Any controversy that might erupt over Roman Polanski’s decision to implicitly equate himself with one of history’s greatest victims of injustice is dissipated by the resultant film’s tepid listlessness. The filmmaker has scored any number of artistic achievements over the course of his controversial career, but with “An Officer and a Spy” (aka “J’accuse”), he fails to serve as his own Émile Zola.
Zola, of course, helped throw a spotlight on the French government’s cover-up after it unjustly railroaded Jewish army officer Alfred Dreyfus to Devil’s Island following a trumped-up court-martial that incorrectly branded him a spy. In telling the story of how that cover-up was uncovered and investigated, Polanski fails the main requirement of any historical drama: Keep the audience in suspense even when they already know how it comes out.
Polanski knows a thing or two about suspense, as one of the true heirs of Alfred Hitchcock,...
Zola, of course, helped throw a spotlight on the French government’s cover-up after it unjustly railroaded Jewish army officer Alfred Dreyfus to Devil’s Island following a trumped-up court-martial that incorrectly branded him a spy. In telling the story of how that cover-up was uncovered and investigated, Polanski fails the main requirement of any historical drama: Keep the audience in suspense even when they already know how it comes out.
Polanski knows a thing or two about suspense, as one of the true heirs of Alfred Hitchcock,...
- 8/30/2019
- by Alonso Duralde
- The Wrap
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