Europe 1 with AFP // Photo credit: Julien M. Hekimian / GETTY IMAGES EUROPE / Getty Images via AFP 12:22 a.m., February 24, 2024
Franco-Belgian Arieh Worthalter wins the César for best actor for his role in The Goldman Trial, a film by Cédric Khan.
In this film, the 38-year-old actor plays the egnimatic Pierre Goldman, prosecuted for the murder of two pharmacists in 1976. “I understand his anger,” he explained.
An elusive actor who thrives far from red carpets and sometimes even far from film sets, Franco-Belgian Arieh Worthalter has won the César for best actor for his role in
The Goldman Trial
.
“I think we were all amazed by his performance”
In this film by Cédric Kahn, the 38-year-old actor plays the enigmatic Pierre Goldman, gangster and far-left activist, prosecuted for the murder of two pharmacists in 1976. Released fifty years after the events which marked an entire generation , the film opened the Cinematographers' Fortnight, one of the main sections of the Cannes Film Festival.
Pure staging, without music or flashbacks: only the trial is filmed, giving the viewer a feeling of being behind closed doors.
However, a strength emerges from this minimalist staging.
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What strikes the viewer is the verve of the accused.
A verve which gives the impression that he is ready, at any moment, to jump out of his box.
But also an extraordinary charisma.
"He has this chaos that he cannot contain. I understand his anger. I had a lot of it in my twenties, a lot. You want to break the world, you know," confided the actor to Libération.
Almost single-handedly, Arieh Worthalter carries all the intensity of the film.
“I think we were all amazed by his performance,” Cédric Kahn told AFP on the sidelines of the Cannes Film Festival.