With La Verité Clouzot responded to the accusations of his own irrelevance hurled by the nouvelle vague upstarts who brazenly grouped him together with the so-called "cinéma du papa" of the old guard that they adamantly repudiated. Clouzot in turn cast youth idol Brigitte Bardot in one of her most popular roles as a restless Rive Gauche bohemian who falls dangerously in love with a self-absorbed and elitist composer. The extended courtroom drama that unfolds across the film's second half can be understood as a bold attempt to scrutinize the contemporary youth scene in order to understand the aims and morality of the Sixties generation.