Alphonse Bertillon (Christian Hecq) examines a trunk in which is the body of an unknown woman -
Rémy Grandroques - Tetra Media Fiction / Canal +
Canal + is broadcasting this Monday at 9:05 pm the last two episodes of Paris Police 1900. A series that combines historical characters and fictional protagonists.
In the troubled political context of the Dreyfus affair, she follows the investigation into the sordid criminal case of the bloody trunk.
"20 Minutes" asked two police historians what they thought of the series
Paris, 1899. On the eve of Alfred Dreyfus' second trial, the Third Republic is on the verge of explosion.
President Félix Faure has just handed over the weapon to the left, tensions between anarchist groups and anti-Semitic and nationalist leagues have never been so strong.
While the prefect Louis Lépine is recalled to maintain order in the capital, Antoine Jouin, an ambitious young inspector of the criminal, investigates to find the murderer of an unknown woman whose dismembered body was found in a suitcase thrown in the Seine.
He is helped by Jeanne Chauvin, a young lawyer.
This Monday, Canal + is broadcasting the last two episodes of the first season of the
Paris Police 1900 series
, which reveals to viewers the darker side of the beautiful era.
“It's a good show as a spectator.
As a historian, it is very interesting because it is globally very sourced.
The line is forced, it's normal.
But there are no major improbabilities ”, judge Arnaud-Dominique Houte, professor at the Sorbonne and police specialist in the 19th century *.
There is, in the series created by Fabien Nury, "a lot of blood and cut bodies", he adds.
"But that would not have disoriented a spectator of 1900 because the press of the time loved to enter into macabre details".
During this period, the newspapers “developed like never before”, observes for his part the historian of the police force Jean-Marc Berlière **.
“There was of course insecurity, appalling crimes… But from 1885, 1890, crime became a hot topic.
"
"This is where the modern police was born"
A form of psychosis then seizes the country.
But, at that time, only towns with more than 5,000 inhabitants were required to have a police force.
"There is only one police force worthy of the name in France, it is the Parisian police", assures Jean-Marc Berlière.
It must be said that the capital is "the most populous city, it is the center of political power".
"It is also from Paris that the revolutionary movements started", underlines the historian.
The Prefecture of Police was created there, the Prefecture of Police, a century earlier, to replace the Lieutenancy General of Police.
Louis Lépine, one of the central characters of the Canal + series, will remain at its head for 18 years.
A record never equaled.
"This is where the modern police was born", explains the professor emeritus at the University of Burgundy.
Arnaud-Dominique Houte adds: “At Lépine, there is the idea that the police must be modern.
It's a bit of comics, because things can't change that much and that quickly, but he is the first to consider that innovations must be valued.
"It is in particular within the police headquarters that" what will become forensic science was born ", notes Jean-Marc Berlière.
To identify repeat criminals at a time when the identity card does not exist, the head of the photographic service of the prefecture, Alphonse Bertillon, will develop an anthropometric system later called “Bertillonage”.
With him will develop what is called today the technical and scientific police.
"We are going to get into the habit of giving the lab headed by Bertillon traces found on a crime scene", continues the historian.
"Hyper-radical anti-Semitism"
Paris police 1900
also surprises with the violence of the anti-Semitic speeches made by characters like Jules Guérin.
It is difficult to think today that the latter ran a newspaper called
L'Antijuif
.
“Guérin is not as important a character as that, in reality.
The real important figure is the deputy Edouard Drumont who theorized a hyperradical anti-Semitism, intensified by the Dreyfus affair, ”notes Arnaud-Dominique Houte.
At the time, the fragile Third Republic was faced with "an extreme left that we will call anarchist for convenience, and an extreme right which has never supported the Republic, democracy, a regime without God", explains Jean -Marc Berlière.
However, “this opposition has crystallized around anti-Semitism.
There are demonstrations in which people shout "Death to the Jews, outside the metics", that is to say the foreigners ".
“What I really liked about the series is the character of Jeanne Chauvin, which is very real,” underlines Arnaud-Dominique Houte.
This daughter of a notary, fatherless at 16, was the second woman lawyer to be sworn in, in 1900, and the first to plead.
It was in fact at the end of the 19th century, in 1897 more precisely, that a law was passed to "strengthen the rights of lawyers".
“Before that date, they were hardly present until the trial.
Throughout the procedure, the judge has almost no checks and balances.
It was a very lopsided system.
After 1897, the lawyer began to have his say.
But we are very far from a real balance because the judicial system is fundamentally inquisitorial, ”says the professor at the Sorbonne.
But the Canal + series also takes some liberties with reality.
Jean-Marc Berlière considers in particular “unbearable” the scenes where we see the wife of the prefect Lépine taking drugs with heroin ...
* "History of the police in France, from the wars of religion to the present day", by Vincent Milliot, Emmanuel Blanchard, Vincent Denis, Arnaud-Dominique Houte, Belin edition, 41 euros.
** "The prefect Lépine towards the birth of the modern police", by Jean-Marc Berlière, Denoe͏̈l edition, 23.95 euros.
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