the dreyfus affair ( film series )
panel - conversation and screening of the turin horse with béla tarr, film artist and founder of film. factory programme, an international postgraduate film studies and workshop of film thought .
history book review: france and the dreyfus affair: a brief documentary history (bedford series i ...
history book review: france and the dreyfus affair: a brief documentary history (bedford series i... - youtube
lives in film no. 1: alfred dreyfus – part 1 « the bioscope
captain dreyfus gets off the ship at quiberon during the dreyfus affair, an actual historic event .
urltoken this is the summary of france and the dreyfus affair: a brief documentary history (bedford series in history & culture) by michael burns .
explore popular and recently added tv series available to stream now with prime video .
in the dreyfus affair he declared that new evidence necessitated a retrial (see alfred dreyfus). …
the essential account of the dreyfus affair and early film is stephen bottomore’s essay ‘dreyfus and documentary’, sight and sound, autumn 1984, to which these posts are much indebted .
35 - mm film print courtesy of béla tarr, continental film, croatian state archives and croatian film archive (zagreb), screening at gorgona msu in partnership with the museum of contemporary art, zagreb .
in 1978, dušan makavejev made a dream film experiment using the film medium, by copying and re - editing chosen non - verbal sequences of eleven ingmar bergman’s 16 - mm film prints, that he “found” at the harvard film archive, for juxtaposition of three 16 - mm film reels. he presented his dream film collage only once, as triple - screen 16 - mm film performance at “bergman and dreams”, international film conference on the relations between the processes of dreaming and the experience of film viewing, at the harvard university in january, 1978. after the film century’s persistent archival strategy marked with the first political “found - footage” of dreyfus affair re - edited by doublier in 1898, soviet revolutionary scarcity montage of compiled films, surrealists’ films as found objects, debord’s detournement of stolen films, further ideologies of appropriating and sampling, the memory of film is stolen by digitization .
dramatized re - enactments of the events of the dreyfus - affair from 1894 to 1899 .
captain dreyfus is placed in leg irons as a dramatization of the events surrounding the dreyfus affair, an actual historic event .
for extensive background information on the dreyfus affair, the personalities and the issues involved, see the excellent dreyfus rehabiliated website. unfortunately its section on the films of the affair is muddled. for a concise and informative book acount, see eric cahm, the dreyfus affair in french society and politics .
l’affaire dreyfus: la dictée du bordereau – the first part of georges méliès’ 1899 film series. october 1894 – dreyfus (seated) gives a sample of his handwriting and is accused by colonel du paty de clam (left) of being the author of the bordereau
movie news, screening invitations and reviews from the world of independent film and beyond .
former captain alfred dreyfus paces in his prison, in a dramatization of the events surrounding the dreyfus affair, an actual historic event .
programme is produced in the frameworks of film - protufilm’s interdisciplinary project series for invisible cinema, for reflections on the strategies of transmission of images, knowledge and memory of cinematic dispositive in digital era .
reading proust' s... : the dreyfus affair by piers paul read: general discussion
the dreyfus affair is the third and final production in a trilogy of erc historic music dramas at bam .
dreyfus, a film from 1930, based on a screenplay by heinz goldberg and fritz wendhausen after a book by bruno weil. it was directed by richard oswald, a german filmmaker who made a film about cagliostro in 1929. this 90 - minute film featured only german actors, including fritz kortner as dreyfus ;
future learning and skills – giving everyone the opportunity to build a lifelong relationship with film .
polanski' s new movie is based on the infamous dreyfus affair that shook france around the turn of the 20th century .
the film is considered to be in the public domain in the united states and comes to us via wikimedia commons .
in this, the 10th episodes of the dreyfus affair docudrama, court - martial proceedings continue. cross - questioning occurs, and captain dreyfus argues with the judges .
the remediation will present concepts on the materiality of film and digital art, politics of film and digital archives, and weapons of subversion in makavejev’s work - in - progress. the digital presentation is based on a workshop on experimental film that tanja vrvilo held with a group of international filmmakers, ma students at béla tarr film factory programme in sarajevo, where the first reconstruction was made in 2013 .
