Posted at 8:30 a.m.
From The SK1 casehis first feature film, Frédéric Tellier made a name for himself by bringing to the screen a case that arose in French judicial news during the 1990s. save and perishwith Pierre Niney already, was a less great success, but stemmed from a fictional approach based above all on facts.
For his third feature film, the filmmaker researched for five years before coming up with a screenplay, co-written with Simon Moutaïrou (Black Box), at the heart of which is the question of the use of pesticides in the food industry.
Told from the points of view of three characters, Goliath is thus one of those film-investigations constructed with rigor, whose primary ambition is to arouse the interest of the spectator by borrowing the form of a thriller, but also to launch an alert on the social level.
There is this lobbyist without morals who put his expertise at the service of a powerful company specializing in agrochemicals (Pierre Niney, excellent in an unsympathetic role), a worker whom the illness of the man she loves pushes green activism (Emmanuelle Bercot, still as intense) and, between the two, a lawyer specializing in environmental law, struggling with personal problems (Gilles Lellouche, also very good).
The effort is commendable. The set will no doubt also appeal to lovers of legal dramas, especially since the effectiveness of the story is undeniable. However, we can deplore a sometimes didactic approach, in a story told at times too schematically. Frédéric Tellier does not avoid the sentimentalism that had undermined his previous film from the inside either.
On the strength of a great public success in France, Goliath is in theaters in Quebec.
Indoors
Thriller
Goliath
Frederic Tellier
With Gilles Lellouche, Pierre Niney, Emmanuelle Bercot
2:02 a.m.