Pierre Goldman was a French criminal who in 1974 was convicted of four charges for armed robbery one of which saw two women killed and he was sentenced to serve for life for the crimes. The Goldman Case is the story of his 1976 court appeal. Regarded as a left wing intellectual who was raised by Jewish communists and lived in Venezuela where he joined the guerrillas before returning to Paris and set about upping the ante when it came to criminality. He is something of a force of nature with an opening scene seeing him sack by letter his attorney Georges Kiejman (Arthir Harari) only to U turn on his decision in his next letter.
It’s one of the few non court room scenes before the self assured Goldman stands in the dock where he exhausts his new legal team with unexpected and often unwanted surprise revelations and accusations. Often playing to the loutish courtroom crowds that the judge is bewilderingly inept at keeping under control in his own court room often degenerating into a shambolic shoutiing match – any threat of contempt of court is ignored by them – and Goldman’s showboating is an increasing feature of his own defence throwing accusations of corruption and racism at the police, undermining the credibility of witnesses for the prosecution and laying open what he perceives as witness bias towards him. Frankly he comes across as something of an irritating, belligerent rabble rouser and quite whether he did commit the crimes are largely swept aside in favour of discrediting police and witnesses.
But Arieh Worthalter as the defendant is compelling in the role and The Goldman Case has plenty of the staple tropes of a courtroom drama. Perhaps its biggest problem is that the case is little known outside of France and is unlikely to have an international appeal. But Worthalter’s performance alone is the draw of what is essentially a stage play on film.
related feature : dark web serial killer court room drama ‘Red Rooms’ reviewed
related feature : Jamie Foxx & Michael B Jordan discuss the court room drama, ‘Just Mercy’ at the premiere in London
Here’s The Goldman Case trailer …….
The post The Goldman Case – REVIEW appeared first on Any Good Films.
from Any Good Films https://ift.tt/sTzB8Ow