i can’t believe this was made in 1899! the sets, the quality of film making – especially that scene where the reporters fight! (plus, i love the scene where he’s reunited with his wife and is overcome with emotion .) i would not have guessed this film / series of films was made before 1905 - ish .
the novel states that the méliès film was banned shortly after initial showing. while it is possible that the film was banned in certain departments where it was shown, this claim, based on méliès’s granddaughter’s account, is not easy to verify. films on the dreyfus affair were censored in 1915—a ban not lifted, as daitch correctly notes, until 1950. i discuss this issue at greater length in my piece “the dreyfus affair as national theater”
a fight breaks out between reporters, as a dramatization of the events surrounding the dreyfus affair, an actual historic event .
the dreyfus affair has inspired a number of fictional works, from writers as different as marcel proust, roger martin du gard and romain rolland, and even films, beginning with georges méliès’s 1899 film contemporaneous with the events of the affair. most works of fiction, however, have not been able to match the melodramatic qualities of the real - life affair, something that anatole france recognized when he transposed the action of the dreyfus affair to an imaginary island peopled by penguins in his 1908 novel
we’d love your help. let us know what’s wrong with this preview of the dreyfus affair by piers paul read .
…12 - year controversy, known as the dreyfus affair, that deeply marked the political and social history of the french third republic. …
for the musée d' art et d' histoire du judaïsme, for a 2003 exhibition of the work of tim, the sculptor of the parisian statue of dreyfus, michel grosman created a 15 - minute film entitled dreyfus aujourd' hui (dreyfus today) .
dreyfus’ accusers’ have mostly sunk into obscurity. his supporters— some caricatured above as “the twelve apostles of dreyfus”—included some of the most illustrious men of arts and letters in france. they can count among their number the great french director and cinematic visionary georges méliès. during the heated year of 1899, “méliès made a series of eleven one - minute non - fiction films about the dreyfus affair as it was still unfolding, ” writes elizabth ezra, ” portraying sympathetically dreyfus’ arrest, ” imprisonment, and retrial. you can watch méliès' complete dreyfus film at the top of the post .
within the framework of the centenary of the affair, a number of documentaries appeared. these included :
( jonathan rosenbaum, a fragment from deep in the tarr pit from film comment, september - october 2011. )
farrell is no stranger to jumping from film to tv, having starred in season 2 of hbo’s “true detective. ” he’s been active on the film front as well, with “fantastic beasts and where to find them” bowing last november and sofia coppola’s “the beguiled” remake opening this summer. before shooting the series, farrell will co - star with denzel washington in dan gilroy’s “inner city. ”
a dramatization of a real event, in which fernand labori, defense lawyer for captain dreyfus in the dreyfus affair, was shot and wounded in the back by an unknown assailant who escaped .
the dreyfus affair pops up time and again when reading french books from the end of the nineteenth century. i' ve recently been reading proust' s in search of lost time in which the characters keep discussing the affair and anyone who has read anything about zola will realise that zola played a significant part in the affair. up to now i' ve just read around the dreyfus affair and have only been aware of the bare bones of the story; but the topic is a fascinating story in its own right and i though
the life of emile zola, directed by william dieterle in 1937, in which joseph schildkraut plays alfred dreyfus. the daladier government banned this 116 - minute film, and managed to have it withdrawn from the venice film festival for
undermining the honor of the french army .
it was finally authorized to be shown in france in 1954 .
polanski has decided to shoot a historical movie about the dreyfus affair in france because of a new 30% tax credit, producer robert benmussa said via email. the decision to film in france was made months ago, he said, and isn' t related to the extradition efforts .
celebrating its 16th season, the critically - acclaimed ensemble for the romantic century (erc) returns to bam fisher with a two - week run of the dreyfus affair .
most of the moving images stored in various archives around the world are reconstructions, faked newsreels filmed in a studio, or elements of films that either aspired to be evocations of the affair, or footage inserted into descriptions of the belle époque. in 1902, ferdinand zecca made a silent film entitled the dreyfus affair; he was co - director of another film of the same name, that he made in 1908 with lucien nonguet. pathé distributed them, but these films were banned in france starting in 1915, in the interests of keeping the peace .
