French Literature Reviews - 2026

C. Biet & L. Schifano (eds.), Représentations du procès.
Theatre and Performance

Representing the Trial
Law, Theater, Literature, Cinema
edited by Christian Biet and Laurence Schifano
Collection Représentation
Université Paris X-Nanterre
2003

Magistrates, lawyers, and researchers examine the various ways in which trials are represented. Ideal truth, judicial truth, and the mourning of truth; theatricality, theatricalism, and ritual; contradictions and conflict; oral tradition and the power of the written word; public interest or indifference toward legal cases; the strangeness of legal procedure; the marginalization or inclusion of defendants—these questions arise directly from the courtroom itself, even before art takes hold of them and transforms them.

Here, one discovers an incredible proximity between the mechanisms and rules underlying legal procedure and the dramatic structures activated by theater and cinema. For when art seizes upon the law, the law simultaneously seizes upon art, so that both—in a profound dialogue and moving in step—exchange their questions, propose mutual solutions, and reflect each other's flaws.

Editors: Christian Biet, Laurence Schifano.
Contributors: Antoine Garapon, Alain Blanc, Philippe Bilger, Daniel Soulez-Larivière, Pierre Truche, Vincenzo Siniscalchi, Maurice Peyrot, Jean-Pierre Vincent, Jean-Pierre Sarrazac, Martial Poirson, Liliane Picciola, Robert Horville, Dianne Dutton, Francis Goyet, Cerise Letenneur-Gendre, Christian Delage, Sarah Meneghello, Barbara Villez, Bernard Faivre, Catherine Guillot, Romain Jobez, Renaud Bret-Vitoz, Christine Hamon, Geneviève Sellier, Laurent Goualle, Olivier Neveux, David Lescot, Denise Schröpfer, Laurence Schifano, Emmanuel Wallon, Tiphaine Karsenti, Guy Spielmann, Pierre Frantz, Monique Gosselin, Sandra Travers de Faultrier, Richard Weisberg, Philippe Dubois, Fabien Boully, Marguerite Chabrol, Hélène Fernandez, Jeffrey Ravel, Christian Biet, Francis Vanoye.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION.
PART ONE. FROM INSIDE THE COURTROOM.
Introduction.
Antoine Garapon, The Future of Judicial Ritual?
Alain Blanc, From Inside the Trial, a Representation?
Philippe Bilger, The Assize Court: Distance, Heart, and Catharsis.
Daniel Soulez-Larivière, An Unacknowledged Inquisitorial System, a Judicial Stage Unseen by All.
Pierre Truche, The Trial, or the Temporality of Re-presentation.
Vincenzo Siniscalchi, Representing Trials in Italy.
Maurice Peyrot, The Perspective of the Court Chronicler.
Jean-Pierre Vincent, Memories of the Palais de Justice.
Jean-Pierre Sarrazac, The Specific Justice of the Theatrical Counter-Trial.

PART TWO. TRIALS AND STAGING: INTERFERENCES AND TRANSFERS.
Introduction.
Martial Poirson, From the Dramatization of Power to the Powers of Dramatization: Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice from Text to Stage.
Liliane Picciola, The Trial in Golden Age Peasant Honor Comedias.
Robert Horville, Justice in 17th-Century French Theater.
Dianne Dutton, The Litigant as Actor: The Dramatic Art of the Trial.
Francis Goyet, Unity of Subject in 18th-Century Pleadings: Novel, System, Fiction.
Cerise Letenneur-Gendre, Brutus in Revolution: The Intersection of Two Modes of Trial Representation in Theater and Painting.
Christian Delage, The Cinematic Third Party in the Courtroom: The Inaugural Contribution of Fritz Lang's Fury (1936).
Sarah Meneghello, Popular Justice, Trials, and Theatricality in Robert Hossein and Ariane Mnouchkine.
Barbara Villez, Closing Arguments in American TV Series, or a Plea for an Unloved Medium.

PART THREE. MIRROR TRIALS, MODEL TRIALS, AND WHAT THEY REVEAL.
Introduction.
Bernard Faivre, Sacred Trial, Farcical Trial?
Catherine Guillot, Judgment Scenes in 17th-Century Illustrations of Tragi-Comedy and Tragedy.
Romain Jobez, Trial of the Sovereign and Theatrical Process: Andreas Gryphius's Carolus Stuardus.
Renaud Bret-Vitoz, Shaping and Critiquing the Trial in Theater: The Example of "Interrogation Scenes" in Athalie, Oedipe, Brutus, and William Tell.
Christine Hamon, Agitational Trials in 1920s Soviet Theater.
Geneviève Sellier, Figures of the Female Defendant in Pre- and Post-War French Cinema.
Laurent Goualle, The Hollywood Legal Drama: America's Little Theater.
Olivier Neveux, An Unenforceable Sentence: Trials and Militant Theater.
David Lescot, The Trial: A Model for Epic Theater?
Denise Schröpfer, The Stalinist Show Trial as a Reservoir of Forms: The Example of Matéi Visniec's Theater.
Laurence Schifano, Italian-Style Trials: From Model to Simulacra.
Emmanuel Wallon, Spectator and Citizen Facing Elusive Justice: Multiple Bodies and Venues of the Sofri Affair.

PART FOUR. SHADOWS, MARGINS, AND COUNTERSHOTS.
Introduction.
Tiphaine Karsenti, Trial Scenes in Euripides' Hecuba and The Trojan Women: The Institution Tested by Tragedy.
Guy Spielmann, Harlequin at the Palace: The Legal Universe in 17th-Century Comédie-Italienne in Paris.
Pierre Frantz, Marie-Joseph Chénier: On Trial for Justice and Theater.
Monique Gosselin-Noat, Georges Bernanos's Dialogues of the Carmelites: From Historical Trial to Sublime Tragedy.
Sandra Travers de Faultrier, Law Beyond the Statute.
Richard Weisberg, Law, Novel, and Literature in The Stranger and The Fall.
Philippe Dubois, Cinema on Trial According to Fritz Lang.
Fabien Boully, Humiliation: The Trial Mechanism as Ready-Made in Alfred Hitchcock's The Paradine Case, I Confess, The Wrong Man, and Vertigo.
Marguerite Chabrol, Public Intimacy: Trials and Theater in Selected Films by George Cukor.

PART FIVE. SCENES - NOVELS OF THE TRIAL.
Introduction.
Hélène Fernandez, Representing a Political Trial in the 17th Century: Michel de Marillac at Rueil (1632).
Jeffrey Ravel, Comic Certainties and Judicial Doubts: The La Pivardière Trial (1697-1699).
Christian Biet, The Cartouche Affair (1721): Legal Scene / Literary Scene. Public Opinion, Theater, Power, and Law.
Francis Vanoye, Eric Rohmer's The Englishman and the Duke: The Trial of Trials.
Biographical and Bibliographical Notes on the Contributors.

This publication is produced by the Research Team "Représentation. Recherches théâtrales et cinématographiques", EA 3458, Paris X-Nanterre, directed by Christian Biet.

This collective volume examines the various ways in which legal proceedings are represented across literature, theater, and cinema. Magistrates, lawyers, and researchers examine the various ways in which trials are represented, investigating questions concerning ideal truth, judicial truth, theatricality, ritual, and the power of the written word. When art seizes upon the law, the law simultaneously seizes upon art, so that both exchange their questions, propose mutual solutions, and reflect each other's flaws.

The volume includes contributions addressing topics such as courtroom proceedings, classical theater, cinematic representations, and historical trials across multiple parts. Readers interested in the intersection of law, performance, and visual culture may find this collection relevant.