User Reviews

This comes as a surprise entry in Brigitte Bardots filmography. Surely the blonde siren wasn't everybody's first chance for a female lead in a Henri-Georges Clouzot film; then again, the role she is playing fits perfectly. Dominique Marceau is a pretty young girl eager to leave her parents home and live with her sister in Paris. Other than her, Dominique is living out her lust for life, hanging around with friends, with parties, drinking and casual affairs. By coincidence she encounters her sisters fiancée, a very serious young musician. Eventually they fall in love, but Dominique can't be faithful and Gilbert (Sami Freys character) cannot adjust to her way of life. They break up, reunite, and break up again – with Gilbert more and more being ridiculed by her affairs with other men. On the other hand, Dominique cannot let him go either, and when he suddenly loses all his passion and returns to her sister, Dominique makes a decision. This is all told in flashback sequences during the trial in which Dominique is accused of Gilberts murder. The people participated in finding the truth, Clouzot tells us, are incapable of leaving their personal convictions and moral perspectives out of the court. Whatever the verdict may be, Dominique won't leave as an innocent. - "La Verité" has some memorable scenes, not least the one where Gilbert is conducting Strawinskys "Oiseau de Feu" on television, which blends over to the next scene while the music continues without a break. While being a serious drama about passion and justice, Clouzots film still makes good use of Bardots erotic energy – and yet there is never a moment where the images make the story irrelevant.

It appears that the outstanding director Henri-George Clouzot was unable to make movies short of being masterpieces. "La Verite" may be defined as the "European Rashomon", and, well aware that my opinion will be considered a sacrilege, I venture to say that Clouzot's film is even better than Kurosawa's celebrated masterpiece. In fact, the essence of both "Rashomon" and "La Verite" lies in the quest of the truth of a story, reconstructed through a sequence of flash-backs.

"La Verite" narrates the trial of the breathtakingly-beautiful-sexy lost girl Dominique (Brigitte Bardot), for the murder of her former boy-friend Gilbert (Samy Frey). Everybody (Dominique herself, her former friends and various lovers, her enemies, notably her own sister, as well as lawyers and prosecutors) states his own version of the facts, but what is the actual truth? To simplify the question: is Dominique just a ruthless killer, or was she a weak, enamored girl, victim of Gilbert's selfishness and bullying? As always in Clouzot's movies, "La Verite" is extremely intense, packed with a profound and uncompromising psychological study. The almost obsessive pace of events gives no break to both the characters and the audience. The script is first-rate, with plenty of cynical sense of humor, in spite of the dramatic facts told.

Brigitte Bardot was a great actress, endowed with an outstanding talent. A careful viewer could easily get it even from BB's performances in minor movies, like, say "Mademoiselle Pigalle". Here, under the sound direction of a genius like Clouzot, she is just sensational in a highly dramatic role. Of course, also the acting by the remainder of the cast is excellent, especially, needless to say, by the legends Charles Vanel and Paul Meurisse, as the two lawyers.

Possibly, the main credit of this fantastic movie lies in a gelid, sarcastic, misanthropic representation of human society. Arguably, this is the trade-mark of Clouzot's style, together with suspense, which here is present but not exasperated like in his other works. The world of the adults is wholly despicable, permeated as they are with hypocrisy, with prejudice and fear, especially in sexual matters, and with sickening cynicism, as masterly represented by the lawyer Paul Meurisse.

However, the youngsters are no better than the adults. They are just fatuous, selfish, conceited loafers, only able to utter pseudo-intellectual chats. As a matter of fact, when Dominique founds herself in dire straits, none of her young friends moves a finger to help her. And Dominique often appears even worse than the others. From some point of view, she might be considered a totally negative character.

So, what's the point of Clouzot? I think that's not an issue. He just shows what he sees; that's the style and the aim of one of the greatest artists in the history of cinema.

"La Verite" is a total masterpiece. It is impossible to be disappointed. Highly recommended.

