The Silent Defendant: Some thoughts on Law and Film
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/S1059-4337(2013)0000061006 |
Date | 29 April 2013 |
Pages | 61-79 |
Published date | 29 April 2013 |
Author | Yofi Tirosh |
THE SILENT DEFENDANT: SOME
THOUGHTS ON LAW AND FILM
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Yofi Tirosh
ABSTRACT
The French film I’ve Loved You for So Long (2008) raises intriguing
questions about the tension between silence and speech. It centers on an
accused woman who has chosen to give no explanation in words about the
motive for her criminal act. Her silence worsens her punishment and
renders it harder to rebuild her life after her release from prison. This
essay proposes seeing this silence as a critique of law. It aims to challenge
our understanding regarding the different kinds of silence before the law
and to assess the practical consequences arising from the decision of legal
subjects to remain silent.
INTRODUCTION
Lawyering, and particularly lawyering devoted to social change, strives to
provide its clients with a voice and to translate their stories into the
vernacular of legal argument. The promise that everyone will have his or her
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This essay is based on a lecture presented at the second annual conference on public
lawyering, sponsored by the ‘‘Law Serving Community’’ Program, held at the Tel Aviv
University Faculty of Law.
Studies in Law, Politics, and Society, Volume 61, 61–79
Copyright r2013 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited
All rights of reproduction in any form reserved
ISSN: 1059-4337/doi:10.1108/S1059-4337(2013)0000061006
61
day in court largely rests on this effort to be heard. While true of civil and
public law, this is even more so in criminal cases: defense lawyers aspire to
convince the court that the account of the accused who denies any
involvement in criminal activity is indeed a credible one. What does it mean,
then, or what should it mean, when the defendant chooses to keep silent?
Those charged with crimes who elect not to speak usually do so in order to
avoid incriminating themselves. They exercise their right to remain silent if
that seems the best way to avoid a conviction. But what is a defense attorney
to do if the accused willfully refuses to be heard, silencing their own voice,
even if that silence works to their disadvantage? Should the attorney to
oppose the client’s decision, to struggle to break that silence in order to
enhance the position of the defense? Beyond the obvious professional and
institutional considerations, there is another level of questions: how are we
to understand this conscious choice on the part of the accused not to be
heard? Indeed, are there situations or circumstances in which such silence is
more appropriate than speech?
I will explore these questions below through a reading of the 2008
French film Il y a longtemps que je t’aime (‘‘I’ve Loved You for So Long’’)
(Marmion & Claudel, 2008). The film’s central character is a woman who
has been convicted of a serious crime while maintaining her silence
regarding the circumstances of the crime and her motivations for carrying it
out. She keeps silent during the course of the police investigation, the trial
that follows, and through the years that she sits in prison. This essay will
propose a possible reading of the film, seeing it as a text that focuses on the
tension between speech and silence. I will suggest a way for apprehending
the heroine’s tenacious reticence and will explain why it was that the legal
system – in all its institutional and personal manifestations – served as the
object of her refusal to speak.
A CINEMATIC TREATMENT OF SPEECH
AND SILENCE
The film tells the story of two sisters struggling to rebuild their relationship
after many years without seeing each other. It begins with a scene at the
airport, where they first reunite. The older Juliette waits for Le
´a to come
and pick her up. During the ride home from the airport the audience learns
that Juliette has recently been released from prison. The authorities have
recommended that she move in with her sister. The crime that sent Juliette
YOFI TIROSH62
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