A crime. a case. a young Depardieu. an old Gabin. the tension. and the impecable story about family, tradition, guilt and justice. a film about the way to explore a case , having the right story, the best cast. and, sure, a huge Jean Gabin in a role of his last years. a film who propose questions. in the manner to convince. to change rules. to open new perspectives. one of works presenting the clear image of a world defining, in many aspects, us, people from old societies, with strong rules and deep vulnerabilities, near an English family under sky , on a road.

Well cast, acted and even the wandering photography is OK. The point of view is tumbled and tossed for a reason because there couldn't be one. One moment the viewer is judge and jury; the next, a bewildered tourist; the next, a time traveler experiencing the Europe not shown in the travel brochures. (The review before this is very good at shortly defining this brief case of that.) It's worth seeing if you do your homework first: IT WAS World NEWS. The movie plays with that fact and it would have been much more entertaining had it risked (real risks) telling the greater story of espionage (the CIA was embarrassed by the media of that time linking it to the murders) a whiff of English nobility again horribly compromised--from the previous espionage-d Profumo Scandal; and The Cold War hanging like a cloud over the Atlantic--all the way to Hollywood. The 4 admitted producers represent that clouded reality. Their mere presence put real, enforced limits on a movie that deserved much better. That it was made at all during that time with gifted actors is perhaps telling us much, much more. Drink lots of cognac after your research and watch it unfold like an over edited surveillance tape. Well worth the effort. Good luck with that.

In France,in the first half of the seventies,the rural thriller was trendy ,hip.There was " La Veuve Couderc" "La Horse" (featuring Gabin,which ,though it is pure fiction,looks like "l'Affaire Dominici") "Les Granges Brûlées" ...Their granddaddy was Becker's unsurpassed classic "Goupi Mains Rouges" (1943) which already depicted the clannishness of some people of the rural society."L'Affaire Dominici" is a different matter ,for it is based on true facts.Three English tourists (a lord's family) are murdered on a country road .The suspects are the Dominici family ,whose farm was near the tragedy,and whose patriarch (Gabin) shows himself inflexible.The Dominici family seems to come from another world,from another time.They always contradict themselves (the audience does not know if they protect themselves or if they wash their dirty linen in public).Gabin gives an impressive disturbing performance ,but Victor Lanoux is equally good as his son.There's also a young Gerard Depardieu as a half-wit nephew who's got three or four lines to say.The Dominici affair remains a mystery.But there are other strange things that do not even concern them: why for instance,do those wealthy tourists have to sleep by the roadside?Directing is average made-for-TV quality but the whole cast makes the movie a minor winner.