In his new film The Goldman TrialFrench filmmaker Cédric Kahn revisits a little-known chapter in French history by reconstructing the second trial of Pierre Goldman, a far-left activist accused of killing two pharmacists in a robbery gone wrong.
It is April 1976 in Amiens. After Pierre Goldman – the half-brother of singer Jean-Jacques Goldman – was sentenced to life imprisonment in a first trial that was eventually canceled, he is entitled to a second trial following the publication of an autobiographical book in which he proclaims his innocence .
Goldman is accused of four armed robberies, including one in which two pharmacists were killed. If he admits to being the perpetrator of the first three robberies, he denies being involved in the robbery that ended bloodily.
The second trial against Goldman caused a stir in France. This is because Pierre Goldman, a secular Jew whose parents were heroes of the Jewish resistance, became an icon of the intellectual left in 1975 after publishing his autobiographical story, “Obscure Memoirs of a French-Born Polish Jew.” Certain issues raised in his trial, such as racism and police violence, caused tension in France at the time and continue to resonate today.
“I’ve wanted to make a film about Pierre Goldman for a long time, but without really knowing how to do it,” explains Cédric Kahn, who was in Montreal this week to present The Goldman Trial at the opening of the Cinemania Festival.
“Ever since I read his book, I told myself that something could be done about him. Because I discovered that this story is about broader things than just Goldman. It’s not so much his story that I wanted to tell. It’s more the story in which it plays a role that interests me.”
The fact is that the character of Pierre Goldman – played brilliantly by Arieh Worthalter – is fascinating. Charismatic, provocative, paradoxical…
“He is heterosexual but at the same time very ambiguous. Both seductive and disturbing. He is a very rich character. And there are many questions around him. Why did the left turn it into a symbol? Why did people believe that?” asks the filmmaker.
feeling of truth
In order to move as far away from a classic biographical film as possible, Cédric Kahn dared to shoot a legal drama whose action takes place almost entirely within the walls of a courtroom. A gigantic challenge in terms of staging.
“I love test films, but also closed doors,” explains the filmmaker, emphasizing that this genre represents “an interesting working space” because it requires a lot of concentration from the viewer.
“I wanted it to be an immersive experience for the viewer and for them to feel like they were sitting in the room,” says Kahn. I had two allies: the quality of the dialogue and the quality of the actors. I relied on that more than the staging or the camera movements.
When the film hit French cinemas last month, it was heavily criticized by Christiane Succab-Goldman, the widow of Pierre Goldman, who criticized the film for completely fabricating the scenes of his testimony. In reality, Ms. Succab-Goldman never testified in court because Goldman refused to allow her to do so to protect herself.
“The film doesn’t claim to be the truth at all,” defends Cédric Kahn. To reconstruct the process, we used newspaper articles from the time. But since we didn’t have the court documents, we patched up a lot of things. I would say we worked with a mix of rigor and freedom. I know, it’s strange. But that’s exactly what cinema is: it’s about inventing something to get closer to a feeling of truth.”
The Goldman Trial hits theaters November 3rd.