programme series for invisible cinema is supported by ministry of culture rh, croatian audiovisual center (havc) and zagreb city office for education, culture and sport .
daitch begins her story with narrator frances baum, the only child of a couple who survived the holocaust. frances, who has lost an eye to a letter bomb, [ 1 ] moves to new york in the 1990s and is hired by alphabet films to restore a print of méliès’s film the dreyfus affair. shortly thereafter, a shadowy character jack kews (j’accuse, of course), who later dies in mysterious circumstances suspiciously recalling zola’s, asks frances to check the méliès film to see if it hides an ending depicting the murder of the actor who played dreyfus. kews believes that he was stabbed to death, caught up in an angry mob protesting the pro - dreyfus views of the film after a showing .
polanski has been working on the screenplay with british writer robert harris. in 2014, harris published the novel
an officer and a spy ,
about the dreyfus affair .
the film, says daitch—who has written a novel based on the dreyfus affair—emerged within a partisan mass media war of the kind we’re far too familiar with today. “both sides, ” daitch tells us, “used and altered the media, ” and dreyfus was both successfully railroaded into prison and successfully retried and exonerated partly on the strength of his supporters' and accusers' propaganda campaigns .
dreyfus, the case, filmed in england in 1931 by f. w. kraemer et milton rosmer based on a play by wilhelm herzog. cedric hardwicke played the captain in this 89 - minute film .
based on letters, diaries, memoirs, speeches, and accounts by the historical figures involved in the dreyfus affair, the poignant script includes text from émile zola' s newspaper article j' accuse, unquestionably the most important piece of journalistic writing that transformed the private plight of alfred dreyfus into an
affair
of national and international significance .
…the great convulsion of the dreyfus affair in the last years of the 19th century. in russia the conflict between the jews and the orthodox church released the most open and virulent manifestation of religious anti - semitism. in the view of the church, the jews were seeking to undermine russian orthodoxy…
the cameraman julius w. orde filmed several scenes in rennes in the summer of 1899. that same year, his four minutes of images were intercut with reconstructed scenes filmed by georges méliès for his eleven - minute film the dreyfus affair. méliès, a filmmaker and a dreyfusard, was sometimes inspired by photographs .
the 1890s also saw the third republic’s greatest political and moral crisis—the dreyfus affair. in 1894 captain alfred dreyfus, a career army officer of jewish origin, was charged with selling military secrets to the germans. he was tried and convicted by a court - martial…
the project marks another major victory for amazon in the tv realm. the streaming giant is already currently developing matthew weiner’s next series as well as a david o. russell drama starring robert de niro and julianne moore .
farrell and his “lobster” director yorgos lanthimos are teaming up again on an amazon show about oliver north and his involvement in the iran - contra affair. farrell will star as the former u. s. marine in the untitled limited series, which will primarily focus on the iran - contra scandal, and lanthimos will direct .
in a series of short movies, georges méliès depicted one of the major political events in french history while it was still ongoing, a scandal involving a jewish man framed for espionage. this unusual set of films broke many conventions of film at the time, but set the stage for new developments and suggested ways in which cinema could be used artistically in the future .
of the original eleven films shot for this series, nine still exist. in the first, “dreyfus court martial – the arrest of dreyfus, ” we see various french officers crowded around a desk. finally, one sits and signs a piece of paper, copying out what is dictated to him by another. the dictating man becomes agitated, and offers the other (
makavejev’s dream film experiment is presented as part of symposium and artistic program “art, institutional ‘dead labor’ and limits of valorization”, organized by badco .
with the dreyfusards in the ascendant, the affair marked the start of a new phase in the history of the third republic, a phase in which a series of radical - led governments pursued an anticlerical policy that culminated in the formal separation of church and state (1905). by intensifying antagonisms between right and left and by forcing individuals to choose sides, the case made a lasting impact on the consciousness of the french nation .
