The Officer and the Spy and the I Accused by Roman Polanski

Pablo O. Scholz

08/18/2021 20:30

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Updated 08/18/2021 20:30

The premiere of

The Officer and the Spy

, as

J'accuse

was christened here

, had its immediate repercussions.

It was at the Venice Film Festival, whose president in 2019 was

Lucrecia Martel

, who excused herself from attending the official gala, but did see the film, due to allegations of sexual abuse on the director,

Roman Polanski

.

The director already at that time stated that he was not alien to the persecution that the film tells that, finally, would obtain the Grand Prize of the Jury two years ago at the Mostra.

The themes that

The Officer and the Spy

tackles

, such as righteousness and the prestigious position of the Army and anti-Semitism in France in 1895, now have a new look with Polanski's film.

Dreyfus (Louis Garrel) in the first scene of the film, when he is dismissed as captain of the Army.

CDI Photo

Alfred Dreyfus (

Louis Garrel

, from

The Dreamers

,

Faithful Lover

) was a young Jewish captain, who as soon as the projection starts, we see him being dismissed from his ranks in a humiliating military ceremony, before all the soldiers and condemned as a spy, after the court martial accuses him of high treason for spreading secrets to enemies.

Sent to jail for life on Devil's Island, many had doubts as to whether or not he was guilty.

Polanski tells the story from the point of view of Georges Picquart (

Jean Dujardin

, Best Actor Oscar for

The Artist

), the lieutenant colonel who was one of Dreyfus's teachers.

The turns of life cause him to be appointed to the head of the Secret Services.

The secretary of his predecessor denies him how he can access secret files.

Jean Dujardin, winner of the Oscar for "The Artist", is Georges Picquart.

CDI Photo

Something smells rotten.

And Dreyfus maintains that he is innocent.

Picquart must take another espionage case, in which Esterhazy would be passing military information to an Italian officer with whom he has relations.

Picquart does not find an easy way to elucidate whether Dreyfus committed treason or not.

CDI Photo

That's when the film becomes an espionage thriller, with detectives and maids following clues and delivering letters, monitoring movements, and that is where, if at any point in the film the soul of the film is found, it is there.

The other moment, of course, will be near the end.

Louis Garrel, as Alfred Dreyfus, the most ambiguous character in the film by the director of "Chinatown."

CDI Photo

Suppose that the reader is not aware of the implications of the Dreyfus case, nor the ups and downs of history that led Émile Zola to write a plea in the form of an open letter to the then president of France, Félix Faure, in favor of Dreyfus. , and that the newspaper

L'Aurore

published on its front page.

If Dreyfus was innocent, and the culprit was Esterhazy, wasn't everything easy to solve?

Do not.

Polanski's wife Emmanuelle Seigner plays Picquart's mistress.

CDI Photo

Strangely for a film by the director of

Frenzy Search

and

Chinatown

, the lack of suspense and a certain slowness at times are astonishing.

As if Polanski had put automatic pilot, trusting that telling the story would be enough to promote concern in the viewer.

He did not take risks from the formal and was reinforced in his usual director of photography, Pawel Edelman, and with the music that Alexandre Desplat composed, but even more he bet on his cast.

Mathieu Amalric and Jean Dujardin.

The actor in "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" has a fundamental role.

CDI Photo

Garrel has the most ambiguous character, but by focusing on Picquart much of the attention is there, on Dujardin's back and mustaches, which is dry, restrained, but expressive at the same time.

Polanski's wife, Emmanuelle Seigner, is Picquart's mistress (on a branch that doesn't add much to the trunk) and Mathieu Amalric as the graphologist who compares the calligraphy in the letters of Dreyfus and Esterhazy is, quite simply, stupendous.

"The officer and the spy"

Good

Drama.

France / Italy, 2019. 132 ', SAM 13.

Original title:

“J'accusse”.

From:

Roman Polanski.

With:

Louis Garrel, Jean Dujardin, Emmanuelle Seigner.

In:

Hoyts Abasto, Cinépolis Recoleta, Showcase Norcenter.

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