Who plays Jean-Jacques Goldman in The Goldman Trial?

Cédric Kahn’s film, broadcast this evening on Arte en clair, recounts the second trial of his half-brother, Pierre Goldman, sentenced to life imprisonment for a double murder.

This was one of the films not to be missed during fall 2023.

The Goldman Trialby Cédric Kahn, will be broadcast this evening unencrypted on Arte. A striking legal fresco, which takes us back to France in the 1970s. We follow the second trial of Pierre Goldman, a far-left activist, sentenced at first instance to life imprisonment for four armed robberies, one of which led to the death of two pharmacists. He claims his innocence and lawyer Georges Kiejman defends him…

This protagonist is brilliantly played by Arieh Worthalter, who also received the César for best actor for his performance. On the occasion of the broadcast of the film this evening on Arte, we are however focusing on a more secondary role in this legal drama.

Yes, Pierre Goldman is indeed related to Jean-Jacques Goldman, since he is his half-brother. Their father, Alter Mojze Goldman, was a Polish Jewish émigré who became a French resistance fighter. It was in the Free Zone that, during the Second World War, he met Janine Sochaczewska, also a Polish Jewish emigrant involved in the French resistance and very committed to Communism. The couple separated after the liberation and Alter immediately married Ruth Ambrunn, with whom he had other children, including Jean-Jacques Goldman.

The two grew up together in the 1950s and 1960s and when Pierre Goldman, a far-left activist who worked for the South American Guerrilla, was tried for several robberies, Jean-Jacques was there in the room, present during the hearings.

At the time, he had not yet launched the solo career that would make him a star. “All it will take is (a sign)” would only be released a decade later, in 1981. But in the 1970s, Jean-Jacques Goldman was already making a name for himself in music with his group Taï Phong, which gave him a certain notoriety.

It is therefore logical that Cédric Kahn included it in his film. It’s the young Ulysse Dutilloy, who went through the Cours Florent and recently met in the series Lupine from Netflix, which lends its features to the favorite personality of the French. “He took his role very seriously,” writes the director in the press kit.

According to legend, Jean-Jacques Goldman wrote the song “Since you are leaving” (1988) in tribute to his missing brother, murdered by far-right activists after his release from prison. But the singer has often denied this version.

The Goldman Trial: a cinema summit by Cédric Kahn (review)