La Vérité (1960)

Henri-Georges Clouzot’s La Vérité (The Truth) was released in 1960. For many people this is the movie that established Brigitte Bardot as a serious actress but it’s interesting for a number of reasons.

This is a courtroom drama with most of the story told in a series of flashbacks but the French criminal justice system (and their entire legal system) is radically different from British or American systems. If you don’t know that then you will be extremely perplexed. A young woman, Dominique Marceau (Brigitte Bardot) is on trial for murder. She has a defence counsel but the victim’s mother is also represented in court by counsel. In this movie he is in practice acting as a second prosecutor.

And the fact that Dominique shot and killed her lover, Gilbert Tellier (Sami Frey) is not in dispute. Her defence is based on the claim that this was a crime of passion and in France until the 1970s that was a legitimate defence. It could make the difference between the guillotine or a very short prison term, or could even mean acquittal. What that means in this story is that it is the strength of her love that is on trial.

La Vérité is also interesting because of the social milieu in which Dominique moves. She is part of a group of what are essentially beatniks. 1960 was a time when juvenile delinquents and youth subcultures were causing much excitement and hysteria. And the Sexual Revolution was just starting to gather steam. The prosecution in this story is in practice putting Dominique on trial for flouting traditional morality. In her social circle sexual promiscuity is taken for granted.

Dominique is actually a bit wild but to the middle-aged members of the jury and the officers of the court she is a monster of depravity. They are shocked to learn that after leaving her parents’ home in the provinces and moving to Paris she has frequented coffee shops and cinemas.

In Paris she meets Gilbert Tellier, a student of music. He was her sister Annie’s boyfriend. Gilbert soon decides that the free-spirited Dominique is much more exciting than the staid resectable Annie.

Gilbert and Dominique but from the start there’s trouble. And there are dramas and breakups and reconciliations and betrayals. It was always likely to end badly. And it does.

The title makes it clear that this movie is a search for the truth. But what exactly does that mean? This is not a conventional mystery. We know precisely what happened. We know that Dominique shot and killed Gilbert and then tried to kill herself. We need to know how exactly that came about. We need to know if Gilbert ever truly loved her, and if she ever truly loved him. And given that her defence relies on the claim that it was a crime of passion both the court and the audience have to find out exactly what was in Dominique’s mind when she pulled that trigger.

And when the court and the audience know what was in her mind they have to decide if her passions were so inflamed that she can be forgiven.

And of course this is a trial, with both the defence counsel and the rival counsel having their own versions of the truth which they hope they can persuade the court to accept. Lawyers know that the secret is to present and package the truth in just the right way.

And Clouzot feeds the truth to us slowly. One obvious truth quickly emerges. Gilbert and Dominique were terribly young, terribly in love and terribly and spectacularly mismatched. They were always going to hurt each other. They both realised it, and could do nothing about it. Dominique knows Gilbert is the wrong man for her but she cannot get him out of her mind and her heart.

They both behave badly. Dominique cheats on Gilbert repeatedly but that’s the inevitable result of their being so mismatched. He’s a very serious minded ambitious musician with no time for fun. Dominique is a high-spirited passionate 20-year-old girl who needs fun and excitement as much as she needs oxygen. That does not excuse her betrayals, but the betrayals were inevitable. Dominique cannot change who she is.

There is a girl who is perfect for Gilbert - Dominique’s sister Annie. Annie is serious minded and respectable and equally career-oriented. They are an ideal match. But Gilbert dumps her because Dominique is much hotter and is dynamite in bed.

And Clouzot is not going to make it easy for us. Do we ever learn the real truth? Will it satisfy us if we do? You’ll have to watch the movie and decide for yourself.

Bardot is absolutely superb. We like Dominique but sometimes we want to shake her and tell her, “Girl, you just can’t do that.” But we know that she will anyway. Bardot captures her elusive and contradictory personality perfectly, and her youthfulness. There’s no point in expecting Dominique to think anything through. She cannot. She is not evil, but she’s like a driverless runaway car. And she can be manipulative. Could she be lying about the shooting? Perhaps. But she could be telling the absolute truth. And she could be telling the truth as she sees it.

It’s a complex movie and it necessarily takes its time unravelling the story of this disastrous love. But it is enthralling and Bardot is mesmerising.

La Vérité is highly recommended.