While the title might sound familiar to some hard-core fans, there are chances that many potential lovers will never have the opportunity to find this masterful courtroom drama on TV or DVD.

Indeed, the truth is that Henri-George Clouzot's film of the same name has been sentenced to decades of cinematic oblivion, 7 reviews on IMDb says enough. And the injustice is even more cruel because the movie stands alone as a masterpiece of the genre in a period full of gripping courtroom dramas such as "12 Angry Men", "Anatomy of a Murder", "Judgment at Nuremberg" or "Inherit the Wind" where the verdict mattered less than the quest for truth it initiated and the statements it spoke about the impact of human perceptions in the exercise of justice.

This is why the main question in "The Truth" is not 'who killed', not even 'how', but 'why?', the film takes place during the trial ensuing the murder of Gilbert Tellier, Sami Frey as a talented, handsome and ambitious conductor by his beautiful girlfriend, Dominique Marceau, who tried to kill herself right after. Dominique is played by a 25-year old Brigitte Bardot, in a breakthrough dramatic performance, that elevated her status to the most promising actress of her generation rather than a one-dimensional bimbo.

Yet Bardot's sex-appeal is still significant to the story as Clouzot intelligently exploits it to highlight the sulfurous past of a young idle girl who used her body as an asset, to live without working, without prostituting herself either. Indeed, Dominique Marceau isn't the typical slut: there is in her attitude something that nonchalantly confines to pathos, embodying the unease of the 60's youth, being in her own feminine and naughty way, a sort of rebel without a cause. And the intent of Clouzot is less to make a social commentary but to explore the different facets of a seemingly obvious personality.

The trial becomes the setting for a gripping character study, revisiting the life of Dominique Marceau before the killing from the perspective of two different counselors, played by two giants. Paul Meurisse denounces Dominique's laziness, the jealousy she always felt toward her more studious sister Annie, and a bunch of former lovers come to belie her faithfulness and love for Tellier, whom she murdered by vengeance, because she couldn't stand his relationship with Annie. As for her suicidal attempts, there were calculated acts since she was always sure someone would come at time to save her.

On the other side, Dominique's lawyer, played by Charles Vanel, tends to demonstrate that the murder was a passioned crime, an act of desperation from a tormented woman, as Dominique truly loved Gilbert and couldn't imagine life without him. One of the film's greatest delights is the verbal duel between the two actors, and their interactions that remind some of the great courtroom dramas, when two respectable adults, even friends, become visceral enemies during the trial, James Stewart and George C. Scott, Spencer Tracy and Frederic March or more recently, Tom Cruise and Kevin Bacon.

The interest of the Meurisse/Vanel antagonism is to keep a shadow of mystery around Bardot's real personality, a villainous killer or a woman victim of her passion. And as the story progresses, Dominique's portrait, originally painted in black and white reveals many shades of gray while her victim, the good-hearted Tellier becomes less and less innocent. The story opens in Paris where Bardot embodies the youth's ennui, living like a sort of social parasite whose only excuse is to use her body as thin consolation. Yet, she can't be a slut because she's totally unaware of conventions, she's beyond them, and doesn't even feel guilty.

Naturally, the inevitable happens, Tellier, Annie's friend falls in love with the sensual provincial girl. It's the typical love at first sight, but it's handled in a very talented way by Clouzot who's a real craftsman when it comes to human emotions. Hefirst meets Dominique when she's lying naked, topless in her bed, swinging her beautiful behind to some mambo music, she incarnates the luscious fruit, she's everything her sister is not, that's what makes her so obsessively desirable. Then the romance between Marceau and Tellier turns into a series of passion, deception, treachery and arguments like only a director like Clouzot could have painted without falling in a sentimental or either Manichean trap.

And as we get closer to the murder, we understand the roots of Dominique's behavior and her suicidal attempts carry deepest significances, rather than an act of despair, they crystallize the vulnerability of a girl that tries to find her place in society, torn between the true love of Gilbert and a sort of paradoxical innocence that raises above her lust. It feels strange but when you keep an eye on Bardot's performance, you'd think twice before calling a girl, a slut. Bardot was the perfect choice for the role and her breakdown transcends the sensual contours of her delicious body and can touch any soul.

