Intrigue (film)

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Movie
German title intrigue
Original title J'accuse
Country of production France , Italy
original language French
Publishing year 2019
length 132 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Roman Polanski
script Roman Polanski,
Robert Harris
production Alain Goldman
music Alexandre Desplat
camera Paweł Edelman
cut Hervé de Luze
occupation

Intrige (original title: J'accuse ) is a French - Italian historical drama by the director Roman Polański , who together with the British writer Robert Harris also wrote the screenplay based on his novel Intrige . The film with Jean Dujardin and Louis Garrel in the leading roles deals with the Dreyfus affair and won the Grand Jury Prize at its world premiere in the competition at the Venice Film Festival in 2019 and was nominated for the European Film Prize 2019 .

Intrige opened in French cinemas on November 13, 2019 and in German cinemas on February 6, 2020.

action

Alfred Dreyfus , a young, promising officer in the French army, was sentenced to life imprisonment on the Devil's Island in the Atlantic off French Guiana on January 5, 1895, for alleged espionage for Germany . Among the witnesses to his public condemnation and humiliation is Marie-Georges Picquart , who was previously promoted to head of the military counterintelligence unit - the agency that convicted Dreyfus. When Picquart discovered that even after Dreyfus' determination, secrets were still being revealed to the Germans, he became aware of a system of fraud and corruption pervaded by anti-Semitism. He goes against orders and testifies as a witness in favor of Dreyfus in order to rehabilitate him.

background

The Open Letter J'accuse

J'accuse ...! (French for I accuse…! ) is the title of an open letter from the French writer Émile Zola to Félix Faure , the then President of the French Republic, to inform him and the public about the true background of the Dreyfus affair . The letter appeared in the daily L'Aurore on January 13, 1898,and caused a great political and social scandal. J'accuse has come into German usageas a name for a courageous public expression of opinion against abuse of power .

production

Staff and cast

The director was Roman Polański . The film is based on the novel Intrige (original title An Officer and a Spy ) by the British writer Robert Harris from 2013, which was adapted for the screen by Harris and Polański. Harris was awarded the Walter Scott Prize in 2014 for the novel. Both had previously realized The Ghostwriter together . Polanski said that the Dreyfus affair, which manifested itself in errors of law, miscarriage of justice and anti-Semitism, tearing France apart, is still a symbol of the injustice that political authorities are capable of in the name of the national interest.

Louis Garrel took over the role of Alfred Dreyfus , whose unjustified conviction for treason in 1894 sparked the Dreyfus affair. Jean Dujardin plays the officer and later Minister of War Marie-Georges Picquart, Vincent Grass the French Général de division Jean-Baptiste Billot . Emmanuelle Seigner , Grégory Gadebois , Olivier Gourmet , Melvil Poupaud and Mathieu Amalric can also be seen in other roles . Polanski himself has a cameo as a listener at a concert.

For cinematographer Pawel Edelman it is the seventh film since 2002 that he has made together with Polański.

Filming and film music

Pointe de Primel, filming location for the scenes on Devil's Island

The shooting took place between November 26, 2018 and March 7, 2019 in Paris and on the Pointe de Primel rock formation in the municipality of Plougasnou in northern Brittany, in the municipality of Moret-Loing-et-Orvanne in the Seine-et-Marne department and held in Beynes . Paweł Edelman acted as cameraman .

Alexandre Desplat composed the film music . Intrige is Polanski's fifth film for which Desplat wrote the music. The soundtrack, which comprises a total of twelve pieces of music, including two by Gabriel Fauré , was released on November 8, 2019 by Warner Classics on CD and as a download.

publication

On August 30, 2019, the film premiered in the competition at the Venice Film Festival and won the Grand Jury Prize (Silver Lion). It came to French cinemas on November 13, 2019, and to German cinemas on February 6, 2020 in the distribution of Weltkino .

reception

Reviews

The presentation of the film in Venice had previously led to irritation and controversial reactions because of the rape charges against Polanski, for example from the jury president Lucrecia Martel and in the American press. However, the film was received with great acclaim from the press and premiere audiences in the competition.

Hanns-Georg Rodek von der Welt states: “It is an elaborate historical drama with a convincing turn-of-the-century Paris, hundreds of extras and lavishly staged costumes. It's a kind of historical revelation story ”.

Andreas Borcholte calls the film in Spiegel Online “an impressively precisely staged, gripping historical drama”. Like no other in the competition, Polanski's film comments on “the threatening tipping of the current socio-political discourse into patterns of fascism believed to be outdated” and “especially now that Jews and migrants are increasingly being discriminated and persecuted everywhere in Europe, the memory of this case of state-sanctioned anti-Semitism seems like a reminder from history. "

Christopher Diekhaus from the Guild of German Film Art Theaters writes that even if the director only carefully exhausts the thriller elements, there are small peaks of tension here and there, but the events are not boring anyway, as astonishing parallels to the present emerge: “On the one hand, the film illustrates how influential white men shamelessly exploit their positions of power and knit the law as they see fit. On the other hand, the anti-Semitic mood described triggers great unease when you consider that anti-Semitic currents are currently on the rise again. "

The anti-Semitism in Europe at the turn of the 20th century and the relation to the present, which Polanski addressed, is addressed in most of the critics' contributions. Chiara Ugolini from La Repubblica also emphasizes the topicality of the film in the face of growing anti-Semitism in Europe.

