Without Apparent Motive 1971

Unmarried police detective Carella, Jean-Louis Trintignant, finds himself drawn into a perplexing cascade of deaths that begins with a single, precise shot from a long-range 0.22 rifle, killing Forest, a prominent local businessman. The hit is stark and clinical, and the killer’s method—one shot, no obvious struggle—spreads fear through the town. The widow offers little help, and the case grows murkier as a second victim, Barroyer, is murdered later that same day in exactly the same manner. Across two shocking days, four lives are snuffed out, and the police push to understand how these men are connected, especially since the murders appear tied to a loose web of money laundering, narcotics, and prostitution, even as no clear motive emerges.

Sandra Forest, Dominique Sanda, the victim’s stepdaughter, becomes a crucial eye on the ground and points toward an associate named Barroyer as a clue worth pursuing. In a tense turn, Sandra also uncovers her stepfather’s secret diary, which catalogs a string of affairs and, tellingly, a steamy night with Jocelyne Rocca. The first appearance of danger comes when Jocelyne Rocca, Carla Gravina, is referenced in the diary and then soon after becomes a direct participant in the mounting peril.

Carella’s investigation intensifies when he brings Jocelyne to his flat, only to have her shot dead on the building’s steps. The case grows colder in some ways and hotter in others as he learns that both Forest and Barroyer were involved in moving money through an astrologer and drug dealer named Kleinberg, who is shot later that same day. The pursuit of motives leads through a maze of intersections—rich men, illicit finance, and a circle of people who once crossed paths in youth.

With four deaths in two days, the pressure on the police ramps up, and the trail points to connections among four university contemporaries: a TV presenter named Sabirnou and a theatre director named Palombo, both of whom are brought in for questioning. The two men supply a crucial piece of the puzzle: all four victims were part of a single play during their student days, and the investigation widens to encompass a shared history that might tie their deaths together more tightly than anyone expected. Sabirnou, Sacha Distel, and Palombo, Paul Crauchet, become central to understanding the cast of the past that now haunts the present.

Two women, known then only by their future married names, emerge as pivotal links: Hélène Vallée, Stéphane Audran, approaches the police with a harrowing revelation. She explains that the end-of-run party spiraled into a mass sex orgy, and when Juliette Vaudreuil, Laura Antonelli, refused to join in, she was gang-raped. The discovery reframes the case from a series of isolated murders to a revenge-driven plot anchored in a single, brutal act.

As the search for Juliette continues, the moment arrives when her husband phones to arrange her questioning. Carella races to the location, only to be shot at by a long-range sniper and to return fire, wounding the unseen marksman. When he finally enters the building, the truth lands with brutal clarity: the sniper is Juliette’s English husband, a man who has been systematically targeting everyone involved in the rape. The investigation reveals a chilling motive tied to past sexual violence that spiraled into lethal retaliation, leaving the police to unravel how a once-connected circle of colleagues and lovers became a web of calculated murder.

In the end, the case blends money, sex, and vengeance, exposing how a past filled with secrecy and exploitation can ignite a chain of violent acts. Carella’s persistence unravels the tangled web enough to bring some measure of truth to the victims, even as the wounds caused by that night of betrayal linger in the shadows of the living.