- Sandra Voyter: Sometimes a couple is kind of a chaos and everybody is lost. Sometimes we fight together and sometimes we fight alone, and sometimes we fight against each other, that happens.
- Sandra Voyter: You complain about a life that YOU chose. You are not a victim. Not at all. Your generosity conceals something dirtier and meaner. You're incapable of facing your ambitions and you resent me for it, but I'm not the one who put you where you are. I had nothing to do with it! You're not sacrificing yourself as you say. You choose to sit on the sidelines because you're afraid! Your pride makes your head explode before you can even come up with a germ of an idea! You wake up at 40 needing someone to blame. You're the one to blame! You're petrified by your own fucking standards and your fear of failure! This is the truth!
- Sandra Voyter: My love. I just want you to know that I'm not that monster, you know. Everything you hear in the trial it's just.. it's twisted. It wasn't like that.
- Sandra Voyter: I'm sorry to interrupt, I'm sorry. But... I don't know, you, you come here, okay, with your, maybe your opinion, and you tell me who Samuel was, and what we were going through... But what you say is just a... it is just... a little part of the whole situation, you know? I mean, sometimes... Sometimes a couple is kind of a chaos. And everybody is lost. No? And sometimes we fight together and sometimes we fight alone and sometimes we fight against each other, that happens, and I think it's possible that Samuel needed to see things the way you describe them, but... if- if I'd been seeing a therapist, he could stand here too and say very ugly things about Samuel. But would those things be true?
- Sandra Voyter: You know, when you lose, you lose.
- Sandra Voyter: But when you win, you expect some kind of reward... and there isn't any.
- Sandra Voyter: You leave empty-handed.
- Daniel: When we've looked everywhere and still don't understand how the thing happened, I think we have to ask why it happened.
- Sandra Voyter: Somebody said, of course money doesn't make you happy, but it's still better to cry in a car than in a subway.
- Marge Berger: When we lack an element to judge something, and the lack is unbearable, all we can do is decide. To overcome doubt, sometimes we have to decide one way over the other. Since you need to believe one thing but have two choices, you must choose.
- Daniel: So you have to invent your belief?
- Marge Berger: Yeah, well.. in a sense.
- Sandra Voyter: But I'm innocent. You know that, right?
- Maître Vincent Renzi: Yes.
- Sandra Voyter: I mean, really.
- Maître Vincent Renzi: Yes.
- Sandra Voyter: I don't know what you're thinking really.
- Maître Vincent Renzi: I think a lot of things I don't tell you. Otherwise, you'd fire me right now.
- Sandra Voyter: No, no, no, Vincent. In your head, you're thinking, aren't you, because sometimes, when you look at me, just like right now, I can feel that you are judging me. I don't know what you think.
- Maître Vincent Renzi: Sandra, I believe you. I'm not judging you.
- Sandra Voyter: Everything changed after the accident. Uh, Daniel was four. That day, Samuel was supposed to pick him up from school. But he was on a roll with his writing, so he called a babysitter at the last minute, and the babysitter showed up late. And as they were crossing the street, a motorcycle hit Daniel, his optic nerve was permanently damaged. After that, Samuel became obsessive about it, he blamed himself on a loop: If only he'd come pick him up on time... He was overcome with guilt... and perhaps he never truly escaped that feeling. We spent that whole year at the hospital with Daniel. We began having financial problems... and Samuel started taking antidepressants.
- Sandra Voyter: Your father was my soul mate... We chose each other and I loved him... But how do you prove that?
- Samuel Maleski: Daniel hears you speak in a language that has nothing to do with his life. Just because you imposed this on him, just like everything else. We're on your turf, all the time...
- Sandra Voyter: Yeah, in your country. Every single day, I have to accept that we live in your hometown. The people that you grew up with, they look down on me whenever I don't make the effort to smile at them. You don't think me living here counts as meeting you on your turf?
- Samuel Maleski: You never smile at anyone.
- Sandra Voyter: Yeah! That's why you love me, right? Because if you wanted to have some stupid bitch who grins at your friends at the ski slopes, you'd have picked someone else.
- Samuel Maleski: You really have no shame. That's your superpower, it allows you to see no one but yourself.
- Sandra Voyter: I see you very clearly. I just don't see you as a victim.
