AN OFFICER AND A SPY
Director Roman Polanski's Take on the Dreyfus Affair That Rocked France in the 1890s
In 1894 Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer in the French Army , was accused and convicted of treason on grounds of passing on French military secrets to the German embassy. He was sentenced to life imprisonment on the notorious Devil's Island. For the next ten years France was plunged into a bitter controversy that divided governments, the Army, politicians and civilians alike.
Director Roman Polanski's Take on the Dreyfus Affair That Rocked France in the 1890s
In 1894 Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer in the French Army , was accused and convicted of treason on grounds of passing on French military secrets to the German embassy. He was sentenced to life imprisonment on the notorious Devil's Island. For the next ten years France was plunged into a bitter controversy that divided governments, the Army, politicians and civilians alike.
Introduction: The Genesis of the MovieRoman Polanski's movie is based on Robert Harris's enthralling novel. about the Dreyfus Affair.
Polanski had previously had considerable success with The Ghost Writer an adaptation of another Harris novel, The Ghost, for which Harris wrote the screenplay. Polanski convinced Harris that the affair would make a good novel and a good movie. For Polanski the Dreyfus Case, although occurring well over a century and a quarter ago, had relevance for today/s world. For him it signified "The age-old spectacle of the witch hunt on a minority group, security paranoia, secret military tribunals, out-of-control intelligence agencies, governmental cover-ups and a rabid press." 
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Key Figures in the Dreyfus AffairThe Dreyfus Affair ultimately involved many significant political and literary figures in late 19th Century France. Of the latter, none was more crucial than Emile Zola, the controversial novelist and essayist Emile Zola. He published an article, famously titled J'accuse! ) I Accuse!) in which he accused the French army and government of falsifying and destroying evidence that proved Dreyfus was completely innocent of the trumped-up charges against him.
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Significance of the Dreyfus AffairLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam.
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Previous Movies About the Dreyfus Affair
