THE JUDGE AND THE ASSASSIN Movie Review

Le Juge et l'Assassin

In late 19th-century France, a sergeant (Michel Galabru) is discharged from the army as a result of his raging, violent episodes, which seem to alternate between anger and religious outbursts. After attempting to kill his wife, the sergeant is sent to an asylum, does a little time, is sent home over his own objections, and then commits a series of rapes and murders. From this point on, the sergeant falls under the care of a provincial judge (Philippe Noiret), whose interest in the killer and his crimes begins to border on the obsessive, and whose own precarious state of “normalcy” becomes more and more open to question. One of our most humane and probing directors, Bertrand Tavernier (A Sunday in the Country, ‘Round Midnight) has fashioned another of his fascinatingly open-ended portraits of the human condition, unflinchingly posing questions about the validity of our definitions of both justice and insanity. It's also a riveting, beautifully acted drama. With Isabelle Huppert, Jean-Claude Brialy, and Yves Robert.

NEXT STOP … The Clockmaker, L.627, The Silence of the Lambs

1975 130m/C FR Philippe Noiret, Michel Galabru, Isabelle Huppert, Jean-Claude Brialy, Yves Robert, Rene Faure; D: Bertrand Tavernier; W: Bertrand Tavernier, Jean Aurenche, Pierre Bost; C: Pierre William Glenn; M: Philippe Sarde. Cesar Awards '77: Best Writing, Best Score. VHS, LV, Letterbox CVC, IME, TPV