For 3 days all of Lyon has been riveted to...
...Frederic Chapelin-Tourvel's trial.
A trial exposing the full horror of a double parricide...
...but throwing no light on the defendant's personality.
The hearing is almost over yet we still wonder what motive...
...may have driven this young man from a wealthy family...
...to commit a double crime.
The court of Assizes jury has been out for four hours.
Everyone here is on tenterhooks.
A silent, dramatic afternoon in the court room...
...all aware...
...that a man's destiny will be at stake during Dunand's plea...
...the highlight of this trial.
And Charles Dunand...
...won't disappoint those of us familiar...
...with his reputation for reversing adverse situations.
A brilliant defence speech...
...will it acquit Frederic Chapelin-Tourvel?
Dunand insists on his acquittal.
We're waiting for the verdict...
...from the jury...
...who are still out. Over to you in Paris.
Don't worry, I go to all the big trials.
The longer it takes the better his chances.
Not always.
Remember the Maurin case? They were out for 8 hours and he got life.
Can we have that light off?
Not allowed.
The jury has been out for five hours.
The longest deliberation ever for one of your cases.
You can't reproach yourself, whatever the verdict.
Your defence plea was remarkable...
...despite the complexity of the brief.
Your talent...
That's not the point, Brunet, one must be utterly convinced oneself
before one can convince others.
Talent is irrelevant.
Did I really convince you that Frederic was innocent?
Eventuality, yes.
Benedicte?
Yes... of course.
I was sure of it before I even opened the brief.
He's too affectionate to commit such a vile crime.
If he's convicted he'll go to jail innocent,
I'm sure of it.
An eminent Swiss colleague once told me:
"Justice vanishes once you get close to it. "
And I've been close to it a long time...
The Court
Bring in the defendant.
The jury's verdict on the following counts:
Did the defendant Frederic Chapelin-Tourvel,
on the night of January 16th in Lyon last year,
wilfully murder Henri Chapelin-Tourvel,
his lawful father?
The verdict is not guilty.
On the second count:
did the defendant
on the night of January 16th in Lyon last year,
wilfully murder Christine Bellon, wife of Chapelin-Tourvel,
his lawful mother?
The verdict is
not guilty.
Silence in court!
The court and the jury hereby acquit Frederic Chapelin-Tourvel
and order
his immediate release from custody
unless there are further charges.
Court rise
Scandalous!
A disgrace!
What did they say?
Ignore them. The jury never doubted you, nor did I.
Sure, but maybe the jury's wrong.
What do you mean?
Imagine I'm guilty.
Yeah, I blanked out.
I don't know if I'm guilty or innocent.
What's going on?
We're waiting for you.
You were fantastic as usual.
They said so on all the networks.
I'm not coming for dinner.
Apologise for me, say I'm tired.
What's wrong?
I'm sorry. See you later.
He won't be long now.
Get ready!
Here he is!
Chapelin-Tourvel!
Where's your car?
I came in a cab.
They'll drive us... to save us from the press.
I have a surprise for tomorrow!
And where are we going tonight?
My place of course.
And then?
I knew you'd win
so I booked two seats for the Caribbean.
We're flying to Martinique tomorrow morning.
My dream for 15 months!
In the sun again, Franca, marvellous!
I knew you'd like it.
You can't imagine how much.
Charles!
Charles, you can't act like this, the Mayor is getting impatient!
You can't insult him like this!
I have a problem,
it's serious.
A problem?
How can someone take off a guy's socks while he's wearing his shoes?
What socks?
Mine obviously.
You're wearing them...
I bought them for you, Burlingtons...
your favourite socks!
That idiot stole them while I was pleading!
Sorry, I don't understand.
That figures. We haven't been married long enough...
only 25 years.
Shut the door, please.
How are you? Fine.
Hello Sir Hello, boss.
The trial is tomorrow, how do you feel?
Fine.
Scared?
A bit.
Don't show it. Juries always suspect a nervous defendant.
They'll think you're guilty.
