Who Did It? Question Lingers in Murder Drama ‘The Night of the 12th’

Director Dominik Moll reacts as he receives the Best Director Award for his film "La Nuit du 12" (The Night of the 12th) during the 48th Cesar Awards ceremony in Paris, France, February 24, 2023. (Reuters)
Director Dominik Moll reacts as he receives the Best Director Award for his film "La Nuit du 12" (The Night of the 12th) during the 48th Cesar Awards ceremony in Paris, France, February 24, 2023. (Reuters)
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Who Did It? Question Lingers in Murder Drama ‘The Night of the 12th’

Director Dominik Moll reacts as he receives the Best Director Award for his film "La Nuit du 12" (The Night of the 12th) during the 48th Cesar Awards ceremony in Paris, France, February 24, 2023. (Reuters)
Director Dominik Moll reacts as he receives the Best Director Award for his film "La Nuit du 12" (The Night of the 12th) during the 48th Cesar Awards ceremony in Paris, France, February 24, 2023. (Reuters)

Crime dramas usually end with the culprit being caught, but French film "La Nuit du 12" ("The Night of the 12th") looks instead at how an unsolved murder takes its toll on the police investigator trying to solve it.

Inspired by a real-life case described in Pauline Guéna's book "18.3 - une année à la PJ" ("18.3 - A Year With the Crime Squad"), the film begins with the brutal murder of young woman Clara. Police investigator Yohan Vivès takes on the case, and while he digs into her life and interrogates suspect after suspect, he gets no closer to finding Clara's killer.

"When you have a crime story, you have the crime and then ... the public wants the criminal at the end," director Dominik Moll told Reuters.

"The fact that it was unresolved, I felt that it allowed to ... put the focus on other things, be it on the police procedural work itself, or on the journey of the main investigator Yohan, and how he evolves and what that non-resolution does to him."

At the core of the movie, which last month won best film and best director for Moll at France's Cesar Awards, is the relationship between men and women.

"When we started to work on the screenplay ... we quickly felt that because it was a femicide and because it was the murder of a young woman that men's violence and the relationship of men and women would be a theme or a part of the film that we had to explore as well," he said.

"What we also wanted to question was the fact that the police are still ... mostly an all-male world and as the young policewoman says at the end (of the film), isn't it strange that almost all the violence is committed by men and then it's mostly men who investigate on it."

Set in the Alps, the film premiered at last year's Cannes Film Festival and has been praised by critics and audiences. "We also got feedback ... especially from women ... about how the film had given them strength and they thanked us, as guys tackling such a subject," Moll said.

"For me, that is more important than the Cesar Awards, but it doesn't mean that it's not nice (to have won awards)."

"The Night of the 12th" is released in UK cinemas on Friday.



Doctor to Plead Guilty to Supplying Ketamine to ‘Friends’ Star Matthew Perry 

Matthew Perry appears at the GQ Men of the Year Party in West Hollywood, Calif., on Nov. 17, 2022. (AP) 
Matthew Perry appears at the GQ Men of the Year Party in West Hollywood, Calif., on Nov. 17, 2022. (AP) 
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Doctor to Plead Guilty to Supplying Ketamine to ‘Friends’ Star Matthew Perry 

Matthew Perry appears at the GQ Men of the Year Party in West Hollywood, Calif., on Nov. 17, 2022. (AP) 
Matthew Perry appears at the GQ Men of the Year Party in West Hollywood, Calif., on Nov. 17, 2022. (AP) 

A California doctor charged in the overdose death of "Friends" star Matthew Perry has agreed to plead guilty to four counts of illegal distribution of the drug ketamine, according to a court filing on Monday.

Salvador Plasencia, who operated an urgent care clinic in Malibu, faces up to 40 years in prison, according to a statement from prosecutors. He is expected to enter the guilty plea in the coming weeks.

Plasencia was one of five people charged in the death of Perry at age 54. An autopsy found the actor died from acute effects of ketamine and other factors that caused him to lose consciousness and drown in his hot tub in October 2023.

Ketamine is a short-acting anesthetic with hallucinogenic properties. It is sometimes prescribed to treat depression and anxiety but also abused by recreational users.

In the plea agreement, Plasencia admitted to injecting Perry with ketamine at the actor's home and in a Santa Monica parking lot in the weeks before his death, in exchange for thousands of dollars, and that it was "not for legitimate medical purposes."

Plasencia obtained the ketamine from another doctor, Mark Chavez of San Diego. According to earlier court filings, Plasencia texted Chavez about Perry, saying: "I wonder how much this moron will pay."

Chavez and two other defendants already have pleaded guilty in the case. None has yet been sentenced.

A fifth defendant, Jasveen Sangha, whom authorities said was a drug dealer known to customers as the "ketamine queen," has been charged with supplying the dose that killed Perry. She has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to go on trial in August.

Perry had publicly acknowledged decades of substance abuse, including during the years he starred as Chandler Bing on the hit 1990s television sitcom "Friends."