Glenn Kenny from rogerebert.com also goes into his detailed film review on the anti-Semitism problem in the French government, the army and society at the time. Apart from the technical perfection and the creative brilliance, the sovereign art of narration and the creation of tension arcs, the film, which has the quality of a Hitchcock film, has “something very real and urgent to say about the world we live in today ". He considers it unlikely that the film, which he rates as “fantastic”, will be released in American cinemas in the near future or ever at all.

Awards

Camerimage 2019

César 2020

European Film Award 2019

  • Nomination for Best European Film
  • Nomination for Best Director (Roman Polański)
  • Nomination for Best Screenplay (Roman Polański and Robert Harris)
  • Nomination for Best Actor (Jean Dujardin)

Venice International Film Festival 2019

  • Awarded the Silver Lion - Grand Jury Prize (Roman Polański)
  • Awarded the FIPRESCI Prize (Roman Polański)
  • Received the Green Drop Award (Roman Polański)
  • Awarded the Premio Sorriso Diverso - Best Foreign Language Film (Roman Polański)
  • Nomination for the Golden Lion (Roman Polański)

Prix ​​Lumières 2020

  • Nomination for Best Film (Roman Polański)
  • Award for the best director (Roman Polański)
  • Nomination for Best Screenplay (Roman Polański and Robert Harris)
  • Nomination for Best Actor (Jean Dujardin)
  • Nomination for the best camera (Paweł Edelman)

synchronization

The German synchronization was created from the dialogue director of Stephan Hoffmann on behalf of TaunusFilm Synchron GmbH, Berlin.

role actor Voice actor
Mathieu Dreyfus Nicolas Bridet Mario clichés
Bertillon Mathieu Amalric Olaf Reichmann

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for intrigue . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF; test number: 196939 / K). Template: FSK / maintenance / type not set and Par. 1 longer than 4 characters
  2. ^ A b c Fabien Lemercier: Filming in sight for J'accuse by Roman Polanski. In: cineuropa.org, September 27, 2018.
  3. ↑ J'accuse (An Officer And A Spy) La Biennale di Venezia, accessed on September 9, 2019
  4. ↑ Heike Angermaier: Polanski wins star cast for “J'accuse”. In: blickpunktfilm.de, September 28, 2018.
  5. ↑ Soundtrack Album for Roman Polanski's 'An Officer and a Spy' ('J'accuse') to Be Released. In: filmmusicreporter.com, November 7, 2019.
  6. ↑ Courageous decisions: Prices for “Joker” and Polanski in: Berliner Zeitung, September 8, 2019, accessed on September 8, 2019.
  7. ↑ Start dates in Germany . In: insidekino.com. Retrieved February 6, 2020.
  8. ↑ Nick Vivarelli: Venice: Producer Considered Withdrawing Roman Polanski's Film After Jury President's Remarks. In: Variety , August 29, 2019, accessed September 18, 2019.
  9. ^ A b Chiara Ugolini: Venezia 76, applause a "J'accuse" di Polanski. Dujardin: “Un grande film diretto da un regista-sciamano”. In: La Repubblica , August 30, 2019, accessed September 16, 2019.
  10. ↑ Hanns-Georg Rodek: The most recent 125 year old scandal. In: Die Welt , September 1, 2019, accessed on September 13, 2019.
  11. ↑ Andreas Borcholte: Polanski's “J'accuse” in Venice: An important film, an endless scandal. In: Spiegel Online , August 30, 2019, accessed on September 16, 2019.
  12. ↑ Christopher Diekhaus: Intrigue. In: programmkino.de , accessed on January 23, 2020.
  13. ↑ Glenn Kenny: Venice 2019: Roman Polanski's J'Accuse. In: rogerebert.com , August 30, 2019.
  14. ^ Carolyn Giardina: Camerimage Cinematography Festival Unveils Main Competition Lineup. In: The Hollywood Reporter, October 21, 2019.
  15. ↑ https://www.20minutes.fr/arts-stars/cinema/2706103-20200129-cesar-2020-12-nominations-accuse-roman-polanski-11-miserables
  16. ↑ Les nominations 2020. In: academiedeslumieres.com. Retrieved December 3, 2019 (PDF; 256 KB)
  17. ^ Fabien Lemercier: Les Misérables triumphs at the Lumières Awards. In: cineuropa.org, January 28, 2020.