La Nuit Du 12

Bastien Bouillon and Bouli Lanners

Dominik Moll's La Nuit Du 12 (The Night of the 12th) is a superior slow burn police procedural. Prefaced by a title that says it was based on an actual unsolved case, the film centers on an investigation into the murder of a young woman who was horrifically burned to death. Moll and Gilles Marchand's script focuses as much on the toll police work takes on the investigators as on the investigation itself. As the police interview the various suspects, mostly skeevy ex-boyfriends of the young woman, they deal with the disgust and nausea inspired by consorting with amoral and immoral young men. The repetitive nature of the investigators life, one of them invokes the metaphor of a hamster wheel, takes its toll.

The newly promoted Captain of the force, Yohan, played by Bastien Bouillon, seems the most impervious to that toll. He blows off steam by endlessly circling his bike around a velodrome. He has the discipline to deal with the repetitive stresses of police life, but it comes with a cost. The Captain seems to have no personal life. Marceau, an older officer played by Bouli Lanners, is coming to the end of his tether. His marriage is breaking up and Marceau responds by becoming violent when confronting suspects. His days on the force are numbered and he knows it.

Mr. Moll has been making unflashy, hard-boiled flicks since his impressive debut, Harry, He's Here to Help. His work is well respected in France, La Nuit Du 12 won Best Picture at the Cesar awards, but has made little impact elsewhere; perhaps because his films don't call attention to themselves stylistically and have a misanthropic streak. La Nuit Du 12 is impressively crafted and acted, particularly by Mr. Lanners, but is possibly too cold-eyed for popular appeal. Nevertheless, Moll allows glimmers of humanity to pierce through the cold rational frames of his films. La Nuit Du 12 offers no triumph of justice, but offers up enough intimations of personal growth to help ameliorate its dour worldview.