Le septième juré

Excellent film-maker André Cayatte is not the only one to take a swipe at the French judicial system and I consider this film of Georges Lautner to be the equal of Cayatte's 'Justice est faite' and 'Les Bonnes Causes' of Christian-Jaque.

Furthermore, it is arguably Lautner's finest film(sincere apologies to devotees of 'Les Tontons Flingueurs')

Francis Didelot had a short career as a lawyer and being descended on his mother's side from Edgar Allan Poe(!) he seemed fated to become a writer of detective fiction. He had already shown his unique imagination in 'Le Monde Tremblera', filmed by Richard Pottier in 1939 but 'The Seventh Juror' is generally regarded as his greatest.

This tale concerns Gregoire Duval who has committed a murder in a moment of madness and is fated to be a member of the jury at the trial of a man wrongly accused of the murder. What is really on trial here is human nature with its prejudice, hypocrisy, double standards and the overriding desire to maintain the status quo.

Even though Gregoire confesses to his wife and the investigating police officer, they will go to any lengths to conceal his guilt so as to save face and reputation.

Jacques Robert's excellent adaptation presents us with a gallery of wonderfully drawn characters superbly played by all. Daniele Delorme is mesmerising as Madame Duval whilst Albert Remy is smugness personified as the detective. The voice of morality crying in the wilderness is that of Maurice Biraud as a veterinarian. No one plays Everyman as well as Bernard Blier whose psychological penetration as Duval is aided by the device of the 'interior monologue'. His performance is stupendous.

Lautner has again used his favoured cinematographer Maurice Fellous to great effect and there is a good score by Jean Yatove with excellent use made of Vivaldi in the opening sequences.

There are films that slowly insinuate themselves but this one grabs you from the outset and never relaxes its grip.

This is superlative film-making and fully deserves dix sur dix.

This film is a precursor in court drama and suspense. It is also a clever criticism of French bourgeois society as symbolised by the gatherings of the city notables at the local pub or the main protagonist's wife.

Grégoire Duval (Bernard Blier), one of the most upstanding citizens in his provincial French town, commits a spur-of-the-moment crime of passion and subsequently gets picked for the jury when a man with a dubious past goes on trial for the murder. Grégoire's probing questions get the man acquitted but in the eyes of the community, the defendant's still a killer and when Grégoire eventually confesses to the crime, nobody wants to hear it...

Director Georges Lautner's extremely satisfying film noir also doubles as an autopsy of cold, cruel, hypocritical bourgeois values and is not unlike "Madame Bovary" in that respect. The philosophically resigned voice-over narration of a man tormented not only by what he's done but by the way his entire life played out has a chilling effect and it's a dark universe, indeed, right down to THE INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS ending (on Christmas Eve, no less). There's bitter irony to spare with a dazed walk through nocturnal city streets present in some of the finest noir such as ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS and BLAST OF SILENCE and director Georges Lautner (who'd go on to make the giallo-esque ROAD TO SALINA with Rita Hayworth & Mimsy Farmer) gives the bleak proceedings a grey, misty patina that doesn't go away, even in the daytime. The Francis Didelot novel the film is based on was adapted in the U.S. a year earlier for an episode of THE ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOUR called "The Star Juror" and the timeless tale was also turned into a 2008 TV movie in it's native France. 10/10!

I wonder why Lautner got lost in mediocrities all along his long and lucrative career.Dozens of junk movies like"la grande sauterelle" "quelques messieurs trop tranquilles" or "flic ou voyou"...why did he bother with such things when he had a brilliant potential that explodes here?

"Le septième juré" is a psychological thriller of the first order,that actually belongs to the fifties,when the overrated "new wave" had not happened.Blending Duvivier's pessimism with Clouzot's misanthropy, and beating André Cayatte at his own game (justice and trials),it stands as Lautner's finest achievement.

Bernard Blier,excellent as ever,portrays a notable who strangles a semi-whore.Probably because of a sexual frustration.His wife(an excellent Danielle Delorme) is probably a frigid bourgeois woman.The plot thickens when Blier is asked to be a juror when a wrong man is arrested and tried for HIS crime.Then begins a suspenseful and rich story,in which looks tell more than words (the juror and the accused),in which a whole town is involved with its narrow-minded petits bourgeois,its holier-than-thou spinsters,its rotten justice.

And that's not all!In the very last minutes,comes a final revelation that will leave you on the edge of your seat.And logical,at that,because it thoroughly explains Blier's behavior.The black and white cinematography is stunning,and the ambulance light in the final shots mesmerizing.

Bernard Blier is proving on this movie that he was not just a comic actor, but a great actor, at the service of a very fine director, George Lautner who had a great carrer (it was his 6th movie). The scenario describes how a society can be totally absurd, and how to turn justice in a very bizarre frame.