French Film Review: Le Procès Goldman

This utterly compelling movie is quite unlike anything else you’re likely to see. It’s based on the 1976 real-life trial of Jewish left-wing activist Pierre Goldman, played in the movie by Arieh Worthalter whose performance won him – quite rightly the Best Actor César.

Goldman found himself in court accused of multiple charges, including murder during an armed robbery of a pharmacy in Paris. The son of Polish Jewish refugees who had fled their homeland during the war, Goldman became a revolutionary. He admits to the courtroom that he has not always been a good man – but he steadfastly denies the murders at the pharmacy of which he stands accused.

The case gripped French society in the 1970s and remains a source of fascination decades later. It became a flashpoint for a generation, raising questions, which are still relevant today, about anti-Semitism, racism and political ideology. The movie, directed with a realism normally reserved for true crime dramas, has a quiet and dogged tone and a pinpoint historical precision. Without pushing too hard to get its message across, this focused and electrifying dramatisation effortlessly addresses the complexity of Jewish identity in recent European history.

Working with co-writer Nathalie Hertzberg, Cédric Kahn created the screenplay using newspaper articles about the case, reports of Goldman’s two trials in 1974 and 1975, interviews with friends and associates, and Goldman’s landmark book, Dim Memories of a Polish Jew Born in France, which turned him into a cause célèbre, supported by the likes of Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone Signoret. Gripping stuff.

Director: Cédric Kahn

Starring: Arieh Worthalter, Arthur Harari, Nicolas Briançon

From France Today Magazine