The courtroom drama: often presenting cases, fictional or based on fact, where the outcome can have a severe outcome on someone’s life, as the courtroom debates innocence versus guilt.

It’s this legal production that can make for some intense scenes in film, with one of the most quoted films of all time coming by one of them - A few Good Men’s “You can’t handle the truth!”, delivered with such venom by Jack Nicholson.

Although this French courtroom drama, based on a real trial, doesn’t have anywhere the same level of Hollywood gloss, it doesn’t make it any less compelling.

In 1974 French revolutionary Pierre Goldman (Arieh Worthalter) was sentenced to life in a French court for his part in a robbery and the murder of two women working in a pharmacy.

During his time in prison, he wrote a book about his life including the robbery, which, along with a number of inconsistencies, led to a re-trial in 1976. This then, was his last chance to convince the court and jury of his innocence, and if he failed this time, there was every chance the guillotine would await him.

French director Cédric Kahn’s drama is certainly less Hollywood and more cinéma vérité; in an attempt to capture the seventies period, the director shoots in a square 4:3 format, using it like an upmarket Instagram filter. There’s also no soundtrack whatsoever, except for the baying of the crowd in court. The result gives is a pseudo documentary feel, albeit one that plays out on a theatrical, legal stage.

What also sets it aside from your average courtroom drama is the court etiquette of the period, or lack of it. For instance, Goldman is allowed throughout to interject and throw his centime in at any time he desires, allowed to defend himself, often at the dismay of his own legal counsel.

It’s a trial that sees more than Goldman in the dock, but also racism, as it’s a theme that is often raised, due to his Jewish heritage.

Worthalter certainly embraces the opportunity to speak his mind throughout as Goldman, making him very charismatic in the process. He willingly admits to being a rogue and thief, but his adamant that he isn’t a murderer.

It’s the type of film that due to its intensity and focus on the trial, would certainly work well in a stage setting too, but that doesn’t take away from how powerful and captivating Kahn’s film is.

Considering how many courtroom dramas there have been, The Goldman Case still manages to be a unique experience, one that truly benefits from all its convictions.