L'Elegant Criminel

Daniel Auteuil gives a wonderfully deranged performance in L'ELEGANT CRIMINEL, the otherwise uneven biography of a notorious 19th-Century French thief and murderer.

Auteuil plays Pierre Lacenaire, who was also portrayed in the Marcel Carne classic, CHILDREN OF PARADISE. As this film begins, Lacenaire is about to face the guillotine together with his accomplice, Avril (Patrick Pineau). A flamboyant figure (imagine, if you can, equal parts Quentin Crisp and Charlie Manson), Lacenaire has turned aside the court's offer of mercy, describing his criminal career as a form of slow suicide he hopes will reach fruition with his beheading. He has also written an autobiogr...