J’accuse (2019)

Directed by: Roman Polanski | 132 minutes | drama, history | Actors: Jean Dujardin, Louis Garrel, Emmanuelle Seigner, Grégory Gadebois, Hervé Pierre, Wladimir Yordanoff, Didier Sandre, Melvil Poupaud, Eric Ruf, Mathieu Amalric, Laurent Stocker, Vincent Perez, Michel Vuillermoz, Vincent Grass, Denis Podalydès, Damien Bonnard

A new Polanski always causes a stir in the film world, but historical drama: we haven’t seen the big little man there since ‘Tess’ (1979). Historical drama requires a specific kind of visual language, with a panoramic perspective – not a narrowing psychology that draws the viewer into the imagination of the maker. It is precisely the latter that usually attracts us in Polanski’s films, just like Verhoeven endowed with a jackass in the field of human motives.

Nothing wrong with that, the good examples are countless. The well-cast ‘J’accuse’ is about the Dreyfus case, who is not the chief of police from the Pink Panther series, but a French officer of Jewish descent who was accused of spying for Germany in the late 1800s. . Here are the parallels with Polanski himself: a French citizen of Jewish descent accused of sexual abuse. Of course life partner Emmanuele Seigner (‘Frantic’) also participates.

Not that we want to suggest anything, the relationship of film with everyday reality does nothing to us. ‘J’accuse’ begins as a dialogue-driven, classic historical drama. The mustaches are historically justified, the pace even seems of this time. The undersigned always thought that everything went slower then, with horse and carriage but also in human interaction. We know critics a lot. Nevertheless, the production of sound historical drama can be left to Polanski (86).

His hand is subtly visible: in the sobriety of the mise-en-scene and the dramatic control. The falsely accused Alfred Dreyfus (Garrel), posthumously rehabilitated by the French state, is not the moral anchor of the film: the main character is Colonel Picquart (Dujardin). It guides us through the drama, exposing the hypocrisy of a situation laced with false evidence and anti-Semitism. And the disguise of hypocrisy is typical of Polanski. Give that man a Cesar.