Article 353 of the Criminal Code

Directed by Emmanuel Noblet, this Chabrolian confession of a murderer, who has lost everything except his honour, is embodied by a duo of fabulous performers, who give this social drama a poignant force. For having thrown the unscrupulous real estate developer Antoine Lazenec into the sea, Martial Kermeur has just been arrested by the police. To the judge before whom he is referred, he retraces the course of events that led him there: his divorce, the custody of his son Erwan, his dismissal and then, above all, Lazenec's shimmering projects. It must be said that the temptation was great to invest all his redundancy bonus in a beautiful apartment with a view of the sea. But it still had to be built...

On stage, with palpable intensity, Vincent Garanger embodies Martial Kermeur, this silent fifty-year-old, broken by the disillusionment of life, who finds a form of redemption in words. His acting, all in restraint and tension, gives flesh to a complex character, both guilty and profoundly human. He inhabits this role with rare accuracy, moving from resignation to anger, from shame to regained dignity. Opposite him, Emmanuel Noblet, also a director, plays a sober and attentive judge, a figure of listening and confrontation. Her discreet but essential presence structures the story, giving the face-to-face a remarkable dramatic density. Together, the two actors weave a vibrant dialogue, which gradually transforms this judicial interrogation into a powerful political and philosophical questioning of justice and intimate conviction.

Show less