“the attempt against the life of maitre labori ” shows one of the two men from the last film (dreyfus’s lawyers) walking in the street with his associates when a man jumps out and shoots him. he survives, but lies bleeding in the streets for a time before anyone will help him .
the surviving series ends with “the court martial at rennes, ” which frames the witness stand as the foreground, with the tribunal behind it. this shows the cross - examination of dreyfus and another witness, who sit with their backs to the audience, but express themselves in body language. as the movie ends, the judges appear to be writing their findings and verdict, and the figure in the chair slumps down .
likewise, we may find it hard to understand the significant social import of “méliès’ only known expression of political commitment. ” but to understand the dreyfus affair, we must understand, as the national library of israel points out, that “france was already a divided country and the case acted as a casus belli... . ‘the jew from alsace’ encapsulated all that the nationalist right loathed, and therefore became the symbol of the nation’s profound division. ” landing in the middle of this political firestorm, méliès’ dreyfus series “provoked partisan fistfights, ” writes ezra .
marcel proust introduced me to the dreyfus affair. while reading his masterpiece à la recherche du temps perdu, i grew interested on this political scandal who seemed to have divided france in two opposing sides - the dreyfusards and the anti - dreyfusards - because, for being such an important part of french history, it was largely present throughout proust’s story and characters. the dreyfus affair, by piers paul read, depicts the sad but unfortunately true story of french captain alfred dreyfus ,
the dreyfus affair was debated across the world. it filled the newspapers, and the second trial at rennes in 1899 witnessed a media frenzy of a kind we are all too familiar with today. eager to participate in that frenzy and take advantage of one of the first news stories of worldwide interest to come into its view was the motion picture camera. films were made of the dreyfus affair because they were excellent business, but also – in one significant case – because they enabled the filmmaker to express his dedication to the dreyfus cause. the motion picture industry responded with newsfilm, dramatic reconstructions and sketches, so that the affair served as a demonstration of everything that the young medium could do to capture the semblance of reality .
l’affaire dreyfus: entrevue de dreyfus et de sa femme à rennes. 1 july 1899 – dreyfus (furthest right) in prison at rennes meets his wife lucie for the first time in four years. georges méliès, playing the lawyer labori, is the figure in the centre, with another dreyfus lawyer, edgar demange, portrayed to the right .
i’m starting up a new series here at the bioscope. it is going to document the ways in which the early motion picture recorded and influenced the lives of some significant individuals. public lives from 1896 onwards started to be different to a significant degree because they began to be led in front of motion picture cameras, which could record them in reality or reconstitute them dramatically as entertainment. each post in the series will investigate an individual of significance to social, cultural or political history and try to see them particularly in the light of the cinema. each post will include a filmography including both non - fiction and fiction films. i don’t know whether any of the subjects will be actors or filmmakers – maybe so. but the series starts with a french soldier, victim of one of the most notorious cases of miscarriage of justice in history, alfred dreyfus .
in france the dreyfus affair became a focal point for anti - semitism. in 1894 alfred dreyfus, a highly placed jewish army officer, was falsely accused of treason. his final vindication (in 1906) was hampered by the french military and the bitterly anti - semitic french press, and the wrenching controversy over…
the first talking films about the affair were made outside of france, and they were not authorized to be shown in france. these include :
the dreyfus affair evolved around the false arrest and imprisonment of the innocent captain alfred dreyfus (1859 - 1935), a highly decorat ed french jewish officer. traumatic soul - searching ensued and french society erupted into a fireball of anti - semitism and political partisanship that called into question the very nature of french identity .
at the time these movies came out, the dreyfus affair was still ongoing, and any audience (even foreign ones) knew how to read the events as they happened. today, we have less familiarity with this story, and it makes matters worse that two of the eleven films are not included. one comes between the original arrest and the scene at devil’s island, and depicts dreyfus being stripped of military honors before being taken to prison. the second missing film is the last one, in which dreyfus is led out of court to return to jail, where he would remain despite the evidence until 1906. the colonel who kills himself in movie # 4 is one of those who created false evidence against dreyfus, and the fight in court was between reporters from opposing sides on the pro - dreyfus anti - dreyfus fault line. it’s worth noting that between that original arrest and the court martial at the end, dreyfus was held in devil’s island for nearly five years after an initial inquiry .