If I get scared it's not for myself, but for them,
for my parents.
If I'm convicted
they'll be accused of giving birth to a monster
yet the killer may be in court.
They'll be condemned twice over.
Stop!
Where are you going?
Yes...
I knew you'd be waiting by the phone.
Strange you weren't waiting for me outside the prison.
Don't lawyers usually do that?
I forgot about you. I blank out too.
When?
What?
You want to see me right? OK, in an hour...
If I agree?
Your place.
My place? What do you mean?
Your parents' apartment. Your memory may come back there.
How much?
Two francs fifty.
I don't think we'll go away.
Not go away?
Well, no...
We're not going.
Why not? Tell me!
Got anything else to do?
I've dreamed of it for 15 months too!
Frederic!
Frederic...
Mr Frederic! It's been so long... We changed the code...
I'm sorry.
Come in
Mr Frederic,
I must warn you...
Beat it, scum!
Lucien, come to bed!
Forget all that... forget him.
How did you get in?
Through the door.
Butard let me in, I said I was meeting you here.
He couldn't say no to the man who got you off.
What do you want?
I told you after the verdict.
And you?
Pretty furniture, huh?
Rather like butterflies!
How touching, Butard hasn't cleaned up the scene of the crime!
My mother,
my poor mother,
sapped with a candlestick!
First time for you, right?
An acquitted guy turning himself in.
And insisting he committed the crime!
I would have sensed your guilt, I would have...
...smelt it.
It must be pretty tough. A blow to your pride, huh?
I've screwed you over for the last 15 months...
If you want to accuse yourself you need proof.
Prove it.
After 15 months of prison,
I was supposed to be with the woman I love tonight
and go on vacation tomorrow but I'm here. Is that not proof?
Do you know the etymology of the word "vacation"?
Vacant, vacuum...
To isolate oneself.
You need to isolate yourself,
not with Franca, but with me!
You want to get free of some crap and I'm the only one who understands.
That's why you called me!
A ball bearing drawn to a magnetic pole!
Sure! Without you I'm nothing,
wiped out!
I hate paintings hanging crooked. It's bad luck.
Stop babbling out of fear!
Fear?
Obviously!
If I confess, what will people say about you?
Two options:
either the great lawyer Charles Dunand
was tricked by a client,
or he pleaded not guilty despite his well-known moral values.
Either you look ridiculous
or your morals go up in smoke
as a crooked lawyer.
Franca said I was with her that night.
But it's not true. I was here
and I'll say you knew it.
And the caretaker's testimony?
Oh right,
you turned that bastard over very neatly, with talent, I must say.
My client says he went home
around 9am, Your Honour.
The autopsy sets the alleged double murder...
double parricide, Your Honour...
sets the alleged double murder at 6am.
Mr Butard, you stated on the first day, and I quote:
"I saw the accused leave the building by the back door at 6.30am. "
My client was indicted on your testimony alone.
Yes, it was him, I stand by that.
Mr Butard,
the back stairs and the courtyard were dark.
Are you quite sure the shadow you saw was the defendant?
I've known him for years. I wasn't mistaken.
If the murderer was the same size as the defendant -
A figure you glimpsed briefly...
...running away...
It was him, I swear it...
Forgive me, Mr Frederic.
Why didn't you step outside to make sure?
If you'd have really seen him, then there'd be no doubt.
There is no doubt, Judge.
The indictment is solely based on this testimony!
You are an honest man, Mr Butard...
...convinced of what you saw...
...but error is always possible... even when one is sure.
You were very fond of the victims...
...the Chapelin-Tourvels?
Oh yes!
Think of them.
If their son is wrongfully accused you defile their memory!
Trying to shake the witness!
Well, Mr Butard?
Do you still stand by your statement?
Yes, I think so.
It was dark.
No doubts at all?
No...
Yes...
I don't know.
The witness admits that he could have been mistaken.
And Miss Millaire has always maintained...
...that Frederic spent the night with her and left about 8am.
