J'accuse! (1919)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Director:

Abel Gance

Writer:

Abel Gance (writer)

Release Date:

25 April 1919 (France)

Genre:

War

Plot:

The story of two men, one married, the other the lover of the other's wife, who meet in the trenches of the First World War...

Plot Keywords:

Pacifism | WWI | Epic | Anti War

Cast

Romuald Joubé	...	Jean Diaz
Séverin-Mars	...	François Laurin
Maryse Dauvray	...	Edith Laurin
Maxime Desjardins	...	Maria Lazare
Angèle Guys	...	Angele
Mancini	...	Jean's Mother
Elizabeth Nizan
Pierre Danis

Also Known As:

I Accuse (International: English title)

Runtime:

166 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Filming Locations:

Saint-Michel, Haute-Garonne, France

Company:

Pathé Frères

Trivia:

Director Abel Gance managed to secure the enthusiastic support of the wartime French government by presenting this anti-war classic to the relevant officials as a fervently patriotic film. Not until an official watching French soldiers form ranks to spell out the film title for the opening credits did anyone in the French government bother to ask who or what the film accused. Gance's answer: "The war and its stupidity."

Quotes:

Child #1: It's war!
Child #2: What's war?
Child #1: I don't know.

Movie Connections:

Edited into Zombie Evolution (2008)

No War!

In connection with the showing at this German Count's private cinema of the film "Mater Dolorosa" (1917) by Herr Gance some months ago, this Teutonic aristocrat had praised and even eulogized the good film work of this important and essential French film director. "Mater Dolorosa", with its superb cinematographic technique, was a great definitive leap forward in Herr Gance's career.

"J'Accuse!" confirms aristocratic suspicions about Herr Gance's ability. Because it's without any doubt another great film in which those pioneer cinematographic techniques mentioned before are carried out. Again an excellent example of technical experimentation to achieve a film narrative, J'Accuse is superbly developed… achieving an unquestionable masterpiece.

"J'Accuse!", besides it's perfect technique, is an emotive antiwar message filmed during the I World War great disaster and with wounds still open. It's a film that denounces the absurdity of war, its uselessness and the terrible consequences that society suffers. It demands the viewer to take note of the great sacrifices and injustices of many broken lives that never will be the same through the fault of the war.

And now, if you'll allow me, I must temporarily take my leave because this German Count when mentioning those old wars plenty of lost battles, is slightly Teutonic.