MovieChat Forums > La Sainte Victoire (2009) Discussion > What Was Xavier Charged With ?

What Was Xavier Charged With ?

posted 9 years ago by spookyrat1
2 replies | jump to latest

Xavier's house is raided, but the cops admit that they find nothing. But then they arrest him any way and then without a hearing he's thrown into jail for over a month. Then after that he appears to have a hearing in a judge's chamber, rather than a public court, from where he is sent to jail again, until the end of the movie after being sentenced for financial mismanagement. Of what exactly?

He appeared to follow the mayor's instructions regarding the awarding of the contract. He goes out to buy/lease a vehicle to celebrate and he's committed a crime? Since when has France become a police state?

The movie was interesting but needed to be clearer on such things.🐭

[–] geearf 9 years ago

It's not about France being a police state, it's about businesses relationship with the government.

Xavier funded Vincent's campaign, partly in exchange to get that big deal (although Vincent was unaware of this at first). And that is illegal. The whole car thing is not just about him buying nice stuff, but buying it at a time he should not have able to afford it (he was almost bankrupt) which attracts attention to him. If you look at it a bit more, he pretty much changed a lot of his lifestyle after meeting Vincent, and even more once he started dating his daughter.. although he did it to "fit in", one could think he did it in advance of what he would gain by having Vincent mayor... and that is the kind of thought that would have been dangerous to both of them, hence it would have been better for him to lay low.

I did not quite get how Xavier was made guilty without Vincent though... For him to be guilty of corruption, someone should be corrupted...

[–] spookyrat1 9 years ago

I appreciate your opinions, but that's all they really are.

I know France is not a police state.

My point is that in the film, as I've outlined, "short cuts" appear to be taken by the police/judiciary to convict Xavier, which don't always appear to make a lot of sense, about which we seem to be in some agreement.🐭