After watching the film, I guess the reason of its lack of notoriety is the fact that H-G Clouzot is renowned for several masterpieces of the thriller genre, blending it with elements of horror, mystery or police procedural, therefore, a movie like "The Truth" comes too late in his filmography and doesn't meet the same recognition than the acclaimed "The Crow", "Quai des Orfèvres", not to mention the classic "Wages of Fear" and"Diaboliques". But on its own, it's a magnificent exploration of the human soul, a masterfully written courtroom drama, and still a Clouzot's film with its dark and pessimistic undertones, and the eternal cloud of ambiguity that envelops the character's personalities.

Bardot lived a romance with Frey after the film, and she was so affected by the experience that like her character, she tries to commit suicide, if a film haunted its own actors, it gives you an idea about the psychological impact it might have on you

Here Brigitte Bardot strips bare and the precedent writer was completely right;it's not Dominique who's judged ,but Bardot herself.Never a character had been closer to the actress -I'm obviously speaking of the public figure- than this victim.Because she's primarily a victim : of a family who was dreaming of a good girl,respectful of family values -see Marie -José Nat 's Annie ,the perfect sister ,the "good" ,the earnest musician :she's so "straight"so "holier-than-thou,that she's almost frightening-;of a society ,not prepared to accept this new way of life,which predates the events of MAY 1968 and woman's lib;and finally,and mainly ,of men:they,too, are not prepared to accept the fact that a woman wants to live like .. a man:Samy Frey,the well-respected and well-meaning young man is actually a macho as well as a future mean bourgeois.

The man who worked this miracle ( turning Bardot into a first -class thespian) is none other than Henri-Georges Clouzot,one of the most daring clever gifted directors France has ever known.It was probably a hard time for him:he was about to become ill ,and that would prevent him from making another movie before 1968 ("the prisoner" ,his final achievement);besides the nouvelle vague on the rise dismissed Clouzot as a man of of the past,one of those creeps who "did not live what he was filming" (sic).Clouzot ,at his best, was better than 10 Chabrol ,20 Truffaut and 100 Godard ,but there's no accounting for tastes.Suffice to say that Clouzot,during his relatively short career (20 years ,and 11 films) ,took more chances single-handedly than the three artists mentioned above ,and his best works ("l'assassin habite au 21","le corbeau","quai des orfèvres","Manon","les diaboliques" -which got more praise abroad than in its native country- and "wages of fear" )are all classics.

"la vérité" is a long flashback ,a giant jig-saw the pieces of which will not completely put together at the end.The lovers of "les diaboliques" will appreciate the duel Paul Meurisse /Charles Vanel.They say HG Clouzot was very hard on his actors:but what a filmography!

In her memoirs ,BB wrote that it was HER favorite movie.

Far from the best of Clouzot and consequently not much revived but of considerable interest nevertheless for giving Bardot her best part. She plays a young woman on trial for murdering her lover and it alternates between the trial itself and the events leading up to the killing. It's got an outstanding cast, (Charles Vanel and Paul Meurisse are excellent as opposing lawyers and Bardot herself is terrific), and yet it often feels rather common-place, (Clouzot, his wife Vera and 4 others are credited with the screenplay; maybe a case of too many cooks?). For once, he doesn't build any suspense and you never really care what happens to Bardot. In the end it's the personality of the victim, (a first-rate Sami Frey), that proves to be the film's point of interest, though at 130 minutes it is something of a long haul.

Through contemporary eyes, you might be quite surprised, what most of the courtroom did surmise, without any question or compromise, but the flashbacks tell no lies and the romance, sadly, 'meurts'.

