Law Breakers (Les Assassins de l'ordre)

Marcel Carné directed the 1971 French-Italian courtroom drama Law Breakers, released in France as Les Assassins de l'ordre ("The Assassins of Order"). It takes on police violence and the system that covers it up. The French-language film runs 110 minutes.

At its centre is an idealistic magistrate devoted to his profession. He is handed the file on two policemen and their inspector who beat a suspect to death. By the time the case reaches court, every witness and the widow's lawyer have been frightened into silence, and the magistrate is pushed hard to drop the file and let all three go free. Jacques Brel, Paola Pitagora, Michael Lonsdale and Charles Denner head the cast, with Boby Lapointe, Catherine Rouvel and Luc Merenda also appearing.

Carné wrote the script with Paul Andréota, adapting Jean Laborde's 1970 novel. Laborde was a court reporter from the 1950s to the 1970s, and the book is based on a real case in which a man accused of stealing a watch was beaten to death by three police officers. The film opened in France on 7 May 1971, was shown at the Moscow festival that July and out of competition at Venice. It drew 1,142,534 admissions in France, the 21st biggest film of 1971 there.