Garde à Vue

Garde à Vue
Directed by	Claude Miller
Written by	Claude Miller Michel Audiard Jean Herman
Produced by	Georges Dancigers Alexandre Mnouchkine
Cinematography	Bruno Nuytten
Edited by	Albert Jurgenson
Music by	Georges Delerue
Release date	1981 (1981)
Running time	90 minutes
Country	France
Language	French

Garde à Vue is a 1981 French film directed by Claude Miller and starring Romy Schneider, Michel Serrault, Lino Ventura and Guy Marchand. It is based on the British novel Brainwash, by John Wainwright.

It won the César Award for Best Writing, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor. The film had 2,098,038 admissions in France and was the 17th-most-attended film of the year.

Plot

Jérôme Martinaud, a wealthy, influential attorney in a small French town, falls under suspicion for the rape and murder of two little girls. He is the only suspect, but the evidence against him is circumstantial. As the city celebrates New Year's Eve, the police, led by Inspector Antoine Gallien, who is investigating the double rape/murder case, brings the lawyer in for questioning. At first politely, and then less so, the interrogation team consisting of Inspectors Gallien and Marcel Belmont chips away at the suspect's alibi. They interrogate him for hour after hour while Martinaud continues to maintain his innocence. We learn all about the evidence; we meet Martinaud's wife Chantal who tells Gallien about the rift between them and the origin of it, which may be an eight-year-old girl (Camille) Martinaud was in love with. In the face of overwhelming evidence, and feeling let down by his wife, Martinaud confesses to the two rapes and murders. However a fresh corpse is discovered inside the boot of a car that was reported to be stolen, and the car's owner turns out to be guilty of the crime - exonerating Martinaud. Martinaud leaves the police station and finds his wife, who has committed suicide.

Remake

Garde à Vue was remade in 2000 as Under Suspicion.

External links

• Garde à Vue at IMDb
• Garde à Vue at AllMovie