An Ordinary Case (REVIEW) | If you liked Anatomy of a Fall... | Projector Shorts - video Dailymotion

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Film Brain reviews this French courtroom drama, based on a true story, that may be very procedural, but if you're patient, has a gut-punch of an ending.

Transcript

00:00If you enjoy Anatomy of a Fall, then you might want to check out the French courtroom drama

00:04An Ordinary Case, or Le Fil, which naturally turns out to be anything but ordinary.

00:10Daniel Atouy plays a lawyer who decides to defend Gregory Gaddebrun,

00:13who stands accused of murdering his wife.

00:16But despite the evidence, Atouy believes instinctually that he's innocent,

00:20even when Gaddebrun doesn't always help his case during the trial.

00:25Loosely inspired by a true story, Atouy also directs and co-writes the script,

00:29and like many courtroom dramas, the film is very much about how we perceive people and events,

00:34and the narratives that we build as the truth.

00:36So it's unsurprising that the echoes of Anatomy of a Fall can be felt all over this.

00:41The movie is dominated by the lengthy trial scenes, which make up much of the running time,

00:45and it's very procedural, almost to a fault.

00:48There's few theatrics, it's mostly grounded in reality,

00:51with the prosecution and defence giving their arguments and interpretations.

00:54There's no smoking gun, just unreliable testimonies,

00:58and a tiny piece of fabric under a fingernail as evidence.

01:02The audience effectively becomes the jury, left to make their own judgement on what happened.

01:06Gaddebrun is well cast as a defendant, who has a childlike quality,

01:10but do we see him as Atouy does, as a father determined to get back to raising his kids,

01:15or is he a killer?

01:17It can be quite dry at times, and it definitely needs a lot of patience.

01:21It doesn't help that Atouy, the writer and director,

01:24is quite fond of Atouy, the actor, and gives himself a lot of lengthy monologues.

01:29That being said, this is one of those films that takes a while to reveal what its true intentions are,

01:34and they're not the same as Anatomy of a Fall,

01:37with the key difference being that that film was ambiguous to the end,

01:40whereas An Ordinary Case is a very definitive conclusion.

01:44The final minutes of the film drop several major bombshells,

01:47and it's a devastating conclusion that leaves you with a pit in your stomach,

01:52and makes you reassess everything that had come before in a different light.

01:55The movie's purpose becomes very clear at that point,

01:59including a cryptic recurring image of a bull,

02:01that will leave you unsettled long after the credits roll.

02:05Incidentally, if you are planning to see this,

02:07you probably shouldn't look up why the BBFC gave the film a 15 certificate,

02:10and I fully understand why, as it is something you want to warn people about,

02:15but it also gives away the film's very final scene.

An Ordinary Case (REVIEW) | If you liked Anatomy of a Fall... | Projector Shorts

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