The Night of the 12th

This is a fictional interpretation of an actual crime that sees newly promoted "Vivés" (Bastien Bouillon) take his team of Grenoble detectives to a small town to investigate a grisly murder. Walking home from a friend's house the previous morning, "Clara" (Lula Cotton-Frapier) is confronted by a stranger who throws a combustible liquid over her and then sets her alight. What the Police Justiciare have to work with is a ghastly sight. Their investigations quickly reveal no shortage of potential attackers. This girl had lived a "lively" life - unbeknownst to her parents - and her boyfriends ranged from the nerdy to the opportunist to the downright bad boy "Caron" (Pierre Lottin). Thing is, loads of suspects don't add up to loads of evidence and tempers amongst the team begin to fray as their lack of actual progress becomes frustrating, exasperating and personal. Although this has elements of a whodunit to it, it is essentially quite an interesting "fly-on-the-wall" style drama that illustrates the difficulties faced by an under-resourced team of officers who cannot but become involved in the heinous crimes they must try to solve. This film looks quite intensely at their own personal relationships and is frequently peppered with some dark humour and with contrary views on the victim that occasionally make it difficult for an on form Bouillon to handle. Bouli Lanners is effective here as his passionate sidekick "Marceau" - himself having his own share of domestic disasters, and as the narrative pans out we, too, are offered nothing concrete in which to hope! I didn't love the ending scenarios. The casualness, desperation even, seemed to fly in the face of so much of their previously meticulous police-work, but the lead performance is good, the cinematography potent and this is definitely worth a watch.

**_Police procedural about finding the killer of a woman burned alive_** The film was based on the case of Maud Maréchal, whose corpse was found in 2013 in Lagny-sur-Marne, a suburb east of Paris. This fictional version transports events a few years later to the capital of the French Alps, Grenoble in southeast France, and the ski resort town 65 miles east of there, Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, which is where the crime occurs. The film was also shot in these locations. It’s reminiscent of Euro detective flicks “The Girl By the Lake” and “The Girl in the Fog,” mixed with the artistry of the 2009 version of “Last House on the Left.” Like in “The Prophet’s Game,” you get to know the key detectives as they investigate several suspects, and you understand their frustration when damning evidence is lacking. I’m talking about the characters played by Bastien Bouillon, Bouli Lanners, and a couple of others. Going deeper, the story revolves around escaping self-imposed psychological constraints, which is symbolized by Marceau seeing a flower amidst dead weeds, not to mention Yohan at the end. In addition, it’s interesting how the perverse act of immolation can be traced back to some of those dubious witch burnings that occurred from the 1400s-1700s in Germany and places nearby. It runs 1h 54m and was shot in 2021. GRADE: B