CONVICTION (Une intime conviction)

Friday September 27 – 5:40 pm – Truffaut Theater
(Screening ends at 7:30 pm)

Los Angeles Premiere | France / Belgium | 2019 | Drama | 111 min | In French with English subtitles

Directed by: Antoine Raimbault
Written by: Antoine Raimbault, Isabelle Lazard, Karim Dridi
Cinematography: Pierre Cottereau
Film Editing: Jean-Baptiste Beaudoin
Original Score: Grégoire Auger
Produced by: Caroline Adrian (Delante Productions), Umedia
Cast: Marina Foïs (Nora), Olivier Gourmet (Éric Dupond-Moretti), Laurent Lucas (Jacques Viguier), Jean Benguigui (Maître Szpiner)
International Sales: Charades

First-time director Antoine Raimbault melds fact and a little bit of fiction in this exhilarating courtroom drama recounting the real-life second trial of Jacques Viguier, a Toulouse law professor accused of murdering a wife who had simply vanished into thin air ten years earlier. The film’s tight, compelling screenplay literally leaps off the page, thanks to a powerhouse cast — Marina Foïs as the obsessed family friend convinced of Jacques’ innocence, Olivier Gourmet as his formidable defense attorney, and Laurent Lucas as the taciturn, almost opaque, defendant. Together, with a keen sense of rhythm, intelligent direction and a script that puts the entire French judicial system on trial, they knock this spellbinding legal thriller out of the park!

Writer-director Antoine Raimbault began his career as a film editor. He has written and directed four shorts, 24/24 (2001), Good Dog( 2002), Vos Violences (2013) and Garde la pêche (2017); and co-written screenplays for two feature films — Karim Dridi’s Chouf (2015) and Robin Sykes’ La finale (2018). On his friend and collaborator Karim Dridi’s advice, Raimbault actually attended both of Jacques Viguier’s trials in Toulouse, in 2009 and 2010. (Because in France, the prosecution can appeal a murder case if they don’t like the “not guilty” verdict… even if there’s no body and no evidence of a crime.) He subsequently became friends with the Viguier family and, when they decided to hire a new lawyer, even approached celebrated attorney Éric Dupond-Moretti on their behalf. So he knows both this case and a few of the flaws in the French judicial system inside out.

Presented in Association with:

Charades