Courted (2015)

So much average

Admirable film.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Fabrice Luchini plays Michel Racine a criminal judge who is known for being less than lenient. He is separated and has got to that curmudgeonly time of life. This day he starts a new trial of a man accused of infanticide of his own daughter – but then he spots one of the jurors and his heart quickens a beat.This is a doctor who had treated him some two years ago – being is Ditte Lorensen-Coteret played by the marvellous Sisde Babbett- Knudsen ('Borgen' and 'The Duke of Burgundy') and he has been carrying a torch for her ever since. What follows are two trials – the one of the defendant and the other for himself but not as judge.Now this is well made, acted, directed and filmed and it is a gripping story in places but it also takes its foot off the gas a few times too which means you can start mind meandering if you are not careful. That said it still kept me interested until the end so one I can recommend, but only once really so a rental option would be better advised.

I saw this beautiful film when at the Venice Film Festival in 2015. I don't have a deep knowledge of French cinema, but I found the film moving and touching. The story of a severe judge who's heart is softened by a past love. This past love surprising reappears in his life and changes his life forever. Beautifully told, and amazingly wordy. And perhaps this is what surprised me. Despite the long scenes of dialogue, it was engaging and engrossing. I never felt like a word was wasted. This is the sign of good writing. And I was watching it in the original language with English subtitles. Would highly recommend it.

Like Louis Jouvet and Jean-Pierre Barrault of a previous generation Fabrice Luchini is essentially a man of the theatre who has somehow contrived to appear in some seventy-seven films. When he does deign to step before the cameras as often as not the film will be a tad on the quirky side, like the time Sandrine Bonnaire mistook him for an analyst who had an office in the same building and unburdened herself of her marital problems, leading them to form a relationship of sorts, or Cycling With Moliere, for which he also provided the story. In L'Hermine he plays what is probably the nearest thing possible today to a 'hanging' judge, one feared for his implacability, coldness, and harsh sentences. It is, of course, a given that when a character begins a story so strongly defined one way he will, by the end of the film have performed a volte-face - see Ebeneezer Scrooge. Here Luchini finds himself sitting in judgment on a man accused of killing his own young son and who should be sitting on the jury but Sidse Babett Knudson, of whom Luchini was once enamoured. There's little more to it than that substance-wise but Luchini is a first-rate actor as is Knudson so time spent with them is time well spent.

Fabrice Luchini is here at his best in this awesome court room, character and procedural study around a trial about a young man accused of killing his seven years old child. Audiences are hooked by the actors performances. I guess that most of the characters who play here are non professional actors. All long this movie, I thought of course of Sidney Lumet's TWELVE ANGRY MEN, although the Lumet's film is far far better than this one. No lengths here, don't worry. And I repeat, Luchini is here outstanding as a bitter mood judge. A worth watching movie.The perfect example of what the French movie industry can give.