French sex symbol Brigitte Bardot occasionally alternated her standard titillating vehicles with films of greater substance (though, invariably, she was still required to shed her clothes!) often helmed by a top name within her native cinema – notable examples being Claude Autant-Lara's LOVE IS MY PROFESSION (1958), Julien Duvivier's THE WOMAN AND THE PUPPET (1959; the only one I have not watched, since it seems not to be available in an English-friendly version – but, of course, I am familiar with the three other adaptations of the Pierre Louys source material, as well as owning the novel itself!), the film under review (sharing disc space with the first-mentioned title on the copy I watched, after acquiring one on which the English subtitles did not work – that said, even here, translation for a slew of dialogue at a time is intermittently skipped – but, then, these are burnt-in on the print obtainable via "You Tube"!), Jean-Luc Godard's CONTEMPT (1963) – unquestionably the finest of the lot – and Louis Malle's A VERY PRIVATE AFFAIR (1962), VIVA MARIA! (1965) and the "William Wilson" episode from SPIRITS OF THE DEAD (1968). As for director Clouzot, this was his last mainstream film – since his next, "Inferno" (begun in 1964), would be aborted due to his poor health and a subsequent one, LA PRISONNERE (1968), was perhaps too 'specialized' (read: extreme) to cater for other than 'underground' audiences! For the record, I still need to watch his MANON (1949) and LES ESPIONS (1957) from the ones I own.

THE TRUTH – included in the all-time top 3,000 movies ranked by the "Wonders In The Dark" website – was the only title involving either to be nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar: incidentally, it is preceded by the Columbia logo and, apparently, was simultaneously shot in English as per contemporary posters!; for what it is worth, the film deservedly missed out to Ingmar Bergman's beautifully stark parable THE VIRGIN SPRING (1960) – even if they actually emerged joint winners at the Golden Globes! Anyway, what we have here is the trial of a crime of passion (with the star herself in the dock), the backstory of which is then seen in flashback – triggered off by the interrogations of various witnesses. Clouzot managed to rope in an impressive supporting cast for his plethora of characters: Charles Vanel as Bardot's practiced Defense Counsel, Paul Meurisse as the showy Prosecutor – incidentally, both these actors had already appeared together for Clouzot in one of his greatest works, DIABOLIQUE (1955) – and youngsters Sami Frey and Jacques Perrin among the uninhibited (what else?) protagonist's numerous lovers, the former being also the victim in the case.

The director's renowned clinical eye for detail is well in evidence throughout – but the film's two sections do not necessarily jell in this particular instance (perhaps tellingly, the 122-minute movie had as many as six scriptwriters assigned to it!). The narrative proper, then, seems to belong to the 'wasted youth' trend kickstarted by Federico Fellini's I VITELLONI (1953); indeed, despite their highbrow aspirations (musician Frey juggles a relationship with Bardot and her 'saintly' elder sister, all the while attempting to set up his own orchestra!), these singularly colourless personages come across as low-lifes more than anything else: the crime itself, followed immediately by the heroine's attempted suicide, is easily the standout here. Conversely, the backhanded tactics prevalent in the over-crowded courtroom lend much cynical enjoyment – thus countering the necessarily static nature of the cinematography during these sequences.

Still, the film is considered as the one in which the star gave her best performance (she even won the Italian equivalent of the Oscar for it as Best Foreign Actress): though the events leading up to the night of the crime and where the real guilt lay (hence the title) are hotly debated by both sides, it is inconceivable to accuse Frey (who could hardly be blamed for lusting after Bardot) over her (whose feelings for him – whether genuine or merely to spite her "square" sibling – are never properly defined)…which is perhaps why the trial ends abruptly as it does! In retrospect, the movie can be seen to have much in common with the afore-mentioned "Inferno" – whose troubled shoot was delineated in a feature-length documentary released in 2009 (after Claude Chabrol had already impressively refashioned Clouzot's original script for his own 1993 effort L'ENFER).

