Genealogies of a Crime 1997

On a stormy night, the movie opens with a tense scene where René, played by Melvil Poupaud, disposes of a knife in a mysterious act that hints at darker events to come. As the camera lingers on an empty Go board, a narrator recites an ancient Chinese fable about a young man who kills a woman from the Liu Bao family, only to be killed after falling in love with her ghost—an allegory that sets the tone for the film’s exploration of obsession, memory, and psychological unraveling.

The story then shifts to Solange, portrayed by Catherine Deneuve, who is seen being questioned by a lawyer. She begins recounting her involvement with René’s case, which begins with the tragic death of her own son, Pascal. Shortly after Pascal’s passing, Solange receives a call from her colleague, Mathieu, who informs her that René—who is accused of murdering Jeanne, played again by Catherine Deneuve, her aunt and a prominent figure in the “Franco-Belgian Psychoanalytic Society”—blames Jeanne for his crimes. Intrigued and compelled, Solange agrees to take on the case. At Pascal’s funeral, she is introduced to Georges Didier, depicted by Michel Piccoli, an eccentric and volatile leader of the psychoanalytic society. Georges’ peculiar behavior—his quick temper and reliance on a notebook to remember names—immediately signals his unconventional nature.

As the narrative unfolds, Solange meets René, who impresses her by claiming he wants to be her friend. He persuades her to participate in a role-reversal game, a recurring motif in the film that reveals deeper truths about their psyche. During this game, Solange openly admits that she has a reputation for tackling hopeless cases—she’s lost every one she’s taken on—highlighting her own complex character. She then visits Jeanne’s former home, where she is hosted by Esther, played by Bernadette Lafont, Jeanne’s former maid. Solange begins delving into Jeanne’s diaries, which serve as a crucial window into the past and René’s troubled childhood.

The film then shifts focus to René’s adolescence, illustrating his increasingly disturbing behavior. Jeanne, his mother, notes early signs of violence—him destroying porcelain and developing an obsession with knives. As René matures, he appears to behave normally but exhibits ongoing destructive tendencies, including kleptomania. Jeanne attempts to understand and treat René, often leveraging the same role-reversal game he enjoyed earlier. These sessions reveal that René has hidden stolen items around the estate. As he transitions into adulthood, René leaves the family estate and reaches out to Jeanne, desperately seeking money. The scenes show him attempting theft amidst crowded streets, hinting at escalating criminal behavior. During a gathering with Jeanne and her psychoanalyst colleague Georges, René’s kleptomania surfaces again when he’s seen running from a group, presumably after an theft.

Jeanne’s tension with René reaches a climax when she catches him stealing her furniture with friends. They engage in the role-reversal game once more, this time resulting in Jeanne shooting René in the arm in a burst of anger—an event Jeanne documents in her diary as her last entry. The narrative then returns to the present day, with Solange theorizing that Jeanne deliberately trained René to kill her, implying a form of self-sacrifice or complicity, and concludes that Jeanne’s death was a form of suicide.

Solange later shares her thoughts with her mother, Louise, played by Monique Mélinand, who reveals that Solange herself exhibited sociopathic behaviors as a child. Tragically, Louise dies of a heart attack following a visit to Georges. At the funeral, Solange learns that René has attempted suicide, heightening her concern. Her suspicions grow about Georges, and they are confirmed when she witnesses a bizarre tableau vivant ceremony orchestrated by the psychoanalytic society—an experiment where participants are blindfolded and the scene recreates a classical painting, symbolizing themes of perception, control, and chaos.

It is revealed that Georges used this experiment on René, which purportedly triggered a relapse or a violent reaction. René later claims that upon awakening from the ceremony, he panicked and discovered Jeanne’s body, which aligns with her theory that he was manipulated into killing her. When René is acquitted of the murder, the scandal causes the psychoanalytic society to disband in a mass suicide, a dark act that signifies the collapse of their collective sanity.

In the aftermath, René reappears and rekindles a relationship with Solange, but their bond turns toxic. Their relationship becomes abusive and destructive, culminating in Solange’s own act of violence—she murders René and his friends. The story concludes with her confession to her lawyer, who decides that she will plea insanity for her actions, leaving the audience with a haunting reflection on trauma, manipulation, and the boundaries of the mind.