The Seventh Juror (1962)

Sadly Over-hyped

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

M.Duval (Blier), bored and out walking, comes upon Catherine, a beauty sunbathing topless. He tries to kiss her and when she resists and screams, strangles her. He feels no great remorse or pangs of conscience, but when he finds himself on the jury at the trial of her main lover (she had several) does all he can to to get the wrongly-accused man acquitted. To say more would spoil your enjoyment. suffice to say the film is thoroughly gripping, and the ending terrific.Pathe have been issuing DVDs of restored, relatively rare French films like this one. The prints are excellent and have English subtitles: I wish Gaumont would follow suit, as there are so many neglected works from the 50s and 60s by the likes of Cayatte and Hossein, brushed aside by the New Wavers like the abysmal Jean-Luc. "Juror" could have been made by the more prestigious Clouzot or Chabrol, as it shares their disgust at the prejudice and self- protection of the provincial petit bourgeoisie, Duval's wife being a prime example (no wonder he's so frustrated.)I've seen three Lautner films restored by Pathe, and this is easily the best (probably his masterpiece, but I haven't seen all of his work.) It's a pity he mostly made silly romps with insufferably smug stars like Belmondo and Meurisse, where nothing's at stake. All that prevents me giving this film 10 is that after Duval met the prosecuting counsel in a shop pre-trial and said he believed the accused innocent, said counsel would surely have rejected Duval as a juror: that scene was a mistake.As an outsider it was fascinating to see how the French legal system works. The juror basically conducted the defence (the defence counsel hardly said a word!) Duval constantly interrupted proceedings to ask questions. He grilled witnesses, called for one to be recalled, argued with the prosecutor and suggested a reconstruction at the crime scene. None of this would be possible in the adversarial system we have in the UK and Us: the French system, which seems focused on trying to find the truth, seems superior.

Grégoire Duval (Bernard Blier), one of the most upstanding citizens in his provincial French town, commits a spur-of-the-moment crime of passion and subsequently gets picked for the jury when a man with a dubious past goes on trial for the murder. Grégoire's probing questions get the man acquitted but in the eyes of the community, the defendant's still a killer and when Grégoire eventually confesses to the crime, nobody wants to hear it...Director Georges Lautner's extremely satisfying film noir also doubles as an autopsy of cold, cruel, hypocritical bourgeois values and is not unlike "Madame Bovary" in that respect. The philosophically resigned voice-over narration of a man tormented not only by what he's done but by the way his entire life played out has a chilling effect and it's a dark universe, indeed, right down to THE INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS ending (on Christmas Eve, no less). There's bitter irony to spare with a dazed walk through nocturnal city streets present in some of the finest noir such as ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS and BLAST OF SILENCE and director Georges Lautner (who'd go on to make the giallo-esque ROAD TO SALINA with Rita Hayworth & Mimsy Farmer) gives the bleak proceedings a grey, misty patina that doesn't go away, even in the daytime. The Francis Didelot novel the film is based on was adapted in the U.S. a year earlier for an episode of THE ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOUR called "The Star Juror" and the timeless tale was also turned into a 2008 TV movie in it's native France. 10/10!

Georges Lautner is possibly best known outside France for a film he made shortly after this one, Les Tontons flingeurs, which enjoyed something of an international mild success. He compensated by making scads of multiplex fodder but with The Seventh Juror he turned in his piece de resistance. Basically it adds a new wrinkle to such entries as The Big Clock, Mr. Arkadin and Police Python 357, that wrinkle being that a murderer finds himself on the jury when the wrong man is brought to trial. Stumbling across a young woman sleeping topless in the open air the middle aged Blier succumbs to temptation and attempts to rape her. When she begins to scream for help he moves his hands to where they will do the most good and chokes her to death. Remaining undetected he stands by as an innocent (in this case) man is charged with the crime and then winds up on the jury where he does everything he can to secure a not guilty verdict. Never exactly sylph-like even in youth Blier in middle age resembles no one so much as Sydney Greenstreet and performs just as well if not better. It is, of course, really the town itself that is on trial - we are clearly in Le Corbeau and Les Inconnus de la maison country here - and there is a brilliant twist at the end. Made in 1962 it it also sticks two fingers up at the new wavelet brigade. Masterful.

Sometimes ago, I read the comments on Le 7ème Juré, which opened my interest to have a look on it. Though Bernard Blier has never been someone I liked very much, perhaps only for his cold demeanor...Possibly not explainable, or just because occasionally you like someone you don't know, and you have no apparent sympathy for another one... it just goes by feeling.I have still no "ellective affinities" with BB (not Brigitte Bardot, don't get me wrong! :) but his fine performance reminds me his other movies in which he plays. Amici miei (Mario Monicelli 1975) is one example that comes to my mind... (much more enjoyable, only because it's a kind of comedy)My apologizes to Blier : he's pretty good ! Once more !They are pretty good, too, in that small town, with the conspiracy of silence, and indulgence for the good society. What can be said, what should not... an so forth!Lautner is also not known to me to make very funny nor good films, but mildly diverting ones. Sorry for his fan! Now, in that one, possibly his cinematographic achievement, he demonstrates an accurate vision of human society.And as said by another comment I wonder why he didn't use this creative force to make more ones like Le 7ème Juré. For me, it is not possible to like this movie: it is too true, to well describing how it goes and functions everywhere... But it's an excellent one! Critical, cynical, clinical and desperate : great drama/thrillerOne may, like me, not like it but still appreciate it, as I did : great cinema !