What I have to say is first a repetition of what most of the users have already pointed out:Michael Caine is an exceptional actor;even when the character is a b..... ,he almost makes us side with him.A collaborator in occupied France during WW2,he was responsible for the death of seven Jews and he was never punished for what he had done.Pierre Brossard puts his trust in God,and he's always praying Saint-Christopher and begging absolution from his crimes.Outside Caine,best performance comes from Charlotte Rampling ,who,as always,makes the best of an underwritten part.
But the screenplay is a novel transferred to the screen ,and it's a NOVEL.There are as many holes in the plot as in Swiss cheese.The judge (a woman of course)and the military man are cardboard characters (but we are spared the love affair between them,just for that,M.Jewison,thank you!!!),and actually we could easily do without them.One of the judge's uncles is a minister/secretary,no less! It's true that fundamentalist Christians have a tendency to support the far right.But making so many abbeys of the South of France a shelter for people like Brossard ,demands such an imagination...It seems that every priest, every monk and every nun of my country are here to protect those who killed the Jews !One often forgets that there are many of them who helped and saved children during those darker days of French history.
I have not read the book but I do not feel like doing it.A movie was made in the eighties about Beate Klarsfeld (TV).People complained because they chose Farah Fawcett to portray her ,but at least it was based on accurate historical facts (Klaus Barbie).
