The true crime film has a 94% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Our TV movie pick for tonight (Wednesday, 7 May) is The Night of the 12th, the excellent 2022 French mystery crime thriller.
Inspired by one story from the many within Pauline Guéna’s non-fiction account of her time embedded with a French Criminal Investigation department, the film follows the young and ambitious police captain Yohan Vivés (Bastien Bouillon).
He has just been appointed group leader at the criminal squad based in the alpine city of Grenoble when a local teenage girl named Clara Royer (Lula Cotton-Frapier) is shockingly murdered while walking home on the titular evening.
Vivés and his team investigate Clara’s complex life and relations in an effort to find the culprit. As more and more time passes and no answers present themselves, the case develops into a haunting obsession.
Co-written and directed by Dominik Moll (The Monk, Only the Animals), The Night of the 12th won six César Awards (the French version of the Oscars), including the Best Picture prize.
It’s easy to see why the movie was so acclaimed. Similar to Memories of Murder and Zodiac, the film compellingly, chillingly and thoughtfully uses its central investigation as a means to explore major systemic issues in society.
Told in a matter-of-fact procedural style, the crime thriller is also a very believable portrait of the toll unsolved crimes can take on their investigators.
Holding a 94% score on Rotten Tomatoes, The Night of the 12th is airing tonight at Film4 at 9pm. It should also be available to stream on Channel 4’s website after it airs.
Here are the other movies airing on TV tonight:
Never Say Never Again – ITV4 – 8pm
Sean Connery’s final Bond movie.
Midnight Run – Legend Xtra – 9pm
In this brilliant crime comedy, Robert De Niro plays a down-on-his-luck bounty hunter tasked with tracking down and turning in an accountant (a hilarious Charles Grodin), who is wanted by mob bosses and the FBI.
As the pair grow closer on their travels, the bounty hunter struggles to complete the job as it will put the accountant in danger.
Safe – Legend – 9pm
A quite underrated Jason Statham action flick where he plays a homeless man who must protect a young child with a deadly secret.
xXx – Film4 – 11.15pm
Vin Diesel plays Xander Cage, a thrill-seeking extreme sports enthusiast turned spy, in this action flick that launched a franchise.
Black Rock – Legend Xtra – 11.30pm
This decent horror thriller sees a camping trip on a Maine island turn nightmarish for three women (Kate Bosworth, Katie Aselton and Lake Bell) after they encounter a group of violent war veterans.
