Film – ‘The Thread [Le Fil]’ (2024)

The 2024 French legal drama ‘The Thread’ (in French ‘Le Fil’) – is hardcore legal drama, albeit set more outside than inside the court room.

The outstanding French actor Daniel Auteuil plays the lead character – but he also co-wrote and directs the movie – in the legal case of an ostensible family man, with no prior convictions, who is accused of the savage murder of his spouse.

Auteuil plays Jean Monier, a criminal lawyer who has not appeared for an accused for 15 years after an earlier unsuccessful defence, leading to that accused being guillotined.  On the back of that sad event, he becomes obsessed with the defence of the accused Nicolas Milik, played by Gregory Gadebois.

This reviewer – used to the adversarial system operating in countries with the legal system with genesis from the United Kingdom – is placed on edge by the French inquisitorial system, and thereby legal dramas based on the same, as is on display here.  The gravamen of the latter system is an official inquiry to ascertain the truth.  The latter sounds fine in theory but it is irksome to be confronted by the court being involved in active investigation of the facts of the case. So much, however, enhances the attraction of this cinema offering.

While film noir in style, for this reviewer this film is well worth the attendance fee and cost of the popcorn. 

Reviewing the film in [‘The Scoop’], Christian Claye Edwards writes – accurately in the view of this reviewer – of the film [ https://thescoop.au/film-review-the-thread-is-french-cinema-at-its-best/]:

Despite being sublimely shot in and around the Draguignan courts, not far from Saint Tropez, this is a south of France few will recognise. Like the brutalist steel and concrete prisons, cul de sacs and courtrooms of its aimless characters, there’s not a lot of warmth, hope and humanity on display.

Instead of wealth, there’s poverty, instead of light there is only the cold grey of an apparently perpetual winter. Instead of (a young) Depardieu, there is only Auteuil.

Empathy, honesty, evidence and reason are notable largely by their absence. The ensuing journey through guilt and innocence is a ponderous, inevitable dice roll. Monier himself is a shadow of a man, but what a shadow. 

The film was released in 2024, debuted at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival and is 115 minutes in length.

As is common in French films, there are outstanding performances by the supporting actors.  Gadebois – as the accused Milik – is a sad bear of a man, conscious of the shortcomings of his deceased wife – who he vehemently denies murdering – and devoted to his family.  Other notable performances are Sidse Babette Knudsen, who plays the role of Monier’s spouse and herself a lawyer, and also Alice Belaidi who plays the role of the prosecutor Adele Houri.

The movie was only released in Australia in late August this year, so can be accessed in cinemas, and no doubt upon streaming services within a short time thereafter.

The film trailer may be seen on this link.