10e chambre, instants d’audiences

The 10th District Court is in its apparent simplicity an essential, modern film. After Faits divers (about the police station) and Urgences (about judicial psychiatry) and ten years after Délits flagrants (filmed in the usually inaccessible antechamber of the procurator general), Depardon was now given permission to film in the so-called chambre correctionelle of the Paris courts, the sessions of which are open to the public. The method is clear: the camera focuses on one person at a time and shows only the events in court. The case is heard. The judge – Ms Michèle Bernard-Requin – sums up, the accused or the lawyer is allowed to say something and a verdict then follows. The suspects are accused of offences such as driving under the influence, petty theft, illegal possession of guns, terrorising former partners, small-time dealing, illegal immigration. That’s it.With his well-considered attitude in this play of human failings, Depardon organises – apparently en passant – a major debate about norms and values in the head of the viewer. A debate that could be realised in every country in the world, every year afresh. What is the crime? Why does the judge decide on that sentence? Could I have done it? And next year? Why does the whole court react with disapproval? Or don’t they do that in France? Subtleties are spontaneous. In any case, the first lesson to foreigners is: never say anything unpleasant to a Paris parking attendant. (SdH)