The spirit of André Cayatte ,a director too often unfairly dismissed by the highbrows, is still living on...
"Tuer un homme" broaches the subject of self-defence with a great sense of decency ; the now de rigueur brilliant lawyer takes a back seat to the tragedy of the accused person; and it avoids the main danger: to find the hero's case taken over par extremists ,the far right ;it's only hinted at ,with the rugby coach and the posters of an election near the supermarket.
"Tuer un homme" is pure psychological drama: where are the limits of self-defence? Why shoot twice? Do you react to fear ..or to a fit of anger? Although supported by the public opinion, the unfortunate hero ,a self-made man who struggles hard all his life to own his jeweller store ,who's been burglarized twice , is more and more bewildered :"They treat me like a criminal!" His robber was only 23, just a kid, agonies of remorse begin to spoil his life:a good citizen ,a good father and a good husband, he sees his wife (whose life he thought he had saved ,but a revelation calls everything into question) turn away from him ,his daughter and his son have their doubts .
The victim 's side is not passed over in silence : some people have put a makeshift memorial with photographs ,flowers and candles (the daughter's attitude has completely changed in the last sequence) ; one sees glimpses of the life of these underdogs in their HLM (public housing project/council housing estate)where one can hear a baby wail;and one comprehends the violence of the widow's words whose toddler " will never know his dad" .
Well acted ,particularly by both principals ;panoramic shots come back to show an apparently nice town in the south of France .
In one of his most famous classic ,"justice est faite" (1950) ,André Cayatte ended his film with a question mark ."Tuer un homme" ,although life goes one apparently peacefully, leaves us with many questions which remain unanswered.
