Finally I was able to see Roman Polanski's last film, a period drama, set specifically at the time when the events occurred in real life, beginning the story in the year 1894, when Dreyfus is found guilty and sentenced.
The story takes place in that military and political environment in the France of the time. If you like historical dramas, where the costumes and atmosphere of the past are captured in great detail, you will love this film, because its production and the design of the costumes is really wonderful. The Dreyfus case has been taken to the cinema on other occasions, it was an important case where a great injustice was committed. It was a very controversial case in that country, and its outcome succeeded in vindicating the main defendant.
It was a society dominated by men and as it was centered within the military dome, female characters are scarce, there is only one female character, the lover of Georges Picquart. Sometimes more female presence is needed, but it's understandable that it was somewhat forced.
What was the famous Dreyfus case about? Alfred Dreyfus was a captain in the French army, who was accused of passing on information to the Germans and convicted of treason, banishing him to Devil's Island, where he would remain incommunicado, and was also disgraced militarily.
For this man, the militia was everything in his life, also honor seemed to be an important thing in those times, although in reality all that about honor I think it has always been a farce, a mask of the societies of that time, to appear to be worthy people, but in reality everyone is corrupt.
Georges Picquart, was part of the army that was against Dreyfus, like all the other French military, and most Europeans, was a man of anti-Semitic ideas. The hatred for the Jews was great and time would show us where all that hatred would lead.
The fact that Dreyfus was a Jew made him the target of that hatred within the French military world, was the ideal for him to be accused of espionage, although the evidence was not conclusive, it was even mostly a farce, a lie created by a power dome. Ironically, when Picquart is assigned to an intelligence office, he finds evidence that points to the real spy.
What would you do in the face of such a discovery? What would you do? Today most people would keep quiet about such a discovery, I think there are fewer and fewer people with the courage to do the right thing. When I read the news from all over the world every day, it fills me with great sadness, there are no longer men like Picquart, who, although he had no sympathy for Dreyfus, felt that the right thing to do was to tell the truth and do everything possible to have him released, even at the risk of his life and willing to go to prison for defending the truth. To see that today, it is very difficult
The title of the film is due to the writing that was published in the newspaper L´Aurore , signed by the prestigious writer Emilio Zola, where the writer points out by name each of the people involved in the lies against Dreyfus and his unjust condemnation. Zola received hostile criticism from the society that considered Dreyfus guilty, he would also be accused and brought to justice for that writing.
You can read all about the Dreyfus case in this excellent Wikipedia Link article
The film, like all Polanski's films, is beautifully made and is an excellent recreation of Picquart's investigation to bring about true justice, catching the real spy and freeing the innocent. But it wasn't a film that shocked me. Very well done, but I feel it lacks something. It may be that the story and I knew it well from watching previous films and seeing some documentaries on the Internet.
The film received the Grand Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival and Polanski received a César for Best Director. The film also received other awards, as well as nominations for other prestigious prizes.
And as expected, there was controversy about the film. Why? Because of its director Roman Polanski. The director cannot set foot in the United States and the country is obsessed with his capture. Polanski was accused in '77 of raping a minor. Apparently, while he was taking pictures of her and promising to make her famous, he was given a lot of alcohol and drugs, consuming the act. Polanski escaped from the United States and went to Europe where he has spent all these years working and offering us great works of the seventh art.
Polanski spent a lot of time wanting to do his version of the Dreyfus case, he has said that he is innocent of the accusations and apparently the director wanted to show the parallelism with his own case. Is Polanski guilty? Innocent? I don't know, I'm not a judge to judge him. Even the girl, today, and an old lady, declared that they forgive him and wanted to forget the whole thing. In Hollywood, sleeping with very young actresses and actors seems to have always been commonplace and an open secret among that whole hypocritical community. What I see is that Americans want to fuck Polanski because he slipped out from under their noses.
I think that everything bad that director could do, he already paid a great price with the tragic death of his wife Sharon Tate at the hands of the gang of madmen who were following Charles Mason. I'm only interested in the film side of Polanski's life, I don't care about his private life. I like his films, I admire his work.
If you want to read more about the Polanski case, check out this wikipedia Link post
Actor Jean Dujardin is the absolute star of the film, playing Colonel Georges Picquart, the character who takes the lead in this story. I'm not a big fan of Dujardin, I didn't like him when he was given the Oscar for the film The Artist, I didn't like that film, but I must acknowledge the extraordinary work he does in Polanski's film. His Picquart has enough charisma not to bore us and to keep us abreast of everything that happens in the film.
If you like historical dramas based on real events, I recommend you see this movie.
My Ranking: 3.5/5
Trailer