colin farrell is ready to return to the small screen. farrell and his “lobster” director yorgos lanthimos are teaming up again on an amazon show about oliver north and his involvement in the iran - contra affair. farrell will star as the former u. s. marine in the untitled limited series, which will primarily focus on the iran - contra scandal, and lanthimos will direct. according to sources, [ … ]
as a complement to the major exhibition alfred dreyfus le combat pour la justice, which took place in paris from june to october 2006, curated by hélène hoog, the musée d' art et d' histoire du judaïsme held a five - day retrospective entitled dreyfus à l' écran (dreyfus on screen). the historian livia parnès and film historians sébastien denis and ariel schweitzer designed the program that was implemented at the museum by mahj by corinne bacharach and marie blanquet .
that méliès was truly amazing. to make such a timely, political statement, and to have a story arc that stretches over a series of films is sheer brilliance. i am so glad you shared this with us .
in recent years, novelists on both sides of the atlantic have tried their hand at incorporating the events of the dreyfus affair into their fiction, among them, the sister - writing team of claude izner in les souliers bruns du quai voltaire and barbara corrado pope in the blood of lorraine (reviewed by charles sowerwine in the last issue). but while the affair constitutes the background for a murder mystery in these two novels, the dreyfus affair lies at the very heart of susan daitch’s paper conspiracies. daitch, who teaches english at hunter college, is not a french historian but she has done her homework (i found only a few small errors). in paper conspiracies, daitch has brilliantly reimagined the affair, weaving the stories of fictional and nonfictional characters to create a historical puzzle whose pieces only come together in the last few pages of the novel .
a decade ago i attempted a tandem read of proust' s in search of lost time with a reading friend; he made it through all of the books, i hit the wall in guermantes way and fell out. my issues began with the dreyfus affair - i just had no idea what the fuss was about, and in the days before wikipedia, any of the online resources about the affair were thin, at best. not able to wrap my mind around the affair, i soon lost my way amongst proust' s description of parisian society and ultimately slogged
the méliès l’affaire dreyfus is available to view online on the europa film treasures site and as part of the 5 - dvd set issued by flicker alley, georges méliès: first wizard of cinema (1896 - 1913) (also the source of the frame grabs used here). for a filmic analysis, see michael brooke’s georges méliès blog .
if i remember correctly, even though i' ve known of the dreyfus affair since school days and have definitely went on wikipedia to educate myself about it, this is the first book i' ve read that is wholly dedicated to the subject. and it is a good one. it tracks the pre - dreyfus situation, up through all of the individuals responsible for the affair, then discusses some of the fallout. for anyone interested in history, and specifically historical moments of a certain magnitude and importance to cert
i wrote a review of this book for the journal the history teacher, which should appear in an issue or two. here are parts of that review: for over a century, the ordeal endured by captain alfred dreyfus has fascinated, appalled, and inspired generations well beyond the borders of france, where the events of “the dreyfus affair” transpired. so much has been written about the affair that a reader might reasonably ask what any new book has to contribute to our knowledge of it. piers paul read, an ac
l’affaire dreyfus: l’île du diable. april 1895 – dreyfus (seated) within the palisade on devil’s island, where a guard brings him a letter from his wife but is forbidden to speak to him. dreyfus was imprisoned on the island for over four years .
it may be difficult to appreciate the daring of méliès’ project from our historical distance, and in the somewhat alien idiom of silent film. “for today’s viewers, ” writes ezra, “it is not always easy to discern the sympathetic elements of the films, but the abundance of huffy gesturing and self - righteous facial expressions on the part of dreyfus make of him a dignified hero who refuses to be degraded by the accusations made against him. ” (in this respect, méliès anticipated another silent film about another unjust trial in france, carl dreyer’s the passion of joan of arc. )
the third movie is “dreyfus put in irons” and it lives up to its title dreyfus is in his bed when two jailers come in and clamp leg irons to his legs .
l’affaire dreyfus: suicide du colonel henry. 31 august 1898 – colonel joseph henry, who discovered the ‘bordereau’ that incriminated dreyfus but who later forged documents in an attempt to compromise the dreyfus - supporting colonel picquard, cuts his throat with a razor while in prison in paris .
