Question of Love aka L'Amour en Question, written and directed by Andre Cayatte - 8 out of 10

Question of Love aka L'Amour en Question, written and directed by Andre Cayatte
8 out of 10


Question of Love benefits from the participation of two wonderful artists:

Bibi Andersson, who has worked with the God of Cinema Ingmar Bergman to give the world some of the best films ever, and the fabulous Annie Girardot.

The latter plays Suzanne Corbier, a police woman, while the former has the role of a Swedish woman, Catherine Dumas, married to a French architect.
Early on, architect Dumas is shot and killed in front of the house, where the wife says she saw two assassins.

When the police interrogate the neighbor, he states however that he saw very clearly and there has been only one man on the scene.
This is already puzzling the detective and would constitute the first shadow of a doubt over the credibility of Madame Dumas.

It is discovered that the young, blonde, different woman has had a lover, Tom Hastings.
She claims in the investigation that the late architect had become impotent, went to see a specialist for that, but when they try to have this confirmed or denied, the officials fail to have the doctor say anything on the subject, because he has to respect the professional secret.

This being a police affair, they could have pressed the issue.
Nevertheless, the fact that she had a lover and this one had bought two plane tickets for the aftermath of the killing is already making Hastings and the widow prime suspects.

The press is infuriated and convicted that the Englishman is guilty - by the way, the lover comes from across The Channel.
Tom Hastings departs for Britain, the French police demand his return, but the British decide to have a trial where they would decide if the suspect is the murderer.

Methodically, with British calmness, the defense lawyer refutes the circumstantial evidence and makes a formidable case against the wrong methods used by the French investigators.
Suzanne Corbier is called to testify and admits that:

She has used psychological presumptions.

The British however insist on hard evidence.
Tom Hastings is acquitted.

Alas, his mistress is in prison now.
Even worse, it is evident from the debut of her trial that the judge is so prejudiced as to b convinced of her guilt before hearing any evidence.

They will have no British nonsense in this proud, Gallic court of Justice!
Furthermore, the witnesses that have botched the case in the UK, have mended their ways now...

The woman who had worked for Hastings was asked in Britain to talk about the gun she said she had seen.
But when she stated that it was like the gun the defense had in hand, she proved to be dead wrong:

The point was made in the UK, for the woman saw a gun, where there was only an attachment for a camera that looked like a pistol.

Quod erat demonstrandum

The drama is captivating and offers a coup de theatre, but I will obviously avoid a spoiler alert.