If the names of the protagonists change, it is obvious that Frédéric Tellier has duly documented the Monsanto trial in Paris in 2021, for his new film Goliath, in theaters Wednesday, March 9. With Gilles Lellouche as a pugnacious lawyer and Pierre Niney as a lobbyist communication director, the mysteries of power mingle in a gripping and fascinating film from start to finish.
France militates against the use of pesticides after the cancer contracted by her companion contaminated by glyphosate. Patrick is a lawyer despised by his colleagues, a specialist in environmental law. Finally Mathias leads the communication of large lobbyist groups, including that of a giant of agrochemicals. The suicide of a young woman will seal these three fates in an unprecedented trial.
Three stories intertwine without meeting until a trial that will bring them together in a head-on clash between public health and economic interests. The case has been in the news for years, following complaints and lawsuits, in France in 2020, and in the United States in 2021. Farmers and local residents complained of cancers whose origin lay in the chemical substances of the herbicides used by the farmers, with full knowledge of the facts on the part of industrialists. The French and American lawsuits were won by the plaintiffs, despite the proven power and bad faith of the defendants.
In Goliath, the director Frédéric Tellier sticks to the letter of the file that he examines with surgical meticulousness. He exposes the actors: a victim, a lawyer and a lobbyist, but also their symptoms and their resistance to disease, cancer and corruption. His observing camera is nonetheless a source of emotion. Its cast in tune with the roles – Gilles Lellouche, the lawyer, Pierre Niney, the lobbyist, and Emmanuelle Bercot, the complainant – have a lot to do with it. The situation and the dialogues are of an extreme precision in the exposition of the facts, engine of a dramaturgy which one follows until expiration.
Frédéric Tellier knows how to tell stories and engages in those he directs. Discreet but implacable in his intentions, he convinces even in his extrapolations when he films the confidential interviews between all the parties, creating the link between the reality from which he is inspired and the fiction. It avoids the trial film and is in line with the exercise of power, The promises Where Another world, in the revival of French political film. Great.
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Kind : Thriller
Director: Frederic Tellier
Actors : Gilles Lellouche, Pierre Niney, Emmanuelle Bercot, Laurent Stocker, Yannick Renier, Chloé Stefani, Marie Gillain, Jacques Perrin
Duration : 2:02
Country : France
Exit : March 9, 2022
Distributer : StudioCanal
Warning: scenes, comments or images may offend the sensibilities of viewers
Summary: France, a sports teacher by day, a worker by night, is an active campaigner against the use of pesticides. Patrick, obscure and solitary Parisian lawyer, is a specialist in environmental law. Mathias, a brilliant lobbyist and man in a hurry, defends the interests of an agrochemical giant. Following the radical act of an anonymous person, these three destinies, which should never have crossed paths, will jostle, collide and ignite.