Plot
On 9 January 1836, Pierre Lacenaire goes to the guillotine, a murderer and a thief. He gives Allard, a police inspector, his life story, written while awaiting execution. He also asks Allard to care for Hermine, a lass to whom he has been guardian for more than ten years. In flashbacks, from the prison as Lacenaire writes, from Allard's study as he and Hermine read, and from other readers' memory after the book is published, we see Lacenaire's childhood as he stands up to bullies, including priests, his youthful thieving, his first murder, his brief army career, his seduction of a princess, and his affair with Avril, a young man who dies beside him.
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Cast
Daniel Auteuil
Pierre-François Lacenaire
Jean Poiret
Allard
Jacques Weber
Jacques Arago
François Périer
Lacenaire's father
Geneviève Casile
Lacenaire's mother
Jean Davy
Alphonse Damoiseau
Jacques Duby
Marmignat
Paul Le Person
Vigouroux
Maïwenn
Hermine
Jacques Sereys
Pertuizet
Rufus
Canler
Gérard Desarthe
Professor Tonnelier
Jean-Damien Barbin
Baton
Marie-Armelle Deguy
Princess Ida
Samuel Labarthe
The abbot of Lusignan
Jean-Pierre Miquel
The president of the court
Jean-Paul Muel
Poulaillon
Patrick Pineau
Avril
Aurélien Recoing
François
Yves Dangerfield
Doctor Brianchon
Jean-Michel Ribes
Lebel
Daniel Mesguich
Ida's husband
François-Régis Bastide
The superior
Claude Makovski
General Counsel
Maurice Bernart
Lambolley
Michel Vocoret
The big
Gérald Calderon
May father
Henri Lanoë
The first mogul
Jean-Luc Douin
The prison priest
Bertrand Van Effenterre
Degroot
Henri Colpi
The head of the prison