On the occasion of Wednesday’s release of the film “The Goldman Trial” by Cédric Kahn, a look back at Pierre Goldman’s career. A complex character, son of Polish Jews and figure of the far left of the 1970s.
On September 27, 1979, 15,000 people walked in silence behind a hearse, in Paris, to Père Lachaise. The crowd came to greet Pierre Goldman, a figure of the French far left of the 1970s. Régis Debray, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir were among the many personalities present. 44 years to the day after the burial of Pierre Goldman, in The Goldman Trialdirector Cédric Kahn retraces his appeal trial.
During the ten years preceding the death of the singer’s half-brother Jean-Jacques Goldman, Pierre Goldman made headlines. HAS At the end of the 1960s, he participated in the guerrilla war in Venezuela. HAS On his return, this fiery and disillusioned intellectual, he was involved in several armed robberies.
Accused of double homicide during robbery
Everything changed in 1969: two pharmacists were killed during a robbery in Paris, Boulevard Richard-Lenoir. Pierre Goldman denies the accusations. The first trial took place in 1974: the Paris Assize Court sentenced him to life in prison, a verdict contested by part of the French intelligentsia, very much on the left. 50 personalities created a support committee with, among them, Pierre Mendès-France and the actress Simone Signoret.
The first trial is quashed for procedural defects. Two years later, in April 1976, the second Goldman trial began in Amiens. Numerous and brilliant support, combined with the absence of evidence, allowed Pierre Goldman to be acquitted of the murders on Boulevard Richard-Lenoir, but he was sentenced to 12 years in prison for three other armed robberies. “That Simone Signoret was present during almost all the debates before the Amiens Assize Court when Pierre Goldman was tried a second time, that could not leave the jurors indifferent,” notes his lawyer, Georges Kiejman.
Pierre Goldman then lives on the proceeds from the sales of his autobiographical book Obscure memories of a Polish Jew born in France, which he had written in prison before his second trial. He also writes for the newspaper Release. On September 20, 1979, Pierre Goldman died in Paris, shot dead in the street, near his home. This homicide remains unsolved, but several leads have emerged, pointing the finger in particular at small far-right groups.
Who was Pierre Goldman? – The portrait of Sophie Allemand