No. 49 (2021) THE COLLINI CASE (DER FALL COLLINI) (Palace German Film Festival). JUNE 16th.

 

Film No. 49 (2021)  June 16th.  6:30 PM  Cinema 1  LUNA,  Leederville. 

"I'd like to make you an offer. Just get Collini to confess. It will make life easier for you". (Dr Mattinger takes Casper on his yacht to try to convince him that a vigorous defence of Collini will be a waste of time).

The courtroom drama gained it's greatest boost as a cinema genre with TO KILL A MOCKING BIRD (1962)but THE JUDGEMENT AT NUREMBERG (1961) is possibly closer to this take on a war crime (WWII) drama. The Collini Case is all about law on a big picture scale, rather than the case itself. The case is simply the tasty topping (fiction) on a substantial main course (non-fiction).

Ferdinand von Schirach wrote the story in the form of a novel. It was published in 2011 and tells the gripping story of a rookie lawyer fighting for a client in an open and shut case of murder. But of course, if it truly was open and shut, why would it be a gripping story?  The number of people who will have heard of, and read the novel is limited, so this screen version (which is a brilliant take on von Schirach's story) will give many people an opportunity to understand a strange quirk of German law-making.

We meet Fabrizio Collini (Franco Nero) as he inflicts a violent act upon a man (industrialist Hans Meyer (Manfred Zapatka)) who we take to be an upstanding and eminent German citizen. Collini doesn't speak and is completely compliant with his arrest and jailing. Inexperienced lawyer Casper Leiner (Elyas M'Barek) is assigned to defend Collini. So what are the layers which unfold that has Casper so passionate in his pursuit of justice for a man (Collini) so withdrawn and uncaring of his own existence?

There is a respected mentor and prosecutor, Dr Richard Mattinger (Heiner Lauterbach) who gives Casper reason to question his own loyalty to the doctor and  one remaining Meyer family member Johanna (Alexandra Maria Lara). Johanna knows something but is staying quiet and Casper hopes she has the common sense to believe in his methods to see that justice prevails. 

This film does the original book justice. There is a touch of Spielberg in the way the film presents. It's slick and you're never in doubt that Casper like James Donovan (Hanks in BRIDGE OF SPIES) is our man and we're rooting for him. 10GUMS.