L' Avocat de la Terreur (Terror's Advocate) (2007)

Critic Reviews

• Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star

  The movie functions crackingly well as a non-fiction international thriller.

• Jason McBride, Globe and Mail

  The lawyer's intense isolation, his solitary, perverse rage against the world, against France, against conventional opinion, is felt most deeply.

• Mark Feeney, Boston Globe

  For just a moment, ignore politics. Consider Jacques Vergès simply as star. The radical French lawyer is an absolutely compelling figure onscreen: exotic, resolute, beguilingly smug.

• Tamara Straus, San Francisco Chronicle

  Jacques Vergès makes for compelling documentary film fodder: He is arrogant, cosmopolitan, politically unpredictable and enmeshed in the roots of modern international terrorism.

• Stephen Hunter, Washington Post

  A panorama of European radicalism.

• David Edelstein, New York Magazine

  A brilliant study in the link between moral corruption and narcissism.

• Pablo Villaca, Cinema em Cena

  Ainda que falhe em decifrar seu complexo protagonista, o documentário estabelece um intrigante retrato de um homem cujos princípios morais e ideológicos eventualmente se tornam tão flexíveis quanto o espectro alcançado por sua clientela.

• Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews

  At its best, the documentary shows us an unsavory character answering a bunch of softball questions and whose best logic is to play the Third World race card.

• Anton Bitel, Film4

  As riveting as it is dizzying, Schroeder's documentary thriller takes a mesmerising ad hominem approach to twentieth century terror, offering up for our judgement an advocate whose views ought to be indefensible.

• Brian Gibson, Vue Weekly (Edmonton, Canada)

  A documentary built on guilt by association. . . . no more interested in questioning the loaded word "terrorist" than Verges is in making distinctions between his clients. . . . leads us on a tour full of dark, mysterious purpose and not much of a payoff.

• Boyd van Hoeij, european-films.net

  Though the film comes with a warning that it expresses only the point of view of its director, in reality, what Schroeder seems to offer is a portrait of a glib man who simply defies any conclusive description.

• Cynthia Fuchs, Nitrate Online

  If Terror's Advocate doesn't precisely interrogate the rise of terrorism, it does look at its romance and consider its effectiveness.

• Sean Means, Salt Lake Tribune

  Schroeder's approach to this controversial figure is more plodding than it should be.

• MaryAnn Johanson, Flick Filosopher

  [I]ntriguing enough, if a bit dry. But then a flick that seemed newsy, almost wonky, turns riveting...

• Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone, TheMovieChicks.com

  If you want to see a who's who in terror, just take a peek at this guy's client list.

• Liz Braun, Jam! Movies

  Barbet Schroeder's astonishing documentary is a glimpse into another world, and not one you would necessarily want to visit for too long.

• Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times

  Schroeder's film, which combines interviews with many of the key figures in Vergès' career with grainy historical footage, lets its subject speak for itself but leaves little doubt of where the filmmaker stands.

• William Arnold, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

  While the man [Vergès] has a snappy aphorism for every question, he remains as imponderable and enigmatic as the Sphinx.

Read all 18 critic reviews