The Elegant Criminal
1990On 9 January 1836, Pierre Lacenaire goes to the guillotine, a murderer and a thief. He gives Allard, a police inspector, his life story, written while awaiting execution. He also asks Allard to care for Hermine, a lass to whom he has been guardian for more than ten years. In flashbacks, from the prison as Lacenaire writes, from Allard's study as he and Hermine read, and from other readers' memory after the book is published, we see Lacenaire's childhood as he stands up to bullies, including priests, his youthful thieving, his first murder, his brief army career, his seduction of a princess, and his affair with Avril, a young man who dies beside him.
Acted in
Daniel Auteuil
as Pierre-François Lacenaire
Jean Poiret
as Allard
Jacques Weber
as Jacques Arago
François Périer
as Lacenaire's father
Geneviève Casile
as Lacenaire's mother
Jean Davy
as Alphonse Damoiseau
Jacques Duby
as Marmignat
Paul Le Person
as Vigouroux
Maïwenn
as Hermine
Jacques Sereys
as Pertuizet
Rufus
as Canler
Gérard Desarthe
as Professor Tonnelier
Jean-Damien Barbin
as Baton
Marie-Armelle Deguy
as Princess Ida
Samuel Labarthe
as The abbot of Lusignan
Jean-Pierre Miquel
as The president of the court
Jean-Paul Muel
as Poulaillon
Patrick Pineau
as Avril
Aurélien Recoing
as François
Yves Dangerfield
as Doctor Brianchon
Jean-Michel Ribes
as Lebel
Daniel Mesguich
as Ida's husband
François-Régis Bastide
as The superior
Claude Makovski
as General Counsel
Maurice Bernart
as Lambolley
Michel Vocoret
as The big
Gérald Calderon
as May father
Henri Lanoë
as The first mogul
Jean-Luc Douin
as The prison priest
Bertrand Van Effenterre
as Degroot
Henri Colpi
as The head of the prison