Thank you, Mr Butard.
The witness can stand down.
Wrong! I wasn't at her place, I was here!
He saw me alright...
...my alibi is blown now.
You still don't seem guilty.
But even now, after the verdict, we'll find out the truth
Why "we"? I know the truth.
Think I'm crazy?
Why tell me all this?
To flatter you, sir. Defending an innocent man is a cinch.
But a guilty man... that takes talent.
I admire you.
Leave that blind!
I hate closed windows.
I hate schizoids! Why did you do it?
You're sick, Dunand.
You don't care about justice; it's murderers who fascinate you.
That's why you came here.
You live off murders but they are unreal to you.
You'd like to read your clients' minds...
...and discover their secrets...
...when a guy is alone with his victim...
...ready to slaughter him...
What happens exactly?
What do they look like?
At the massacre!
You find two corpses next day and you imagine the scene...
...it obsesses you, just like everyone else.
Take a seat.
Here's what you came for:
a murderer invites you to the show!
Last year, January 16th...
...six in the morning.
My father, Chapelin-Tourvel...
...comes home after spending the night...
...with one of his mistresses.
Henri!
Bullshit.
Your father had been out playing poker...
...and the crime didn't happen like that.
The candlestick didn't kill him.
He had a weak heart...
...a slap in the face was enough.
Maybe you blank out
but some moments are unforgettable.
Right...
...we'll tidy up...
...get this place like it was before the crime.
Will you help me? No, forget it.
And then...
...we'll run through the trial again.
The trial?
I'll examine your memories.
And if I'm convinced you're guilty, you'll admit it, believe me,
and today's verdict will change.
It can't!
The verdict can't change after the trial!
If you go on trial again with a lousy lawyer instead of me...
...they'll throw the book at you. You'll get life.
You thought your smart words would run off my skin like water.
False! I've got skin like a hedgehog's.
Words stick to me like parasites and they suck out my blood...
...until I find the insecticide.
And insecticide is the truth.
But you know I didn't mean it...
I was kidding...
...being smart.
I hope so for you, but I must make sure.
Police reports, the minutes of the investigation...
I'm prosecuting attorney, judge and jury all at once.
But the witnesses must be at the Court's disposal.
The main witness first: Franca Millaire. Call her.
Franca? Why call her?
Sit down and call her.
Frederic...
No it's not Frederic.
I was sure you weren't asleep. Charles Dunand speaking.
Mr Dunand?
I must ask you to remain at my disposal from now on.
But why?
I mean at the Court's disposal, of course.
The Court? At this time of night?
Murderers work after hours, so do judges.
Where's Frederic?
What's going on?
I guessed she'd call back. Good.
She won't come over here now.
Why are you looking at me?
Out of coffee!
Obviously the caretaker didn't buy any.
He thought I'd have mine in jail.
Coffee, dickhead!
Right away Mr Frederic... Anything else?
No!
On reflection I think you're fooling me...
...playing games with me.
You can't be guilty.
Why not?
You see,
Your father was power crazy...
...he expanded his firm by ruining hundreds of people...
...small businessmen...
...one of his victims killed him.
As I said in court, the apartment wasn't robbed...
...the murder's motive was...
...simply revenge!
Is that what you really believe?
And you still do... now?
All my smart words finished, forgotten?
You just wanted to get a kick out of convicting yourself.
I'm going home.
You scared me shitless! I thought you took it all seriously.
No, wait, let's celebrate.
Good timing!
Buy us some champagne, vodka, smoked salmon and caviar.
Here's your coffee, Mr Frederic.
And a lobster!
I dreamed of lobster for 15 months, in jail because of you! OK?
Yes, fine.
An American asked how to cook lobster.
"Later", said the lobster,
"à I'Américaine. "
No, not later. Right now!
I'll be as fast as I can, Mr Frederic.
No, wait a minute, I've just remembered: the key!
What?
The goddamn key!
What key?
The apartment wasn't broken into...
...nor the back stairs or the windows... so the murderer...
