An Officer and a Spy (2019)

This (real) spoosk story is just an episode in the war which stired France and Germany relations after Alsace and Lorraine confiscation by Bismarck. French and German peoples are fed up with those old stories which belong to history.

Fmovies: I'm sorry for my language, i'm french. That's my first review of a movie on IMDB, the first because i'm tired of lies.

This movie is perfect in form. But the content is a joke. Dreyfus was guilty, that's a fact. One thing, almost all officers pronounce the word "jew" or an insult with "jew". But, watching the movie, remove this insult and ask yourself if their decisions are a non sense...

I can't explain here all lies, the language stop me. But, you need to understand that this case is political. Some bourgeois network use Dreyfus and his case in order to destroy french army. Why ? Because the army was the last refuge of the french royalists. I doesn't care about republican against royalist, only truth is important. The facts and the evidence of Dreyfus's guilt are overwhelming.

I have read a review about the poor jew Dreyfus against the Austrian noble... That's a joke too. Dreyfus came from a large noble family too...

If you are interest by this story, read this book : "L'Affaire Dreyfus : Entre farces et grosses ficelles" Adrien Abauzit, in french...

Polanski's movie is a very solid classic period picture with great acting.

The last scene between Dreyfus and Picquart echoes their first encounter at the beginning. It is a stunning scene (which I do want to spoil) which makes it a masterpiece and speaks suddenly of the France of today. Very highly recommended...

An Officer and a Spy fmovies. More than 120 years after the events, the Dreyfus case seems to never die. The story of the Jewish officer wrongfully convicted of espionage on the basis of false accusations is reminded every time the honesty, integrity or patriotism of the Jews who choose to live in the Diaspora are questioned. The anti-Semitic slogans propagated by the anti-Dreyfus press and chanted by the angry crowds then are reminded whenever the conspiracy theories bring the Jews to the center of current events. It is not forgotten that one of the side effects of the Dreyfus case was the emergence of the Zionist movement in Europe, which led half a century later to the founding of the State of Israel. Finally, France, the country of democracy and humanism, continues to keep the Dreyfus case as one of its defining moments, a historical warning about the dangers of prejudice and hatred towards strangers that can haunt the most enlightened society. Roman Polanski's 'J'Accuse' is a the latest film tin a series of cinematographic creations that have kept alive the memory and the interest for that moment which refuses to be buried in the oblivion of history.

The main hero of this version is not Dreyfus (played by Louis Garrel) who is little on screen and permanently in the background of the action, but is otherwise presented rather schematically and not in the most positive light. In the center of attention is Georges Picquart (played by Jean Dujardin), the officer who brought to public notice the anti-Semitic conspiracy and the judicial framing that led to Dreyfus's first conviction. His actions and his fight against public opinion, his superiors and a good part of the French political class saved the honor of France and of the army to which he and Dreyfus had dedicated their lives and careers. Far from being a schematic character, Picquart is represented as a complex man of his period, brave and idealistic on one hand, but not without prejudices and personal problems on the other. The titles of the film inform us that the related facts happened in reality, but we must still bear in mind that this is a version of the story based on a novel. Robert Harris's and Roman Polanski's version of the Dreyfus case.

Jean Dujardin's acting seemed exceptional to me. This actor continues to amaze me with each of his new films through the combination of talent and immersion in the roles he plays, with his charisma and personal charm. Of the rest of the distribution I especially notice Mathieu Amalric , another of my favorites. The editing is well filmed, the story runs flawlesly, in the style of classical cinema. It looks like Polanski wanted to make a sober film, in which the emotion derives from the actions of the characters. If we chose to put aside all the disputes regarding the person and the director's past, what we see on screen is a historical film about a crucial moment in the history of France and Europe, made and acted with respect and professionalism.

I really loved this movie about an interesting story, well told by Polanski. There is an accurate research and a very good cinematographic transposition of what happened in France with the Affair Dreyfus, that many people still don't know. It is important to talk about it, especially with this pathos and care of the details. Definitely a movie to see.

If there is one element that defined the Dreyfus case, that was "passion"; the whole affaire was permeated by several, very powerful passions: passion for power, passion for intrigue, passion for truth, passion against the jews, passion for honour, passion for politics. Well, the main flaw of the movie is its inability to deliver such an ordeal of passions and its tone of voice remains quite shallow all along the movie. Also, the movie is totally unbalanced: it's very thorough in the first part, looking at every details of the fabricated evidence case against Dreyfus; then the second half, that of the new trial, is incredibly rushed, so we lose a lot of the dramatic events of that phase of the affaire. From a director like Roma Polanski I would have expected a much higher standard of quality; to conclude on a positive note, Jean Dujardin's performance is very good.