- Avocat général: Would you say the music Mr. Maleski played so aggressively indicated he was jealous of you, or Miss... Ms. Solidor? Sorry. The music was a cover of 50 Cent's P.I.M.P., a deeply misogynistic song.
- Maître Nour Boudaoud: It was an instrumental version.
- Présidente du tribunal: Please answer, Miss Solidor.
- Zoé Solidor: Could you call me Ms.? I dislike being reduced to a marital status.
- Sandra Voyter: I never saw Daniel as handicapped. You know? I... I... I wanted to protect him from that perception. Because as soon as you mark a child that way, you condemn him to not, to not... see his life as his own, whereas, he should feel that it's his best life, because it's the only life he's got, it is his own.
- Sandra Voyter: He was one of the only persons I knew, when he walked into a room, something shifted. The... the atmosphere changed. And I suppose that's charm, isn't it? It's, um... I... I... I fell in love with his charm.
- Zoé Solidor: It's hard to read the intentions of someone you can't see.
- Avocat général: That's what they pay me for!
- Avocat général: Hearing the conversation now, with hindsight, would you call it seduction?
- Zoé Solidor: I felt, and she told me herself, that she didn't have much of a social life or many chances to talk to new people. I suppose you could call that a form of seduction.
- Avocat général: The court needs to know if you would call it that.
- Zoé Solidor: Seduction means several things.
- Avocat général: But the word seduction always implies some... seduction.
- Maître Vincent Renzi: The witness's answer is clear enough, as to what she means by seduction.
- Sandra Voyter: I just wish you would be shielded from all this, you know, that you could do... that you could do children's stuff, just a little bit, that you could be a child, just a bit longer, you know?
- Maître Vincent Renzi: So what your patients tell you is the truth? As a psychoanalyst, you never wondered whether Samuel Maleski might have needed to imagine an unbearable imbalance to prevent himself from writing?
- Psy Jammal: After a while, I can tell what's real and what isn't.
- Maître Vincent Renzi: Lucky you.
- Marge Berger: You can consider me a friend. Or not. That's your choice. What do you think?
- Daniel: It's ok, I don't... I don't need us to be friends.
- Marge Berger: Well, I'm here to protect your testimony. The law sent me, and... the law can't be someone's friend. Otherwise it couldn't be someone else's friend, and the law must be the same for everyone. So you're right, I can't be your friend.
- Sandra Voyter: He was a great teacher. He was... He had a... He had a way of making everything sound alive and accessible, it was great.
- Maître Vincent Renzi: Have you ever had a patient commit suicide, or attempt suicide?
- Psy Jammal: In French, 'committing suicide' means both trying and succeeding. It's the action.
- Sandra Voyter: That recording is not reality. It is a part of it, maybe. If you have an extreme moment in life, an emotional peak, and you focus on it, of course, it crushes everything. It may seem like irrefutable proof, but actually warps everything. It's not reality. It's our voices, that's true, but it's not who we are.
- Maître Vincent Renzi: I don't give a fuck about what is reality, okay? You... you need to start seeing yourself the way others are going to perceive you. A trial is not about 'the truth,' it's... it's about...
- Samuel Maleski: You impose your way of living, speaking, eating, even fucking. I could never get you to fuck any other way. Because... you just expect me to follow your lead. That's your notion of what a couple is.
- Maître Vincent Renzi: What do we hear in the March 4th fight? The energy, the willfulness... What is it? The energy of despair. The final push before giving up. In his final days, this man isn't facing a war in his marriage. He's facing his own failures. Sandra Voyter is only guilty of succeeding where her husband failed.
- Maître Vincent Renzi: In fact, this violent fight is... phantasmal. It exists only as fantasy. You float the idea, the prosecutor floats it, over or around the facts, making it omnipresent here in court, but... We risk turning this fantasy into a reality simply because there was indeed a fight the day before Mr. Maleski died. Don't substitute the day before for the next day. We can't fill the blanks with a supposition, simply because we have sounds for one and not the other.
- Sandra Voyter: You made us live here among the goats! You complain about the life that you chose! You're not a victim! Not at all!
- Sandra Voyter: Me, personally, I refuse to rot inside, so I find solutions, and at this point, sex was just a question of personal hygiene.
- Samuel Maleski: Why do you refuse to talk about it? Why can't you just admit that it has to do with how things are divided between us?
- Sandra Voyter: Because you are wrong. I don't owe you any time, I do my part. C'mon, let's not start taking inventory here, please. Let's relax. I love you.
