Délits flagrants
Raymond Depardon
Paris, the Law Courts. People caught in the act are taken to the assistant prosecutor where, in a tiny office, there is an interview of around ten minutes and their versions of the offences committed are specified and recorded. It is up to the magistrate to sort through all these words, with varying degrees of patience, depending on the case.
Image : Nathalie Crédou
Sound : Sophie Chiabaut, Claudine Nougaret
Editing : Camille Cotte, Roger Ikhlef, Georges-Henri Mauchant
Sound : Sophie Chiabaut, Claudine Nougaret
Editing : Camille Cotte, Roger Ikhlef, Georges-Henri Mauchant
Production : Double D Copyright Films, La Sept Cinéma
Distribution: Palmeraie et désert
Distribution: Palmeraie et désert
Raymond Depardon tried for many years to get special permission to film inside the Paris Law Courts, to capture the meetings between the accused and the prosecutors. In 5 weeks, and with substantial resources, Depardon filmed 86 people accused of theft, fraud or assault. He kept 14 tense accounts in this verbal joust, where words are the only possible defence. Although the initial interviews are surprising at first, they give way in the end to a terrible vision of cruelly ordinary everyday justice.