Faculty of Law and Political Science

Special Section

Published on in Film Law

Speaker: Maxime Brenaut

► March 4, 2025 > 5:30 p.m.

► Building 1 > Cambacérès Lecture Hall (1.0.B)

A major milestone in Costa-Gavras' collaboration with Jorge Semprun, "Section spéciale" reveals the details of how the Vichy government drafted emergency legislation and how it was chaotically applied by judges in 1941.

The dialectic of ends and means, the abandonment of the cardinal principles of liberal law, the retroactive application of a more severe criminal law, judicial arbitrariness and careerism, the effectiveness of the defense... All these classic themes are addressed in a clinical manner by this 1975 film, which boasts a remarkable cast.