The Upcoming
  • Cinema & Tv
    • Movie reviews
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Show reviews
  • Music
    • Live music
  • Food & Drinks
    • News & Features
    • Restaurant & bar reviews
    • Interviews & Recipes
  • Theatre
  • Art
  • Travel & Lifestyle
  • Literature
  • Fashion & Beauty
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Competitions
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

Cannes Film Festival 2022

The Night of the 12th (La Nuit du 12)

Cannes Film Festival 2022: The Night of the 12th (La Nuit du 12) | Review
21 May 2022
Selina Sondermann
Avatar
Selina Sondermann
21 May 2022

Movie and show review

Selina Sondermann

The Night of the 12th (La Nuit du 12)

★★★★★

Special event

Cannes Film Festival 2022

16th to 28th May 2022

Around 20% of murder cases in France go unsolved, the opening text of this film informs. The horrific torching of a young woman on her way home from a friend’s is one of them. It is Yohan’s (Bastien Bouillon) first operation as investigator-in-charge, and the fact that the culprit was never caught gnaws at him.

The feature’s premiere on the night of the 20th started off under an unlucky star: the French-Belgian co-production wasn’t subtitled. With some films, audiences can still piece together what is happening by action and tone alone, but in the case of a dialogue-heavy crime drama such as The Night of the 12th this is virtually impossible. Non-French speakers started clapping and whistling to call attention to this problem, which obviously confused the present cast and crew. An international shouting match began, before the projection was stopped and, after a technical break, restarted with English subtitles.

Director Dominik Moll, who competed for the Palme d’Or in 2000 and 2005 with Harry, He’s Here to Help and Lemming respectively, veers away from his penchant for thrillers and applies himself to a slower paced police procedural. The knowledge of where this investigation will lead robs the picture of much of its potential for suspense, even though filmmakers like David Fincher and Bong Joon-ho proved it can be done. But in Moll’s adaptation of Pauline Guéna’s non-fiction account of her year spent with the French judicial police, the audience is not given sufficient reason to puzzle over the suspects themselves or engage with any of the characters.

The police officers are sketched as bland and forgettable, perfectly summarised in a scene in which Yohan’s partner tells him about the reason for his divorce: just as one thinks he’s got to the point of his story, it drags on further and ends on an unsatisfying lull. A number of viewers will likely be too spoiled by the super-smart mindhunters portrayed on American whodunnits to appreciate that this modest portrayal is far more authentic to real police work. 

The dead girl’s best friend is given surprising nuance and Pauline Serieys plays her with contemporary awareness of the department’s implied victim-blaming. In a similar manner, the female police officer who joins the squad at a late stage in the film raises the reasonable question of why crimes that are almost exclusively committed by men are almost exclusively investigated by them too. But two or three throwaway lines are not enough to supply any particular insight into what could have been done differently to solve the crime or give this feature any lasting impact.

Cannes introduced a new Première section to bring films to the festival that don’t fit in any of the previous categories. It is quite apparent why that is the case for The Night of the 12th: it not a cinematic experience, but rather a made-for-TV movie, to watch as a more elevated alternative to Midsomer Murders.

★★★★★

Selina Sondermann

The Night of the 12th (La Nuit du 12) does not have a UK release date yet.

Read more reviews from our Cannes Film Festival 2022 coverage here.

For further information about the event visit the Cannes Film Festival website here.

Watch a clip from The Night of the 12th (La Nuit du 12) here:

Related Itemscannes film festivalfilm festivalreview

More in Cannes

Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul.

★★★★★
Matthew McMillan
Read More

“I think I’m kind of a drug addict for image and sound coming together! I’m always putting images to sound and getting high”: An interview with Hlynur Pálmason, director of Godland

Selina Sondermann
Read More

Leyla’s Brothers: An interview with Saeed Roustayi

Selina Sondermann
Read More

Plan 75: An interview with director Chie Hayakawa

Selina Sondermann
Read More

Falcon Lake: An interview with director Charlotte Le Bon

Selina Sondermann
Read More

“How to make a genuine portrait of life”: An interview with the stars of Leila’s Brothers

Selina Sondermann
Read More

“It’s never as I planned it to be, but that’s the point. I like that”: An interview with Marie Kreutzer, director of Corsage

Selina Sondermann
Read More

Smoking Causes Coughing (Fumer Fait Tousser)

★★★★★
Selina Sondermann
Read More

The Woodcutter Story (Metsurin Tarina)

★★★★★
Selina Sondermann
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Movie and show review

Selina Sondermann

The Night of the 12th (La Nuit du 12)

★★★★★

Special event

Cannes Film Festival 2022

16th to 28th May 2022

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Ed Sheeran at Wembley Stadium
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Eagles bring a nostalgia-laden evening to the BST Festival in Hyde Park
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Africa Fashion at the V&A
    ★★★★★
    Art
  • “He used to spit at the audience, roll on the ground, he did, in fact, hump that plastic dog – he was the original punk rocker”: Baz Luhrman, Tom Hanks, Austin Butler, Olivia DeJonge and Alton Mason on Elvis
    Cinema & Tv
  • The Princess
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • The Terminal List
    ★★★★★
    amazon
  • Baymax!
    ★★★★★
    disney
  • St Vincent at the Hammersmith Apollo
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Parisian bar Little Red Door to take over Adam Handling’s Eve Bar on 7 July
    Food & Drinks
  • Netflix Walking Tour: From Bridgerton to The Crown, a free walking tour through the filming locations
    Cinema & Tv
  • St Vincent at the Hammersmith Apollo
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Netflix Walking Tour: From Bridgerton to The Crown, a free walking tour through the filming locations
    Cinema & Tv
  • Africa Fashion at the V&A
    ★★★★★
    Art
  • Minions: The Rise of Gru
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • The Rollings Stones give Glasto a run for its money at BST Festival in Hyde Park
    ★★★★★
    Live music
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why
With the support from:
International driving license

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

Cannes Film Festival 2022: More than Ever (Plus que Jamais) | Review
Cannes Film Festival 2022: Paris Memories (Revoir Paris) | Review