Garde à vue (1981)

Director:

Claude Miller

Writers:

John Wainwright (novel)
Claude Miller (writer) ...

Release Date:

23 September 1981 (France)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

Plot:

A police inspector, suspecting an attorney of two child sex murders, has him held for a questioning session that goes on for hours.

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Police Inspector | Suspect | Rape | Innocence

Awards:

6 wins & 4 nominations

Cast

  (Credited cast)

Lino Ventura	...	Inspector Antoine Gallien
Michel Serrault	...	Jerome, Charles, Emile Martinaud
Romy Schneider	...	Chantal Martinaud
Guy Marchand	...	Inspector Marcel Belmont
Didier Agostini	...	Young policeman
Patrick Depeyrrat	...	Policeman
Pierre Maguelon	...	Adami
Annie Miller	...	La mère de Camille
Serge Malik	...	Le mécanicien
Jean-Claude Penchenat	...	Divisional Commissioner
Yves Pignot	...	Policeman
Mathieu Schiffman	...	Le fils Berthier
Michel Such	...	Jean-Marie Jabelain
Elsa Lunghini	...	Camille
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Mohammed Bekireche	...	Arab

Also Known As:

The Grilling (USA) (review title)
The Inquisitor
Under Suspicion

Runtime:

86 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:18

Filming Locations:

Hôtel Royal Monceau - 35 avenue Hoche, Paris 8, Paris, France

Company:

Les Films Ariane

Trivia:

The novel was discovered by Michel Audiard who suggested its adaptation to Ariane Films. In their turn, Dancigers and Mnouchkine offered the direction to Claude Miller.

Movie Connections:

Version of Under Suspicion (2000)

Lovely, singularly French mystery

Nothing revolutionary here; just impeccably elegant, restrained cinema.

GARDE A VUE is confined almost exclusively to a drab police station, and mostly to one interrogation room, but director Claude Miller (who made the wonderful film THIS SWEET SICKNESS, among others) intercalates spare glimpses of exterior tableaux as minimalist locale scenography. Miller's restraint, especially early on, is breathtaking, and his exquisite handling of the consequently-pivotal interior mise-en-scene makes for captivating viewing.

Lino Ventura is superb as usual, succeeding to legitimize a character that, on paper, is cliche: the laconic, hard-nosed, world-weary homicide detective. Ventura lives the role, making it completely believable, even though the script allows us little access to his inner workings; the film ends at the very moment it appears he will be forced to confront his failure for the first time.

Michel Serrault is equal to the task as the suspected child-killer who shrewdly spars with the single-minded flic. The exchanges between the two are more-often-than-not pregnant with tension and the aura of a constantly metamorphosing playing field for a battle of wits. Serrault's character is by turns deplorably haughty and cunning, and pitiable; then later....

The "message" of GARDE A VUE, if one were to search for one, is a condemnation of police methodology and the kind of pressures that make a cop over-zealous to, if necessary, close cases at the expense of justice. For most of its length though the film shines as nothing more than an exemplar of how to turn a potentially soporific set-bound scenario into a suspenseful drama of the utmost cinematic economy.