Director Dominik Moll’s superb French feature The Night of the 12th (La nuit du 12) — César Award winner for Best Film, Best Director, and five other César awards — is a gripping murder mystery/police procedural based on an actual unsolved murder in France.
As the film begins, a 21-year-old woman named Clara (Lula Cotton-Frapier) leaves a party in the middle of the night. On her way walking home, a hooded and masked man who calls her by name splashes her with flammable liquid and sets her on fire. She dies from the attack, and detectives Yohan (Bastien Bouillon) and Marceau (Bouli Lanners) are assigned to the case. Yohan is a strictly by-the-book man of few words, while the more veteran Marceau is having marital problems and often on the edge.
The Night of the 12th focuses on the investigation and the toll it takes on both the detectives, the others in their department, and those close to Clara. Clara’s alleged promiscuousness is a focal point of the investigation, even as her best friend Stéphanie (Pauline Serieys) rails against the presumptuousness that such thinking can lead to. The men who the detectives question are cheaters, perpetrators of domestic violence, and other miscreants, and each possible lead culminates in another frustrating dead end.
The Night of the 12th lets viewers know from the beginning that there won’t be any definitive suspects arrested for this case. The procedural and the great emotional toll it takes on those involved is the main focus, and Moll — working from a sharp, thought-provoking screenplay that he cowrote with Pauline Guéna and Gilles Marchand — delivers a work that is often heart-wrenching for many reasons. The cast members give top-notch, gripping performances led by the chemistry between Bouillon and Lanners.
Aficionados of true crime stories and those who simply appreciate first-rate filmmaking will find plenty to appreciate with The Night of the 12th.
Film Movement presents The Night of the 12th, currently in cinemas.
