I, Pierre Rivière, Having Slaughtered My Mother, My Sister and My Brother… (1976)

Overview : Based on documents compiled by leading French philosopher Michel Foucault, this unique and original film charts the gruesome events which took place in a Normandy village in 1835, when a young man, Pierre Rivière, murdered his mother, sister and brother before fleeing to the countryside. With a cast made up of real-life villagers from the area where the events took place, the detailed re-enactments and careful attention to the gestures of their ancestors serve to create an intense and sometimes disturbing atmosphere of hyper-realism. Details of the crime and of the trial that followed are told from varied perspectives, including the written confession of Pierre himself, and form a rich and complex narrative that interrogates the concepts of “truth” and “history”.

Release Date : October 27, 1976

Runtime : 130m

Genre : Crime, Drama  

Companies : Les Films de l'Arquebuse, Polsim Productions, SFP, INA

Countries : France

Keywords : infidelity, philosophy, based on true story, punishment, murder, family conflict, power relations, parricide