In Cinemas October 13
Directed by Dominik Moll – France – Rated M
(Reviewed by John Glennie)
The French make some pretty good movies, and this was no exception.
It starts with the ugly statistic that each year the French police open around 800 murder investigations, of which nearly 20% remain unsolved – and that this film relates to one of them.
It is just after 3:00am on the 12th in the beautiful town of Saint-Jean de Maurienne, located in the southeast of France near the alps, close to the Swiss and Italian borders. Clara decides to leave the house of her friend Stephanie (Pauline Serieys), deciding not to stay the night. Her murder only a few minutes later is possibly one of the most horrific imaginable. The film was actually released in cinemas here six years to the day since the gruesome murder.
Officers from nearby Grenoble are asked to investigate, led by Captain Yohan Vives (Bastien Bouillon) and Marceau (Bouli Lanners). The further they investigate, the more potential suspects they find. The 21-year old Clara fell in love easily and, quite often, with the wrong sort of men. Nearly every person they interviewed could have had the motive or revenge or jealousy.
As the case draws on, they appear no closer to finding the murderer and it becomes an obsession for Yohan. His way of unwinding is to do multiple laps of a cycling velodrome and vent his frustrations. Tensions even rise between Yohan and Marceau – the latter lamenting that they spend the majority of their time writing report after report instead of solving the crimes. It is when Yohan intervenes as Marceau is confronting a prime suspect that tensions boil over and the latter storms off towards the Alps.
Three years later, Yohan is meeting Judge Beltrame who is asking why Clara’s case is at the bottom of her pile. She provides the funding to reopen the case just before the anniversary. They stake out the scene of the crime as well as a hidden camera at the grave site. Does the killer come back to the scene? Or does he visit the grave?
Well, go along and see this great French murder mystery to find out!
The night of the 12th is now screening at Palace Nova and Palace Prospect.
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