The Young Lieutenant

Antoine, fresh out of police school, requests a transfer from the provinces to Paris and joins the homicide squad. Instead of the adventure he expected he finds routine: missing person reports, drunken fights, long waits. Then a body is found and Caroline, the inspector heading the team, runs the investigation. Xavier Beauvois directed and appears in a role himself. Nathalie Baye plays Caroline, Jalil Lespert plays Antoine. The film's interest is less in crime than in the job itself: paperwork, the relations inside a team, alcohol and exhaustion. The murder does not arrive for a long time. Nathalie Baye was named best actress at the Cesars. Her character has lost a child and is fighting drink, and the film carries that without explaining it. There is an unexpected break in the middle, and everything changes from that point. The cinematography has a documentary texture; the light and the spaces are not dressed. Who it is for: viewers who like realistic police narratives and French social cinema. Who it is not for: anyone expecting classic murder plotting; the film deliberately breaks that expectation.