The Advocate - DVD

Version Details

Cast

• Lysette Anthony - Filette
• Dave Atkins - Valliere
• Francois Lalande - Builder
• Robert Putt - Travelling Player
• Joyce Nettles
• Michael Cronin - Dark Stranger
• Ralph Nossek - Poiccard
• Donald Pleasence - Pincheon
• Amina Annabi - Samira
• Justin Chadwick - Gerard
• Jim Carter - Mathieu
• Vernon Dobtcheff - Apothecary
• Raoul Delfosse - Blind George
• Roy Evans - Travelling Player
• Joanna Dunham - Lady Catherine d'Auferre
• Elizabeth Spriggs - Madame Langlois
• Harriet Walter - Jeannine
• Nicol Williamson - The Seigneur
• Charles Dale - Witness
• Jean-Pierre Stewart - Sheriff
• Sami Bouajila - Mahmoud
• Colin Firth - Richard Courtois
• Michael Gough - Magistrate Boniface
• Ian Holm - Albertus
• Peter Hudson - Sheriff's Officer
• Emil Wolk - Print Seller
• Vincent Grass - Bailiff Labatier
• Vernon Dobcheff - Apothecary

Crew

• Director: Leslie Megahey
• Screenwriter: Leslie Megahey
• Executive Producer: Michael Wearing
• Producer: David M. Thompson
• Special Effects: Stuart Brisdon
• Production Designer: Bruce Macadie
• Composer (Music Score): Alexandre Desplat
• Editor: Isabelle Dedieu
• Associate Producer: Dave Edwards
• Cinematographer: John Hooper
• Associate Producer: David Edwards

The Advocate: AMG Review
Genevieve Williams , AMG

Also called The Advocate, this is probably one of the stranger based-on-true-events crime dramas to emerge in the 1990s. It has all the trappings of a noir thriller -- apparently disparate plot elements that draw together like a net, a progressively less confused protagonist, supporting characters who offer cryptic utterances, and, of course, a mysterious woman -- but the setting, the French countryside in the late Middle Ages, is decidedly unusual. The plot turns upon the conceit -- based, the opening text tells us, on historical fact -- that medieval law allowed animals to be prosecuted on the same grounds as human beings. The opening scene provides dramatic illustration of the consequences of such thinking: A man and a donkey are about to be executed for the crime of bestiality; the donkey, however, is released based on testimony from character witnesses. Into this less-than-idyllic setting stumbles a naïve young lawyer (Colin Firth, who has since gone on to play less naïve and more buttoned-up characters) and his clerk (Jim Carter), who from the outset seems to know more about everything that's going on than his employer. The lawyer's comment, in an early case, that "Truth, as always, gentlemen, is simple" turns out to be the famous last words. The ensuing tangle involves the murder of a Jewish boy, the pig of the title framed as the killer, a band of itinerant Gypsies to whom the pig belongs, a jaded priest (Ian Holm), and a local landlord in little better state than the peasants he rules. The result is equal parts courtroom and historical drama, with some darkly funny moments and a clear understanding of the medieval mindset. ~ Genevieve Williams, All Movie Guide