photograph - courtesy
La Biennale di Venezia
#Venezia 76 -
La Biennale di Venezia - Film Festival
J’Accuse – An Officer and A Spy – Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski tells the story of Captain Alfred Dreyfus,
a young promising officer of the French Army, who on January 5, 1895, is
degraded for spying for Germany and is sentenced to life imprisonment on
Devil’s Island in the Atlantic Ocean off French Guiana.
Among the witnesses to his humiliation is Georges Picquart, played by Jean
Dujardin who is promoted to run the military counter-intelligence unit that
tracked him down. But when Picquart discovers that secrets are still being
handed over to the Germans, he is drawn into a dangerous labyrinth of deceit
and corruption that threatens not just his honour but his life.
Starring: Jean Dujardin, Louis Garrel, Emmanuelle
Seigner, Gregory Gadebois.
photograph - courtesy
La Biennale di Venezia
“The film is about the
Dreyfus Affair, a subject that has been on my mind for many years. In this vast
scandal, probably the greatest of the late 19th century, judicial error,
miscarriage of justice and anti-Semitism intertwine. During the twelve years it
lasted, the Dreyfus Affair tore France apart, causing a genuine upheaval all
over the world. It still stands as a symbol of the iniquity that political
authorities are capable of in the name of national interest.”
Roman Polanski
Director’s
statement
photograph - courtesy
La Biennale di Venezia
J’Accuse - Jean
Dujardin
Contessanally: what starts out as a traditional period film
turns out to be a masterful, gripping film – bravo maestro – highly recommend.
photograph - courtesy
La Biennale di Venezia
#Venezia 76 -
La Biennale di Venezia - Film Festival
Benedict
Andrews – Seberg
out of competition
Inspired by true
events, the film tells the story of A bout de souffle – Breathless
- star and darling of the French
New Wave, Jean Seberg, who in the late 1960s was targeted by the illegal FBI surveillance program COINTELPRO. Seberg’s
political and romantic involvement with civil rights activist Hakim Jamal made her a target of the
FBI’s ruthless attempts to disrupt, discredit and expose the Black Power movement. An ambitious
young FBI agent, Jack Solomon, is
assigned to surveil her, only to find his fate dangerously interwoven with her
own.
Starring: Kristen Stewart, Jack O’Connell, Margaret Qualley, Zazie Beetz,
Yvan Attal, Stephen Root, Colm Meaney, Vince Vaughn, Anthony Mackie, Jade
Pettyjohn, Grantham Coleman, James Jordan.
Photograph ASAC -
courtesy La Biennale di Venezia
“I discovered Jean Seberg when my high-school French teacher screened À bout de souffle for our class. I was blown away. I never forgot her amazing, effervescent performance. She redefined what presence and truth meant onscreen. I’m fascinated by Jean’s contradictions, by her combination of fierce independence and emotional openness, her loneliness and her naiveté, her idealism and lust for life. Under the ruthless gaze of the FBI, the threads of Jean’s life come apart. Like the character of St. Joan whom she played for Otto Preminger, Jean passes through the fire. Surviving breakdown and loss, she transforms volatility into hard-won grace.”
Benedict
Andrews
Director’s statement
photograph - courtesy
La Biennale di Venezia
Seberg - Kristen Stewart
Contessanally:
spot on for right now - political thriller –
loved late 1960s sets and fashion.