Came in and out simply by turning a key in the lock.
Who had the key? Frederic...
So he's the murderer.
Yes, but everyone's forgotten something...
You had the key too!
What?
You had it and you've still got it.
Come on, Mr Frederic!
Maybe you sold the original, for a lot of money?
What?!
And you're wearing new shoes.
Listen, sir...
I was very fond of them both...
But the next day you cleaned out the fridge, right?
The butter, frozen foods, cold beef?
It wasn't me Mr Frederic... it was my wife.
Go out and leave your shoes here.
Pardon?
Take off your shoes, I must examine them.
He is Mr Chapelin's son...
Use the back door please.
15 months in jail because of him... I've let him off lightly.
Let's invite Franca to supper.
Sure. Call her.
All over then? I say I'm innocent and you believe me!
What was the use, admitting I was guilty?
Doesn't my story count for anything?
I've lied all along.
The prosecuting attorney was right, I hated my father.
So you killed him?
No chance of that.
Why not?
He wasn't my father!
That never occurred to anyone!
Then if it's true...
It is true!
How do you know? Who told you?
My mother. She admitted it to me.
I'm listening.
Dead simple.
A year after her marriage...
she met a man on a plane one night... between Mauritius and Kenya...
And then?
Can't you guess?
He got her pregnant.
And do you know why she kept me?
Because he was the best lover she ever had!
Happy? Now you know!
It's your mother you should have hated. Why Chapelin?
Because I loved her!
She made me as happy as that stranger made her.
Then you'd have spared her. There's still no reason to kill Chapelin.
You're right! I didn't kill either of them! I didn't kill anyone!
That night
I was upstairs in my room.
I saw and heard everything.
Chapelin returned from the States a day early...
...at 6am
He found her...
...with a lover.
The guy punched him.
Chapelin, who had a weak heart...
...dropped dead.
The guy got scared that my mother would turn him in.
Didn't you try to save your mother?
I was scared...
...he was crazy.
He went back to the bedroom to dress.
You saw him.
Why didn't you call the police?
I didn't want to!
Think I'm dumb?
You'd have avoided 15 months in jail and a trial!
People would have called her a whore.
I was proud to stand by her.
When the guy pissed off I left.
The caretaker saw me.
He saw one man, not two.
You were at Franca's that night.
You imagined this crime.
I don't believe a word you say. You invent people to forget yourself.
Take a look.
Look at this hallway!
To me it's oblong, to you it's a labyrinth.
You're here, there, all over the place.
Dozens of Frederics!
Call me when you find the right one.
Listen to me.
Have dinner together all four of you.
Mythomaniacs never feel lonely.
Mr Frederic, I've got everything.
The flowers are from me.
Right.
Wait!
I'll tell you everything.
Mr Dunand
This time the murderer is you.
Where did he come from?
I couldn't see him.
Call an ambulance. Is he your son?
Get up.
Get up!
Get up, I tell you!
Come on.
If I hadn't done that would you have gone home?
Really?
Think I meant to kill myself?
I think you faked it, very cleverly.
Why?
You don't want to live enough to want to die.
That's your secret problem.
Total refusal.
You refuse to be innocent and free...
...you refuse to be guilty and go back to jail.
An inner poison stops you living and being normal.
What happened when you were 12? That's what you must tell me.
A perfect child until you were 12, then
everything changed overnight.
I'll never tell you. It doesn't concern you.
You're a tragic character, Frederic.
Destined to be a victim...
but one can bypass destiny.
Here's the last act for you!
I killed them, and went out, the caretaker was right.
I ran to a phone box and called Franca...
...to ask her to say I spent the night with her like I've done for months.
Two hours later I came back and discovered the crime.
I was appalled and terrified.
I was so shattered that I had herpes for a week.
The police had got to work, they didn't take much notice of me.
Only the maid,
who had found the corpses when she came to work that morning...
...was crying.
She entered a convent the next day.
Poor Madeleine...
I won't tell anyone else.
