DVD Arrêtez-moi

At first sight, the audience think of Claude Miller's GARDE A VUE. Almost entirely shot in one set, the face to face between the two leads: a police officer and the suspect.

Here, a very strange and unusual tale, where a widow – Sophie Marceau – goes to the police station to testify against herself. She declares the murder of her late husband, ten years ago, a violent husband who regularly beat her. And the inquest at this time concluded as an accident, or suicide.

Yes, a weird and surprising story, where, I was also surprised to see that Marceau seemed not convinced by her character. But the very ending

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is poignant at the most, terrific. Marceau is finally imprisoned and she talks to her son, during one visiting room, and she tells him that she killed his father – his god – ONLY to prove to her son that she was not ONLY a victim. She wanted him to be proud of her.

Terrific.

And the subplot about the female police officer – Miou Miou – and her own mother and father, is also very unusual and excellent.

I will finish by pointing out the Marc Barbe character, as the violent late husband. Barbe is the absolutely perfect character for such a character. No actor in the world would have played it better than him. No one. He seems to be born for such characters. Remember him in TROIS HUIT. The prefect disgusting bastard. A very good actor.

But is he really only an actor in such characters?