- Samuel Maleski: I've given you too much... too much time, too many concessions. I want this time back, and you owe it to me, be fair!
- Sandra Voyter: [laughing] I'm sorry, but no, are you insane? I don't owe you anything, really.
- Sandra Voyter: You should be flattered that I was inspired by you. This is life, things circulate, you know.
- Samuel Maleski: Yes.
- Sandra Voyter: Yes? And frankly, I wish you'd be inspired to 'plunder' me someday.
- Samuel Maleski: I'm saying maybe, just maybe, things are a little out of balance between us, and I want you to take a look at that. Why is this so hard to discuss?
- Sandra Voyter: First of all, I don't believe in the notion of reciprocity in a couple. It's naive and frankly it's depressing. Yes. And I think discussing it is a waste of time, considering the state you're in, seriously. All this blah, blah, blah here and more time is gone, all this time spent chitchatting could be spent in silence, doing whatever you want to do, if only you knew what it is that...
- Sandra Voyter: Darling, the book just came out, you know very well it's just this time...
- Samuel Maleski: It's always 'just this time.' Whether you have a book out, or you're writing, or you need space to figure out what to write... I mean, I've been following your lead for years! I can't do anything with my time, do you understand? It's not my time, it's yours!
- Sandra Voyter: Because I'm not French, you're not German, so we create a middle ground. So nobody has to meet the other on their turf. This is what English is for, it's our meeting point, you can't blame me for that.
- Daniel: Do you think she could've killed him?
- Marge Berger: It's not for me to judge.
- Daniel: I know, but you could at least tell me!
- Marge Berger: I can't answer that. My role is to protect you...
- Daniel: Fucking help me!
- Daniel: I want to say something else. Since my dog was sick for days, Dad and I went to the vet. Dad was really quiet in the car. He didn't even play music. He usually always does. After a while, he started talking about Snoop. He said, 'You know, he could get sick. Even die. You know that. You need to be ready.' I didn't want to hear that. Snoop was doing better. He was still young. He'd never been sick. I told him he wasn't going to die. But he kept going. He said, 'You need to be aware of it. It'll happen someday. And it's no wonder Snoop gets tired. He's not so young in dog years. Can you imagine his life? He's not just any dog. He's a great dog. An outstanding dog. Think about it. He anticipates your needs, foresees your movements, keeps you safe from danger. He spends his life imagining your needs, thinking about what you can't see. Maybe he's tired. Always caring for others. Maybe one day, he'll be done. That could happen.' And I remember at the end, he said, 'One day, when it's time for him to go, he'll go. You won't be able to help it. Prepare yourself, it'll be hard. But it won't be the end of your life.' He meant himself. Now... Now I know he meant himself.
- Avocat général: You call the violent blow hypothesis 'improbable.' Would you call it impossible?
- Experte Bogaert: No, but highly improbable.
- Avocat général: Meaning it is possible.
- Experte Bogaert: As it's possible I'll be president someday.
- Maître Nour Boudaoud: A novel is not life! An author is not her characters.
- Avocat général: But an author can express herself through her characters. You flagged this passage. How can we not see a link?
- Maître Vincent Renzi: Is Stephen King a serial killer?
- Avocat général: Did his wife turn up dead in suspicious circumstances?
- Maître Vincent Renzi: Focus on the facts!
- Présidente du tribunal: Mr. Renzi, I strongly advise you to calm down. Prosecutor, I advise you to follow Mr. Renzi's advice. Focus on the facts.
- Avocat général: I'd like to read from one of Ms. Voyter's recent books, The Black House.
- Maître Nour Boudaoud: We judge facts, not books. Judge, this is a slippery slope.
- Avocat général: In 2017, Sandra Voyter herself declared, and I quote, 'My books are linked to my life and those in it.'
- Maître Nour Boudaoud: Objection! She's always said her work is fiction.
- Avocat général: First book is her mother's death! Second, a rift with her father. Third, her son's accident, etc. Her books are part of this trial. Her life is in them, her relationship in particular.
- Sandra Voyter: Now, with hindsight, it seems possible that he could have provoked this fight just to record it.
- Avocat général: Wait, are you implying you're the victim of a twisted man?
- Maître Nour Boudaoud: Seriously? He recorded her in secret. It's a valid question. You forget the situation is perverse.
- Avocat général: Now the victim is on trial!