An accomplice... 5 years.
You love her?
Yes.
So much.
Then you're innocent.
You don't kill when you're happily in love.
It doesn't add up.
And you're too bright to kill them off.
You'd get more pleasure from
watching them deteriorate day by day.
Cut it out. You want to distract me, you're planning something.
You're no ordinary killer, no threat to society.
You won't commit parricide again.
It's her!
Oh, yes...
it's her.
The accused revelled in his vice daily.
A year before the crime...
...what do you think he installed in his room overlooking...
...the rooftops of Lyon?
An ultramodern telescope!
This voyeur violated the privacy of innocent people, spying on homes.
I'm no voyeur.
I bought this telescope for a specific reason:
I had decided to stay in my room.
I didn't go out for 5 months.
I had my meals and cigarettes brought up.
I cleared everything out: TV, stereo, books...
I wanted to be alone...
...and invent my own outside world.
So I invented the sky...
...the Lyon sky changes non-stop.
Cumulus clouds, nimbus clouds...
I had names for them all.
Everyone in those buildings...
...became stage characters in a huge play in my mind.
They were all isolated until I united them...
...in a wild, crazy intrigue like an opera.
Then one morning I saw Franca.
I knew I had been waiting for her.
I decided to quit my dreamworld for reality.
Franca wasn't a fantasy.
I wanted her to exist in real life and to love me.
You're surprised that I could hope she'd fall in love with me?
You wouldn't be if you'd really tried to get to know me.
For years
I'd repressed so much love and fantasy passions
that I couldn't live with anyone.
Now all this love was for Franca.
I fell hook, line and sinker, Mr Dunand.
I looked up her street on a map of the city.
Then I waited outside her house.
She was an actress,
We liked the same things.
She loved poetry and music.
And then you found a family with her drama group.
The first people I'd ever met who weren't middle-class.
Fresh air!
You lived together and wrote a play, not bad at all.
The play was a joke and the actress had no finance.
You demand your inheritance
and your parents wisely say no.
You know your starlet would drop you.
So you kill your parents for your inheritance,
My client demanded nothing, Your Honour.
Miss Millaire never asked him for finance, she found it elsewhere.
Subsidies.
Hypothetical!
Excuse me, Miss,
I've been watching you through a telescope for a few weeks now.
Oh! Was it interesting?
I was wondering who you are and what you do.
What do you think?
I don't know...
...an actress?
I just write, I'm on my third play.
What are your plays about?
Love.
What more is there in life?
You often go to the river?
Yes. We meet here every day.
"Clarify my doubts about my sister,
Unveil your feelings for us, Clitandre.
Reveal the whole truth and let us learn
Which one of us has a place in your heart. "
"No, I will not subject your passion
To the ordeal of an explanation.
Such avowals can be embarrassing... "
"No, I will not subject your passion... "
How you doing?
"I feel for others and I know such avowals can be embarrassing. "
"No, my heart has no secrets
My feelings can be revealed.
Such a step doesn't embarrass me,
I can admit loudly and clearly
My heart's preference:
My love and my desire are for her.
Do not be upset by my confession
You yourself created this situation... "
Hi, Stef!
Who's that girl?
Her first time here.
Help!
Frederic!
Seeing Franca's lovely face...
...so pure...
...made me decide to kill them.
I had to be like her...
...clean...
...and flawless.
Or else I'd be their ally,
I'd be as guilty as them.
She'd be ashamed of loving a coward.
Their ally?
I had to avenge him.
I couldn't leave him alone here.
Who? There was another man here?
Yes...
...a dead man.
Dead!
The dead need our care all the time.
Flowers on their graves for instance.
Know why we take them flowers?
Because they share a secret language.
You still don't get it?
We gave parties in this apartment, we slept, ate and screwed with a corpse below us!
Go on!
No.
No, I can't...
Go on!
Don't force me...
You must! What are you hiding?
No more of that nightmare!
When you're a kid of 12...
...it's tough to learn that your parents are murderers.