By far the best Brigitte Bardot picture, engaged with the avant-garde director Henry-Georges Clouzot, fitting perfect with a drawn up screenplay, about a lazy girl Dominique (Bardot) tired of his hometown lifestyle, decides by any mean living together with her old sister Annie (Marie-Jose Nat) at glamorous Paris in the early sixties, meanwhile his sister makes a hard efforts to learning classic music, otherwise Dominique dropped her preparatory course to work at beauty parlor, spending her time at bars and night clubs with questionable friendship, until meets Gilbert Tellier (Sami Frey) a promising musician which his sister raising hopes for future marriage, Tellier gonna crazy by so beautiful and sexy Dominique, although she scorns him, when he finally got her, he treats her possessively and grossly, they break apart, she suffers and end up sell yourself on prostitution, at their last meeting she on its kenees begs your pardon, then they had a love night and Dominique is merciless waived on the morning by his cold lover, abased deeply for such ruthlessness, later she kills him and tried out committed suicide afterwards saves in time, brought to trial, she is judge in her dingy background lifestyle, there lawers's battle begin although an unexpected ending, mastery Clouzot explores all strong sexy appeal that BB can delivers with dared scenes, told by countless and overlong flashbacks, my favorite Bardot picture!!

Resume:

First watch: 2020 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 8.75

Dominique (Brigitte Bardot) is on trial for the murder of her lover, conductor Gilbert (Sami Frey). Was it a crime of passion or the logical endpoint in a life of selfishness and the inability to love? If Clouzot's better-known vision of cynical machismo in 'The Wages of Fear' resulted from source material in another masculinist cynic-critic, here the collaboration with a team of female writers flips those odds. When Dominique is accused of having passed round a copy of De Beauvoir's novel 'The Mandarins' in school, provoking the excellent line: "Who's on trial here, Simone de Beauvoir?" If that real-life parallel has a kind of pleasurable fourth wall quality to it, the film's very success in drawing parallels between its fictional narrative structure and the real world-specifically, Bardot's own position within French culture-that lead it to be overshadowed by the real-life incidents in Bardot's life that took place in the weeks leading up to its premiere: the real-life love triangle, suicide attempt and media circus, as Bardot was hounded by a combination of hypocritical paparazzi mentality, the brutality with which Clouzot treated his actors, and the impending threat of national service faced by new lover and co-star Sami Fry. In just one of these situational ironies, Bardot was accused by a prominent film critic, of in essence faking the suicide attempt as a pleas for attention, just as Dominique is accused-multiple times-in the film. La Vérité's point was proved.

But what of the film's mode of narration itself? While some have described La Vérité as Clouzot's Rashomon, the film's moral scheme is more binary: an alternation between the guilty-until-proven-guilty cross-examinations of the courtroom, in which Dominique (Bardot), on trial for murdering her lover, is presented as a selfish traitor to familial and societal expectations, the epitome of Left Bank decadence, amorality and liberated sexual predation, and the real 'truth' of the incidents which led to this moment. Clouzot has faith that cinematic narration is able to tell the story of 'human feelings' (the plea of her defense lawyer) in a way that's ruthlessly eliminated through the accepted-but no more 'true'-distortions of statistics, supposedly objective facts, of bourgeois legal judgement and the climate of 'public opinion' (the combination of judges, lawyers, jury and press). Framed as a series of flashbacks from Dominique's highly-publicized trial, these flashbacks occur, not so much from the perspective of any one character-though if they were said to be from 'within' that world, they would be those of Dominique-as from a kind of cinematic authority which both shows events (fact) and colours them with another kind of truth (emotion). For all of Clouzot's judicious refusal to use a film score as emotional or dramatic crutch, it's a piece conducted by Gilbert-the climax of Stravinsky's 'The Firebird'-that gives heft to the love story, framed in ways that burst in and out of the narrative frame: overheard in rehearsal, where Gilbert's perfectionist breakdown of the piece breaks us from the spell of emotional immersion; replaying that music in grainy footage of Gilbert conducting on multiple television sets seen in a shop window; and then soundtracking Dominique's return to Gilbert's apartment as if playing out the emotional swells of film music conventions, not from the perspective of the film itself, but from inside Dominique's head. Yet the film rarely sticks with Dominique as a 'first person'-she's seen (the Bardot image) and depicted, relentlessly narrated by others, and by the film itself, but not often given her own voice. Likewise, if the judge and jury are a rigged game, enforcing a pre-ordained notion of what constitutes 'truth'-the hypocritical, moralistic (not ethical) conventions salaciously revelling in the details of passion-Clouzot's own ambiguous depiction of the emergent world of youth culture is hardly heroizing, even if it, to borrow the legal pun, reserves judgement. Gilbert can certainly be read as exemplifying the hypocrisy of bourgeois masculinity-exercising erotic passion through a woman for whom he has intellectual contempt, before dumping her for the 'spiritual' passion of marriage to her sister (as Dominique puts it, 'he wants you to darn his socks'): his jealous rages, his possessiveness, his refusal to acknowledge Dominique's social needs while prioritising his own artistic vocation at her expense. In a sense, the courtroom framework enables such depictions to be left suspended, whatever the judgement of particular details-judgements that viewers are encouraged to make with and against those of the court we see on screen.

