La Vérité

Beautiful, troubled Dominique Marceau (Brigitte Bardot) came to bohemian Paris to escape the suffocation of provincial life, only to wind up in a courtroom, accused of a terrible crime: the murder of her lover (Band of Outsiders’ Sami Frey). As the trial commences and the lawyers begin tangling over Dominique’s fate, the Oscar-nominated La vérité, directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot (Diabolique), delves into her past, reconstructing her struggle to find a foothold in the city. What emerges is a nuanced portrait of an impulsive young woman misunderstood and mistreated by those around her, and of her ultimately tragic affair with an up-and-coming conductor. With an astonishing performance by Bardot, Clouzot’s affecting and intricately constructed film—a huge late-career success for the French master—renders a harsh verdict against a hypocritical and moralistic society.Special Edition FeaturesNew 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrackLe scandale Clouzot, a sixty-minute documentary from 2017 on director Henri-Georges ClouzotInterview from 1960 with ClouzotInterview with actor Brigitte Bardot from the 1982 documentary Brigitte Bardot telle qu’elleNew English subtitle translationPLUS: An essay by film scholar Ginette Vincendeau