Le Procès Goldman
Cédric Kahn
© Moonshaker
In April 1976, the second trial began of far-left activist Pierre Goldman. He had been sentenced in the first instance to life imprisonment for four armed robberies, one of which resulted in the deaths of two pharmacists. He proclaimed his innocence and within a few weeks became an icon of the intellectual left. Georges Kiejman, a young lawyer, took on his defence. But very quickly, their relationship became strained. Goldman, elusive and provocative, faced the death penalty and made the outcome of the trial uncertain.
Cast : Arieh Worthalter, Arthur Harari, Stéphan Guérin-Tillié, Nicolas Briançon, Aurélien Chaussade, Christian Mazzuchini, Jeremy Lewin, Jerzy Radziwilowicz
Scenario : Nathalie Hertzberg, Cédric Kahn
Cinematography : Patrick Ghiringhelli
Editing : Yann Dedet
Scenario : Nathalie Hertzberg, Cédric Kahn
Cinematography : Patrick Ghiringhelli
Editing : Yann Dedet
Production : Moonshaker, Tropdebonheur Productions
Distribution : Ad Vitam Distribution
Distribution : Ad Vitam Distribution
Cédric Kahn discovered Pierre Goldman through Souvenirs obscurs d'un Juif polonais né en France (Obscure Memories of a Polish Jew Born in France): "What strikes me is not his innocence, but his extraordinary language. His style, his dialectic, his thinking. I told myself that something had to be done with this book, in film." Rejecting the idea of a biopic, he chose to film the trial: "Apart from that, Goldman’s life is a series of failures, dramas and renunciations. So I ruled out the biopic route and decided that the film to be made had to be about the trial." With screenwriter Nathalie Hertzberg, who had already begun researching the subject, he took up the project. She consulted biographers, lawyers and archives and reconstructed the trial in over 300 pages of articles. "It was like a lump of clay waiting to be sculpted. We then locked ourselves away and wrote the screenplay based on all this material, more or less following the natural script of the trial," said Kahn.