Believe me - Right from the very beginning of "La Verite" it became so painfully obvious that sultry French sex-kitten (meow!), Brigitte Bardot (though she did look "hot!") was totally out of her league here as Dominique Marceau, the intensely anguished and deeply reflective murderess/bad girl.

Told mainly in "flashback" mode" - This 1960 courtroom drama not only became quite laughable when the opposing lawyers began to seriously grill Dominique about her murderous motives - But, at a 128-minute running time - "La Verite" cried out, over and over again, for some major editing, as well..... Yep. It sure did.

This is a particularly interesting film in relation to Bardot's star image. It portrays her as a little slut (she's had sex before marriage - cue shocked gasp from the courtroom) on trial for the murder of her lover. In many ways, the film thus acts out what many in France would like to have done - put BB on trial for her sexual promiscuity, her modernity, and her 'youthful' values. The film emphasises Bardot/ Dominique (the character is effectively overshadowed by the star who plays her) as sexual, modern, promiscious, flighty, idle, a spendthrift, all at odds with the uptight bourgeois ruling class. The film is a fascinating glimpse into the values that preoccupied the French bourgeoisie at the turn of the decade, with its emphasis on the students of the Latin Quarter as a drop out counter culture compared to the good youth learning traditional music at the Conservatoire. Not so much a generation clash, then, more one group rooted in tradition versus another embracing modernity and new models of behaviour. The film is sometimes unwittingly hysterical as it has dated so much, and it does not so much end as fizzle out, but in its depiction of a youthful counter culture it anticipates the events of May 1968 nearly a decade before they occur. BB may have lost the particular battle in this film, but she went on to win the war.

If "Rashomon" blew your mind, "La vérité" will blow your heart. In 1950, Japanese director Akira Kurosawa blew our minds with his unforgettable "Rashomon", a murder mystery that exposed the chimerical nature of truth as it is perverted by the flawed perception of each observer. We visualized the events surrounding a murder, via the conflicting testimonies of witnesses in court, never being told what's truth and what is not. Here in 1960 French director Henri-Georges Clouzot hits us with "La vérité", a murder mystery similarly visualized via testimonies in a courtroom drama, but in this case the facts are not disputed. In this case what's being subjectively perverted is the emotion behind the crime.

Brigitte Bardot is a young girl on trial for the murder of her lover. The prosecution perceives her as a cold-hearted, calculating killer. The defense sees her as a heartbroken, confused young girl pushed to a desperate act. What we get is a suspenseful peeling of the truth, but not the truth in terms of facts. We get to the root of the truth in terms of feelings. I imagine if you were to hook electrodes to your brain and study which areas light up when watching these films, "Rashomon" would light up your frontal lobe (logic center) while "La vérité" would light up that tiny peanut at the core of your head, the amygdala (emotional center).

The point being made, and unforgettably expressed in a passionate monologue by Ms. Bardot, is that hard facts aren't the only component of truth. She roars: "You sit up there, in your ridiculous robes, and you want to judge but you have never lived! Never loved! You hate me because you are dead! Dead!"

