10th District Court

Published 7:00 am Monday, October 9, 2006

Jury duty in French. Raymond Depardon’s courthouse documentary sounds so unspeakably boring that I am astonished to report it’s . . . only run-of-the-mill boring, neither profound nor trivial, revealing the same tattered pageant of humanity you find in any municipal court in all its peevish, defensive, mendacious glory. You can get the same stuff on Court TV without the subtitles, and since the Paris courtroom sternly administered by Madame Justice Michèle Bernard-Requin is a talky place, there are a lot of subtitles to read. No one would confuse her with the smug, hectoring Judge Judy, however; she’s confidently, quietly superior without being patronizing to the defendants who appear before her. (Maybe that distinction is, you know, French.) Nothing rattles her—not the petty drug dealers and illegal immigrants, not the pickpockets and drunk drivers, not even the polite, bespectacled guy charged with making harassing phone calls to an ex-girlfriend.

The maddening limitations of this tedious film are exposed with this last case, which deserves a movie of its own. Apparently Depardon filmed (on video) 169 trials and winnowed them down to this 105- minute selection of 12. Well, that’s still 11 too many. The mild harasser’s testimony is followed by the impassioned plea of his battered ex (“He still beats me in my dreams”). Then you realize how his glasses, new haircut, and clean shirt belie his true nature. That both parties are young French-speaking Arabs only makes the case more troubling. She’s articulate and obviously assimilated; what economic and cultural factors lie behind him—well, Depardon never leaves the courtroom, so we can’t say.

After being sentenced, one petty subway thief protests to the judge, “I hope you can sleep well.” For viewers, that won’t be problem. (NR)