This is a fascinating movie for French film buffs because it shows a pillar of the 'old school' or 'cinema du papa', namely Henri-Georges Clouzot showing the young Turks of the new wavelet how the big boys do it and really sticking it in and breaking it off. Clouzot had, of course, already written one classic 'court-room' drama in Les Inconnus de la maison back in 1941 and here he featured another but cleverly combined the interiors of the court with outdoor scenes but rather than have his leading player, Brigitte Bardot, walk up the street and then walk back down again a la the unimaginative Godard, he actually filled the frame with meaningful and relevant action. One person writing in IMDb has suggested that this is Clouzot's take on Roshomon and I for one am not prepared to say that viewpoint is wrong. Certainly in order to get at the truth of just why - assuming, of course, that she did - Brigitte Bardot shot Sami Frey co-writer/director Clouzot is prepared to explore the stories of each principal witness and significantly an early scene shows counsel Charles Vanel sketching a spider's web on his notepad whilst waiting for the proceedings to begin. Though she could never be accused of acting at least Brigitte Bardot makes a credible attempt under the expert tutelage of Clouzot. Very watchable.
Review of The Truth
