Raymond Depardon ’s no-frills doc on the doings inside a busy Paris courtroom displays so many small but important virtues, that you gladly sit thru the less interesting cases for the goodies it keeps throwing up. Shot with the most basic of set ups (head shots for the defendants & the tough, but unfailingly polite female Judge, side shots for the lawyers), the faces & simple camera work feel positively revelatory next to the obfuscationary tactics & pointless meanderings of current production norms. It’s depressing to see so many foreigners & darker skinned Parisians charged with the more serious crimes, yet our Judge only loses her temper when a stubborn white guy stands up for himself, mostly on principle. He’s clearly, even cleverly, in the right, but unable to trod the legal maze on his own. You’ll have to watch the post-debut interview with the filmmakers & Judge to discover his fate.
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