Like Louis Jouvet and Jean-Pierre Barrault of a previous generation Fabrice Luchini is essentially a man of the theatre who has somehow contrived to appear in some seventy-seven films. When he does deign to step before the cameras as often as not the film will be a tad on the quirky side, like the time Sandrine Bonnaire mistook him for an analyst who had an office in the same building and unburdened herself of her marital problems, leading them to form a relationship of sorts, or Cycling With Moliere, for which he also provided the story. In L'Hermine he plays what is probably the nearest thing possible today to a 'hanging' judge, one feared for his implacability, coldness, and harsh sentences. It is, of course, a given that when a character begins a story so strongly defined one way he will, by the end of the film have performed a volte-face - see Ebeneezer Scrooge. Here Luchini finds himself sitting in judgment on a man accused of killing his own young son and who should be sitting on the jury but Sidse Babett Knudson, of whom Luchini was once enamoured. There's little more to it than that substance-wise but Luchini is a first-rate actor as is Knudson so time spent with them is time well spent.
Review of Courted
