disemboweled 12 children, during the same period thousands of kids had perished while working in the mines. So? Is that supposed to make his crimes less horrific? I am reminded, once again, of Pauline Kael's comment on Tavernier's later, and more famous, "Coup De Torchon": "he's saying horrible, senseless, inexplicable things, such as that killing on a small scale is less immoral than killing on a grand scale". ** out of 4.
Fabuleux Galabru!
roittman26 December 2000
Michel Galabru got the highest french award for his role in this movie, the "Cesar du meilleur acteur". Galabru became then one of the greatest actor in France.
Either in comedy or in tragedy (see "Le gendarme" and "L'été meurtrier".
Either in comedy or in tragedy (see "Le gendarme" and "L'été meurtrier".
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