Vile murderers.
I said Chapelin found my mother with a lover in January last year.
Only the date is false.
It did happen...
...but ten years ago.
Up til then I was a normal child...
...who thought life was great.
I woke up when Chapelin came in.
I got up to go and kiss him.
I still believed he was my father
He killed my mother's lover.
It's ok, he's asleep.
That's how I discovered there was a trap door in the apartment.
If there is, show it to me.
Some days the past sweeps over me...
I'm stuck back 10 years ago, I can't get away from it!
Think I'm gonna believe this story? A trap door!
Like a cheap thriller!
You killed your parents. I know it.
He wasn't my dad.
You killed them, so you need me.
You're obsessed with your crime.
It's driving you crazy all the time.
And you need to get it off your chest.
Yes, but no one else must know. Except you.
If there is no trap door, I'm sending you back to court!
If I show it to you you'll talk, you'll tell the police.
His death is a secret between me and him.
Ready to die, lawyer?
I can't let you live once you've seen the hiding place.
No problem. Show it to me anyway.
Come on. Do it.
Too bad for you, you asked for it.
The apartment, exactly as it used to be.
These sinister old apartments in Lyon were designed for terrible crimes.
Just as this one was.
That's why Chapelin never restored this old passage.
This trap door was my grandfather's idea.
You know why?
A misanthropic genius...
...to avoid ending up in the vault with the family he hated...
...he had this hiding place made...
...as his secret burial ground.
Chapelin buried him in the graveyard.
But the place fulfilled its function:
it became a tomb.
I'll let you run the show.
Take down that picture, please.
Good. Now press the switch.
Wait.
The best is yet to come.
Here...
...see for yourself.
As you can see, no spider webs, no dust.
I tended that tomb meticulously... with love.
Maybe you killed him yourself?
At 12 years old? A precocious killer.
How can you prove it?
My mother's lover, whom her husband killed...
...as I've just described, was... Antoine Bonnet.
Yes, Antoine Bonnet...
...the richest man in Lyon.
The unsolved crime of the century.
He disappeared into thin air 10 years ago.
People still talk about it,
the police are searching all over the world...
The funny thing is, he's 100 metres from his own house.
He lived over the road.
I'm giving it to you on a plate.
You get me acquitted, then the next day you prove I'm guilty.
The worthy son of murderers.
Fantastic!
You solve three murders in one go and you crack the Bonnet case.
You'll be front page news.
Go ahead, call the cops.
Your next move, right?
Tell them everything, turn me in.
Mr Dunand.
Stop looking at me.
Blackmailing me with youth.
No, Frederic, I won't turn you over to the police...
Your behaviour reeks of ignorance, about me...
...and about a lawyer's code of ethics.
So you tended that hiding place with love.
Why with love?
And why not throw your parents in there out of the way?
No, I couldn't.
Not with those two swine.
I loved him too much.
Love means knowing someone.
Sure I knew him, my mother told me everything.
As I said.
I lied about them meeting on a plane in Kenya...
...to make it more romantic...
They met at a banal party...
That changes nothing. You're his son, right?
You must have hated that woman...
...hated their murderous complicity...
...how you must have hated them to kill them.
Whatever happens, I have no regrets.
Will you put me back on trial?
Justice means two different things:
virtue and administration.
Well?
I don't think you come under administration.
You're leaving me?
Yes, Frederic.
For a night and a lifetime.
Why?
I shared your nightmare for one whole night, but you will stay in it until the end of your life.
You shouldn't have come.
You're so right.
Why are you here?
I called, why didn't you answer?
Where's Frederic?
Upstairs.
Franca...
...one question:
Why did you say he was with you the night of the 16th?
Well, because...
No thanks, forget it...
Forget it.
One must be utterly convinced oneself before one can convince others.
Talent is irrelevant.
He's too affectionate to commit such a vile crime.
If he's convicted he'll go to jail innocent,
I'm sure of it.
"Justice vanishes once you get too close to it. "
I've been close to it a long time.