Le Petit Lieutenant

Infobox Film | name = Le Petit Lieutenant

caption =
director = Xavier Beauvois
producer = Why Not Productions
writer = Xavier Beauvois
Guillaume Bréaud
Jean-Eric Troubat
Cédric Anger
starring = Jalil Lespert
Nathalie Baye
Antoine Chappey
Jacques Perrin
music =
cinematography = Caroline Champetier
editing = Martine Giordano
distributor = Cinema Guild
released = 8 September 2006 USA
runtime = 110 minutes
language = French
(English subtitles)
budget =
imdb_id = 0431979

"Le Petit Lieutenant" is a 2005 drama by French director Xavier Beauvois.

ynopsis

The title character is Antoine Derouere, a young man from the provinces who has just graduated from the police academy. Antoine joins the force in Paris and is assigned to the city's busiest precinct.

Antoine's introduction to police work is rather unexciting. The audience sees him deal with an unruly drunk and take a report from a robbery victim. One day, though, Antoine's unit receives a report that a homeless man's body has been found in the Seine. Not long after, a university professor almost meets the same fate.

As the investigation of the river murder gathers momentum, Antoine's colleagues note a hint of romantic interest in Antoine by their unit commander, Caroline Vaudieu. Antoine laughs off the idea, citing his own lovely (and younger) wife, a schoolteacher who remained in their rural French village.

On one visit home, Antoine tells his father about watching a coroner conduct an autopsy. Antoine says that, as he watched the coroner lay out the victim's internal organs, he thought of Mozart: "How can all that stuff compose music?"

Caroline, meanwhile, is a recovering alcoholic who uses the excitement of the Seine murder investigation as a substitute for the high from liquor.

Cast

* Jalil Lespert — Antoine Derouere
* Nathalie Baye — Caroline Vaudieu
* Antoine Chappey — Louis Mallet
* Xavier Beauvois — Nicolas Morbe
* Jacques Perrin — Clermont
* Roschdy Zem — Solo

External links

* [http://movies2.nytimes.com/2006/09/08/movies/08lieu.html Manohla Dargis' review in The New York Times]

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