Click to hit Wiki and learn more about the "Dreyfus Affair"
Z is a pretty extraordinary film about frightening political structures and assassination in Greece that is all the more powerful when you factor in the context of it being made a scant half decade after the events it looks at. It’s not an uplifting film, but it’s one of the most unmissable of the many classics cataloged by the Criterion Collection. I’d highly recommend looking into it. Once you do, you’ll have another single-letter political thriller to look forward to, this one from Roman Polanski.
This new film, called D, won’t exactly be topical, but it will take a look at a fascinating French scandal that Polanski has long hoped to film “as a spy story” rather than as a costume drama. He also figures it to be a rather potent story to tell, as it deals with “the age-old spectacle of the witch-hunt of a minority group, security paranoia, secret military tribunals, out-of-control intelligence agencies, governmental cover-ups, and a rabid press.”
What he refers to is the “Dreyfus Affair,” which was a drawn-out, divisive scandal in France around the turn of the previous century. Essentially a frighteningly deliberate and widespread military conspiracy to pin a pack of bullshit charge of treason on a Jewish officer, it resulted in years and years of trials, jailtime for Dreyfus, and nasty social divide in France over the issue. Ultimately the office was fully exonerated and even reinstated in the military, where he continued to serve throughout WWI.
A pretty definitely happy ending with a triumphant “fuck you” to bigots and the overpowered military state, no? Definitely a little different from Z, and probably a good vibe to hit considering the spirit of today. Polanski will collaborate with screenwriter Robert Harris (The Ghost Writer) once again for this film, and plans on D being his next project.
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Source | Variety