''Garde à Vue'' (also known as ''The Inquisitor'') is a 1981 French

psychological Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

crime drama Crime film is a film belonging to the crime fiction genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and fiction. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as Drama (film and television), dr ...

directed by

Claude Miller Claude Miller (20 February 1942 – 4 April 2012) was a French film director, producer and screenwriter. Life and career Claude Miller was born to a Jewish family. A student at Paris' IDHEC film school from 1962 through 1963, Miller had his f ...

and starring

Romy Schneider Rosemarie Magdalena Albach (23 September 1938 – 29 May 1982), known professionally as Romy Schneider (), was a German and French actress. She is regarded as one of the greatest screen actresses of all time and became a cult figure due to ...

Michel Serrault Michel Serrault (24 January 1928 – 29 July 2007) was a French stage and film actor who appeared from 1954 until 2007 in more than 130 films. Life and career His first professional job was in a touring production in Germany of Molière's '' Les ...

Lino Ventura Angiolino Giuseppe Pasquale Ventura (14 July 1919 – 22 October 1987), known as Lino Ventura, was an Italian-born actor and philanthropist, who lived and worked for most of his life in France. He was considered one of the greatest leading men ...

and

Guy Marchand Guy Marchand (22 May 1937 – 15 December 2023) was a French actor, musician, and singer. He appeared in over 100 films in over 30 years, but was best known for his role as the fictional television private detective Nestor Burma. Life and care ...

. It is based on the 1979 British novel ''Brainwash'', by John Wainwright. It won the César Award for Best Screenplay, Dialogue or Adaptation, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor. The film had 2,098,038 admissions in France and was the 17th-most-attended film of the year.

Plot

Jérôme Martinaud, a wealthy, influential attorney in a small French town, falls under suspicion for the rape and murder of two little girls. He is the only suspect, but the evidence against him is circumstantial. As the city celebrates New Year's Eve, the police, led by Inspector Antoine Gallien, who is investigating the double rape/murder case, brings the lawyer in for questioning. At first politely, and then less so, the interrogation team consisting of Inspectors Gallien and Marcel Belmont chips away at the suspect's alibi. They interrogate him for hour after hour while Martinaud continues to maintain his innocence. We learn all about the evidence; we meet Martinaud's wife Chantal who tells Gallien about the rift between them and the origin of it, which may be an eight-year-old girl (Camille) Martinaud was in love with. In the face of overwhelming evidence, and feeling let down by his wife, Martinaud confesses to the two rapes and murders. However a fresh corpse is discovered inside the boot of a car that was reported to be stolen, and the car's owner turns out to be guilty of the crime - exonerating Martinaud. Martinaud leaves the police station and finds his wife, who has committed suicide.

Production

Screenwriter Michel Audiard discovered John Wainwright's novel, published in ''

Série noire Série noire is a French publishing imprint, founded in 1945 by Marcel Duhamel. It has released a collection of crime fiction of the hardboiled detective thrillers variety published by Gallimard. Anglo-American literature forms the bulk of ...

'' in 1980, and brought the project to Les Films Ariane. They suggested it to Claude Miller who decided to make Martinaud's character more psychologically complex than he was in the book. Miller asked Lam Lê to create a complete storyboard for the film before the shooting. Filming started January 27, 1981 and wrapped March 13, 1981. The picture was filmed entirely in a studio and in chronological order.

Reception

It won the César Award for Best Screenplay, Dialogue or Adaptation, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Editing. The film had 2,098,038 admissions in France and was the 17th-most-attended film of the year. The film received mixed reviews from English-speaking critics. ''Time Out'' said it was "a fine psychological thriller" in which "the potential staginess of the material... is admirably shaken by inspired adaptation, ''mise en scène'' and editing." In ''The New York Times'', Janet Maslin called it "a slow, claustrophobic crime melodrama with a lot of talk" but "the actors help keep the film relatively engrossing." Roy Armes wrote that the film "shows Miller's skills at their finest," and added that it is "a pure, hundred-minute spectacle, a story that holds the attention unerringly but which in its unfolding destroys its own painfully built logic."

Awards

1981:

Prix Méliès The French Syndicate of Cinema Critics () has, each year since 1946, awarded a prize ("Prix de la critique", English: "Critics Prize"), the Prix Méliès, to the best French film of the preceding year. More awards have been added over time: the P ...

- Best Film 1981:

Montreal World Film Festival The Montreal World Film Festival (), commonly abbreviated MWFF in English or FFM in French, was an annual film festival in Montreal, Quebec, Canada from 1977 to 2019.César Awards The César Award is the national film award of France. It is delivered in the ' ceremony and was first awarded in 1976. The nominations are selected by the members of twelve categories of filmmaking professionals and supported by the French Min ...

: * Best Screenplay, Dialogue or Adaptation -

, Michel Audiard,

Jean Herman Jean Vautrin (; 17 May 1933 – 16 June 2015), real name Jean Herman, was a French writer, filmmaker and film critic. Life and career After studying literature at Auxerre, he took first place in the Institut des hautes études cinématographiq ...

* Best Actor -

* Best Supporting Actor -

* Best Editing - Albert Jurgenson

Remake

''Garde à Vue'' was remade in 2000 as '' Under Suspicion''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Garde a vue 1981 films 1980s psychological thriller films French psychological thriller films French neo-noir films Police detective films Films scored by Georges Delerue Films featuring a Best Actor César Award–winning performance Films featuring a Best Supporting Actor César Award–winning performance Films directed by Claude Miller Films about suicide Films based on British novels Films with screenplays by Michel Audiard 1980s French-language films 1980s French films Films shot in chronological order