''Le Petit Lieutenant'' (also released under the title of ''The Young Lieutenant'') is a

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

French

crime drama film 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 or gangster film, but al ...

directed by

Xavier Beauvois Xavier Beauvois (; born 20 March 1967) is a French actor, film director and screenwriter. Career His film '' Don't Forget You're Going to Die'' was entered into the 1995 Cannes Film Festival where it won the Jury Prize. His film '' Of Gods an ...

. With almost documentary realism, it shows how in a tragic breach of procedure a young married police lieutenant is killed by a suspect and how the head of his squad doggedly tracks down the killer, who is shot dead trying to escape.

Plot

Graduating from police academy as a lieutenant, Antoine chooses a place on a detective squad in a busy quarter of Paris, leaving his young wife in their home town of Le Havre. Newly in charge of the squad is Caroline who, after losing her young son to meningitis, took to the bottle. Now on her own and recovering, she takes an interest in her keen young assistant and in a quiet moment the two even share a joint. Two similar incidents are under investigation, involving a Polish man and an English man being beaten, knifed, and thrown into the river. The first man dies but a witness says the assailant was a Russian, while the second man survives and can confirm that it was a Russian. After detective work has narrowed down a possible address for a prime suspect, Antoine and a colleague go to investigate. When the colleague says he needs to go to the toilet in a bar opposite, Antoine proceeds alone and is knifed to death. Caroline is mortified by the failure of her squad and the loss of a valuable young recruit, while the colleague is sacked. After a bad evening when she buys herself gin and goes to the home of an ex-lover, she recovers her energy and her determination to catch the killer. Long detective work identifies an associate, who is arrested and his mobile phone is monitored. Calls from the killer reveal that he is in Nice. Flying there, Caroline watches the local police storm the building. When the killer leaps from a window, with two shots of her pistol Caroline kills him.

Cast

Jalil Lespert Jalil Lespert (born 11 May 1976) is a French actor, screenwriter and director. He has been described as "one of the best actors of his generation." Early life and education Lespert was born in Paris to a Pied-Noir, ''pied-noir'' father, actor J ...

as Antoine Derouère *

Nathalie Baye Nathalie Marie Andrée Baye (; born 6 July 1948) is a French film, television, and stage actress. She began her career in 1970 and has appeared in more than 80 films. A ten-time César Award nominee, her four wins were for ''Every Man for Himsel ...

as Caroline Vaudieu *

Antoine Chappey Antoine Chappey (born 1960) is a French actor. He has appeared in over 80 films and television shows since 1989. He starred in the film ''Nelly (2004 film), Nelly'', which was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2004 Cannes Film Fes ...

as Louis Mallet *

as Nicolas Morbe *

Jacques Perrin Jacques Perrin (; born Jacques André Simonet ; 13 July 1941 – 21 April 2022) was a French actor and film producer. He was occasionally credited as Jacques Simonet. Early life Jacques André Simonet was born on the Boulevard Port-Royal in ...

as Clermont *

Roschdy Zem Roschdy Zem (born 27 September 1965) is a French people, French actor and filmmaker of Morocco, Moroccan descent. He shared the award for Best Actor Award (Cannes Film Festival), Best Actor for his role in the film ''Days of Glory (2006 film), Da ...

as Solo *

Riton Liebman Henri Liebman (born 29 January 1964), known as Riton Liebman, is a Belgian comedian, actor, and director. Career Liebman made his first impression with audiences at age 13, when French director Bertrand Blier discovered him and cast him as Chris ...

as Jean

Critical response

''The Young Lieutenant'' received generally positive reviews from critics. Review aggregation website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

reported an approval rating of 79%, based on 53 reviews, with an average rating of 6.9/10. The site's consensus reads, "A gritty, languidly paced crime drama that blends old-fashioned ambiance with modern cynicism". At

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 71, based on 19 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Awards and nominations

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 ...

(France) **Won: Best Actress – Leading Role (Nathalie Baye) **Nominated: Best Actor – Supporting Role (Roschdy Zem) **Nominated: Best Director **Nominated: Best Film **Nominated:

Best Original Screenplay The Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay is the Academy Award (also known as an Oscar) for the best screenplay not based upon previously published material. It was created in 1940 as a separate writing award from the Academy Award for Best ...

(Xavier Beauvois, Guillaume Bréaud and Jean-Eric Troubat) *

European Film Awards The European Film Awards (or European Film Academy Awards) have been presented annually since 1988 by the European Film Academy to recognize excellence in European cinematic achievements. The awards are given in 19 categories, of which the mos ...

**Nominated: Best Actress – Leading Role (Nathalie Baye) *

Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival (, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival held in Venice, Italy. It is the world's oldest film festival and one of the ...

(Italy) **Won: Label Europa Cinemas (Xavier Beauvois)

References

External links

*
''Le petit lieutenant'' at the 2nd edition of Venice Days
(

62nd Venice International Film Festival The 62nd annual Venice International Film Festival, was held from 31 August 2005 to 10 September 2005, at Venice Lido in Italy. Italian production and costume designer Dante Ferretti was the jury president for the main competition. Spanish act ...

) {{DEFAULTSORT:Petit Lieutenant, Le 2000s French-language films 2005 crime drama films 2005 films Films featuring a Best Actress César Award–winning performance Films directed by Xavier Beauvois French crime drama films 2000s French films Films with screenplays by Cédric Anger French-language crime drama films