I challenge anyone to watch that scene and tell me that Brigitte Bardot isn't one of the finest actors. Even at the young age of 25, thrust into an intimidating arena alongside theatrically trained, veterand actors and one of the most notoriously perfectionist directors of cinema, she really carries the show. The role had originally been written for respected actor Sophia Loren, but Clouzot rewrote the entire story for Bardot after she was cast. Indeed she seemed to be made for this role and vice versa; the role was written for her (literally). In interviews Bardot stated that with no formal acting training she had to rely on convincing herself that she actually was the character Dominique. And this itself leads to a bizarre case of life imitating art (or the other way around?) where, feeling judged and persecuted by the press, Brigitte had a severe breakdown and shocking incident on her birthday in 1960 just weeks before the film's release. Google it after you watch the movie. Funny how even the press's & haters' reaction to the incident mirrored the prosecution's reaction to similar incidents in the tale of Dominique.

This film is a landmark with regard to emotional storytelling. And it's a landmark with regard to our human experience, attempting to understand this misshapen thing called reality. If you learned something from "Rashomon" then don't consider your education complete until you watch this essential companion film.

The truth, the title says it all. That is indeed the topic of the movie and Clouzot shows his by the mean of this trial. We see then almost everybody fighting for his version or perception of the truth. In fact, nobody really cares about the real truth in this trial, except maybe Dominique (and even we will see that her truth can change, through time and understanding). They fight (trial-wise) for what they stand: because they are representing the prosecution, defense, the victim ; because they are part of the "moral and virtuous", the good society or on the contrary the outcasts. And finally through that, Clouzot manages to show his truth, the depiction of the society in these times.

For the most part this is dazzlingly effective with some super Paris street scenes of the time, splendid cafe and night club shots with surprisingly good dance sequences and of course, one of Bardot's very best performances. She does well throughout but in the sizzling seduction scenes, including the most amazing bottom wiggle under bedsheets, are quite remarkable. She truly sparkles and makes everything that happens here perfectly believable. The problem, of course, is that basically this is a courtroom drama, with flashbacks, and is overlong. I have no idea what drew Clouzot to this project but it is possible that whereas 'un crime passionnel' defence might have been good for a guy, he might have wanted to point out that it was not so straightforward the other way round.

Everything has been said by the other reviewers about the performance of BB, the principle question of premeditated or not. On the other hand, much of this does not really matter. What we see here is the quest for truth. Truth in the sense of judicial truth, as well as societal 'truth'. The latter being volatile and dependent on circumstances. While the heroine is not exactly a shining star of mankind, she is also a precursor to the '68 revolution. The values of the old days do not tempt her any longer, and this lack is reciprocated by the people living in the Quartier Latin in Paris. Though, different to many movies made after this one, the director does not take a stand in this societal breakup. He rather looks at much deeper human emotions, independent of France, or 1968. In this respect this movie reminds me of Shakespeare who was likewise interested much more in exploring the depths and shallow parts of mankind rather than write a biography of Kind Lear or Macbeth.

Great examples for Clouzot's eye as independent observer are many in this movie. To name a few, the ridiculousness of committing suicide - or better consistently talking about it - as a kind of past-time as well as self-inflating. The horrible behaviour of the attorneys, for whom the court is nothing but a cheap opportunity to produce oneself.

Truth. The truthiness of the concierge? She's probably the most blatant liar of the whole plot. But exposed with relative ease. The truth of love, however, remains unanswered. Which just shows that the director was humble enough. Others, later, would be less humble. Totally deep down it can't be verified. Love and hate do go together, though, and this is shown profoundly in this movie.

Truth. Is this court actually interested in the truth? Or is it rather interested in following procedures that finally lead to some formal conclusion?

Truth. How tangible is this concept? In the end, we can see a certain truth. We have seen - as far as the flashbacks can be supposed to be objective - what actually happened. Though, we can still not see inside the hearts of the heroines. Can they themselves know what has been driving them through their 6 months together?

