The other French courtroom drama of 2023; the one that’s not ANATOMY OF A FALL (https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2024/07/anatomy-of-fall-anatomie-dune-chute-2023.html). That got all the attention (grosses, export, awards), GOLDMAN settled for sweeping France’s Best Actor trophies for Arieh Worthalter’s furious perf as Pierre Goldman, The Last Angry Man of the French Radical Left. Following revolutions around the world in the late ‘60s, this French/Polish Jew lives a hand-to-mouth existence, mostly thru robbery, which he freely admits, with two murders and one shooting as collateral damage, charges he vehemently denies. After some preliminary scene setting (the accused; lawyers; judges; crimes), we hit the courtroom and never leave. Leading director Cédric Kahn’s to use Academy Ratio for tight framing on a film that’s almost entirely composed in medium close-up/ head-to-waist shots. Goldman, alone, all but bursting out of his frame-lines whenever his lawyers try to ‘explain’ his actions thru context or bring in sympathetic character witnesses. He’ll only accept hard facts as defense; he needs nothing else. But what conflicting testimony comes in! French evidentiary rules must have been incredibly loose in the mid-‘70s along with the court’s outrageously theatrical atmosphere. And if Goldman isn’t the only one in court to go into tirades when crossed by facts or tactics, he’s still a unique pain. But an innocent one? Fascinating stuff here, with the film shedding its awkward nature of presentation as it goes along; as rigorously shot as it is argued.
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