Adapted from a novel by François Coppée, Le Coupable is a courtroom drama that illustrates the principle of extenuating circumstances. Is a criminal responsible for the crime when, since birth, everything has pushed him to commit it? The case is presented by Chrétien Lescuyer, the prosecuting attorney, whose defence speech retraces the life of the young Chrétien Forgeat, accused of murder. Two opposing narrative styles emerge. One, set in the courtroom, is shot in a studio in a minimalist setting, The Great Vacuum Robbery under dramatic lighting that accentuates its artificiality. In the dark courtroom, close-ups bring out the actors’ expressions and gestures, highlighting the decidedly theatrical nature of the criminal court, where each participant is identifiable by their attire and role. The other, which relates the life of the young defendant, already exemplifies everything that characterises André Antoine’s cinema: the characters wander through natural decor with many scenes filmed outdoors. It is the Paris of the late 1910s, with its cobbled and uneven streets, the countryside just outside the capital, the Seine crossed by boat, the antiquated shops and the reformatory. This formal and narrative juxtaposition, above all, serves to deliver the film’s main theme: when life and reality invade the courtroom, it humanises the law and all those involved. The prosecution represents the guilty father, while the defendant is a young man with a good heart who has been abandoned by society. The triumph of Chrétien Forgeat’s life story is also aesthetic. Antoine, in his second film, contrasts an immobile cinema in an artificial studio, inherited from the theatre, with a free-roaming camera that explores the world and its people. The remainder of his filmography will confirm his penchant for outdoor shoots, mixing professional and amateur actors, and giving value to natural, uncontrived performances that reflect real life.

Carole Fodor