Absorbing, extremely well-crafted, but overlong courtroom mystery by Henri-Georges Clouzot. Brigitte Bardot runs the gamut of emotions, and looks (from glamorous to - believe it or not - plain!), in an impressive performance which is probably one of her best, but the film goes on so long (2+ hours) that it cannot sustain the tension level at a high pitch; it ebbs and flows. **1/2 out of 4.

We have often heard that the COVID pandemic has laid bare the problems with our society. Crises often do that. But it's not just crises that expose the faults. Minor events can do that. The OJ Simpson trial drew attention to racial tension in the United States.

A fictional trial also drew attention to problems. Not in the US, but in France. Henri-Georges Clouzot's Academy Award-nominated thriller "La vérité" ("The Truth" in English) focuses on a woman on trial for murder. This was apparently a crime of passion, but what was the full story?

The movie can get seen as a look at France's problems of that era (hence the title could refer not just to the trial, but to all of society). In a departure from her usual sexpot roles, Brigitte Bardot plays the accused (of course, she remains overtly sexual). Clouzot noted that a person's life story can't get fully told in such a short period of time; a trial can only reveal so much about an individual.

There are some scenes that I'm surprised they were allowed to include in the movie (of course, those scenes could've gotten removed in other countries). All in all, it's one of the most important pieces of cinema history. Definitely see it.

I Always associate Brigitte Bardot with director Roger Vadim. And not without reason. His film "Et Dieu ... créa la femme" (1956) was her breakthrough. But apart from that she has also worked with French directors who are creatively held in higher acclaim. Think of Henri-Georges Clouzot ("La verité, 1960), Jean Luc Godard ("Le mepris", 1963) and Louis Malle ("Viva Maria", 1965). Whatever the director, Brigitte always plays more or less the same role as a naive, frivolous and highly sensual girl.

In 1960 Henri Georges Clouzot was past his prime, but with "La verité" he directed a good film nevertheless. The position of "La verité" in the Clouzot oeuvre can be compared with the position of "The birds" (1963) in the Hitchcock oeuvre.

"La verité" is about the relation between a boy (Gilbert played by Sami Frey) and a girl (Dominique played by Brigitte Bardot). This relationship topples during the film. In the first half the boy takes it very seriously, in the second half the girl.

In the second half of the film it is very important from whom's point of view the story is told. The boy is of the opinion that the girl is obsessed. When we see the story through his eyes it resembles "Leave her to heaven" (1945, John Stahl). The girl is of the opinion that the boy is selfish and cruel. When we see the story through her eyes it resembles "Letter from an unknown woman" (1948, Max Ophuls).

The story is told in a series of flashbacks on the basis of witness statements during a trial. So we not only have the points of views of the "participants" of the relationship, but we also have the statements of more objective outsiders. The point is however that the statements of these more objective outsiders don't match either. This suggests (and I think this is the real meaning of the title) that there is no such thing as an absolute truth. In this respect the film has the same theme as "Rashomon" (1950, Akira Kurosawa).

Brigitte Bardot is on trial for murdering her lover, Sami Frey; after shooting him, she tried to kill herself by gas; the emergency services arrived in time to save her. As the trial proceeds, a portrait of her character emerges in the mouths of the lawyers and in flashback: lazy, self-infulgent, promiscuous, jealous of her hard-working sister; yet Frey was the love of her life, even though she was not faithful to him. Was it a crime passionel, or something wild, crazy left-bankers do, and what is the staid, ritual-bound, retrograde legal system to make of her?

On the surface it looks like director Henri-George Clouzot is taking time out from his earleier, anger-filled movies, to make a certain box-office winner, with La Bardot the center of attention, and Paul Meurisse and Charles Vanel as opposing counsels. Yet Clouzot's contempt for everyone, from the self-indulgent youngsters, to the obtuse court proceedings. There's little of the openly shocking behavior he is so fond of in his other movies; the entire system is sick.