In a town not far from Grenoble, Clara leaves the home of her best friend Stéphanie. The evening is mild, and the surroundings deserted. Suddenly, a hooded figure emerges from the darkness, spritzing Clara with gasoline. Dispatched to the scene in the early morning, Yohan Vivès, the new head of the judicial police (PJ), will never quite recover from the sight of the remains of the young girl.
Then begins a laborious, frustrating investigation, but which will allow Yohan to see some of his a priori. Winner of six César awards, including Best Film, Adapted Screenplay and Best Director, The night from 12by Dominik Moll, is a procedural and social work of rare power.
The film is freely inspired by an unresolved investigation recounted in the documentary book by Pauline Guéna 18.3. A year at PJ.
“Pauline immersed herself for a year in the judicial police of Versailles, and she recounts a lot of investigations, carried out in different departments. The last investigation of which the book speaks is that which the film deals with. However, it was not a question of faithfully reconstructing a news item: it remains a fiction, “explains the director of Harry, a friend who wishes you well.
The case in question concerns Maud Maréchal, 21, who was burned alive in May 2013 – in media indifference, as noted by Dominik Moll. “It is a crime that has not been publicized at all. »
To continue the scenario writer, what struck him with the reading, it is the way in which the author describes how the investigators are “affected” by the crimes which they do not manage to elucidate.
“Finding out how an investigator becomes haunted by a case he can’t solve immediately interested me. It seemed to me a different way of approaching the detective film, because usually, when we show a crime at the beginning, we reveal a culprit at the end. Here, this is not the case. »
Dominik Moll wanted in this case a film which would be the most documented and the most authentic possible.
“Often, detective films retain only the spectacular elements; there are plenty of shortcuts. However, the daily life of the police is the interrogations which often lead nowhere, it is the reports to be written, it is this photocopier which is always out of order… One thing which pleases me is that the police officers of Grenoble, with who I kept in touch, enjoyed the film. They found the portrait very representative of their reality. »
Their word to them
The film makes some terrible observations regarding the feminicide that is at the heart of the plot. One thinks, for example, of this discussion between the police officers of the PJ – all men – where one of them remarks that historically, it is the women who are burned, and that it is the men who hold the matches.
We also think of this passage where Yohan, discouraged by the absence of clues, drained by the horror that refuses to show its face, declares that all the suspected men would have been able to take action.
“I have the impression that with Gilles [Marchand, le coscénariste], we did somewhat the same route as Yohan. I also think that, five years ago, we would not have made the same film. There was the #MeToo movement, and as a man, even a man like me who is not guilty of any wrongdoing, it was the occasion for a necessary questioning. In particular to face the fact that the violence is mainly against women and that, even when it is directed against another man, it has mainly to do with masculinity. All these questions, Gilles and I asked ourselves, but it was clear that we were making a detective film centered on the daily lives of investigators. »
Dominik Moll specifies that he and his co-screenwriter wanted to avoid at all costs making an opportunistic film that “would ride the MeToo wave”.
“Besides, I have always refused to say that it is a feminist film, because for me, feminism is a fight that belongs to women. Men, we can accompany, be allies, but to call oneself a feminist is just another way of dispossessing women, in my opinion. The film is a film of guys who try to listen to women. The character of Yohan evolves in contact with the female characters, whose words are the most important: whether it is the investigating judge who will relaunch the case [Anouk Grinberg] or Stephanie, Clara’s best friend. »
In this regard, a pivotal moment occurs right in the middle. During this pivotal scene, Stéphanie rebuffs Yohan by putting into words the prejudices of the police vis-à-vis Clara, who, during her lifetime, had dated a few boys.
“Has she slept, has she not slept: what difference does it make? says Stephanie. She didn’t commit a crime! You want to know why she got killed? She got killed because she was a girl. That’s it that’s all. It was a girl. »
In Yohan’s eyes, a new understanding dawns (both Pauline Serieys and Bastien Bouillon are unbelievably accurate).
For all others
The film, it was alluded to, shows an all-male (knowledgeable, dedicated, but all-male) police environment. Also, the late arrival of a policewoman seems all the more significant. Ditto with the entry on the scene, in the third act, of the examining magistrate. In doing so, the film puts its finger on a problematic paradox.
“As the young policewoman points out towards the end of the film: it is all the same curious that the majority of crimes are committed by men and that afterwards, it is other men who investigate beyond The only place that remains to women is it that of victim? »
To this question, Dominik Moll, like his protagonist, refuses to answer in the affirmative.
“Obviously the crime is horrific, and the film has a darkness to it, but Gilles and I didn’t want the unsolved status of the case to impose a desperate vision. We wanted there to be, precisely in all this darkness, a form of optimism. A discreet, but perceptible optimism in Yohan’s evolution, in his perseverance, in the fact that when he is ready to abdicate, he pulls himself together, telling himself that if Clara is haunting him in this way, it is because that he must continue to go to his work, and that he must continue to investigate. »
Investigate for her, and for all the others.
The film The night of 12 hits theaters June 2.