the dreyfus affair is a symbol of injustice ,
says eve wolf, founder and executive director of erc and author of the dreyfus affair .
it spectacularly exposed the virulent right - wing forces in french society - forces that can be traced down to our own day, and not only in france. yet the heart of this story is not the injustice itself, but the moving fact that people of character and fortitude - émile zola, georges piquart, and the dreyfus family - risked their lives, careers, and fortunes to get to the truth. they never gave up or gave in, and this is perpetually relevant .
alfred dreyfus, a military officer of jewish descent, was tried and convicted of treason. the movie will tell the story from the point of view of another officer, georges picquart, who worked to exonerate dreyfus .
if i remember correctly, even though i' ve known of the dreyfus affair since school days and have definitely went on wikipedia to educate myself about it, this is the first book i' ve read that is wholly dedicated to the subject. and it is a good one. it tracks the pre - dreyfus situation, up through all of the individuals responsible for the affair, then discusses some of the fallout. for anyone interested in history, and specifically historical moments of a certain magnitude and importance to certain peoples, this is a very good read .
so, as i read it, there are at least three levels on which to understand the dreyfus affair, a complex series of events that convulsed france at the end of the nineteenth century. the first is as a story of a wrongful conviction, of a man accused, convicted of, and punished horribly for a crime he didn' t commit. on that level, it reminds me of other, more recent stories of investigations gone horribly wrong. investigators fix too quickly on a single suspect, get tunnel vision, start reading all
four companies produced films on the affair while it was ongoing: star - film (i. e. georges méliès), pathé frères, the british mutoscope and biograph company and its sister company the biograph and mutoscope company for france. there’s a lot to cover so the latter three will be covered in a second post, with a full filmography in a third post. here we will tackle the contribution by georges méliès .
l’affaire dreyfus: débarquement à quiberon. 30 june 1899 – dreyfus (the figure in civilian clothes in the centre) returns to france at quiberon (where a storm rages) to face his second trial .
the second court - martial of alfred dreyfus, illustration from vanity fair, nov. 23, 1899 .
l’affaire dreyfus: mise aux fers de dreyfus. 6 september 1896 – dreyfus is placed in irons inside his cell on devil’s island. he was shackled to his bed for a period between september - october 1896 after a false report of an escape attempt .
it is not always made clear in accounts of the dreyfus affair that many dreyfusards were quite as anti - semitic as their opponents. zola himself has anti - semitic stereotypes in his novels; so too the dreyfusard authors marcel prévost and anatole france. the officer who refused to “bury” the evidence that dreyfus was innocent was vocally anti - semitic, whereas a number of the anti - dreyfusards abhorred anti - semitism .
not only did the dreyfus case introduce into the public eye a vicious anti - semitic show - trial, but it also served as a test case for censorship and media sensationalism. méliès’ film, says author susan daitch in the on the media episode above, was the first docudrama, the “first recreation based on photographs and illustrations in weekly newspapers in france at the time. ” and it proved so controversial that it was banned, along with all other dreyfus films, for fifty years, and only shown again in france in 1974 .
since i know all about the dreyfuss affair, i was able to piece together a plot line here, sort of. this film is eleven minutes long and is broken into one minute segments. the events are never explained. anti - semitism was alive and well in france and because dreyfuss was seen in a positive light, the audiences were rather naughty. the great director risked his standing in order to show a belief in the ill - treated dreyfuss .
, found dreyfus guilty in september 1899, the president of the republic, in order to resolve the issue, pardoned him. in july 1906 a civilian court of appeals (the cour d’appel) set aside the judgment of the rennes court and rehabilitated dreyfus. the army, however, did not publicly declare his innocence until 1995 .
by the time of the zola letter, the dreyfus case had attracted widespread public attention and had split france into two opposing camps. the anti - dreyfusards (those against reopening the case) viewed the controversy as an attempt by the nation’s enemies to discredit the army and weaken france. the
in most of these productions, the dreyfus affair is depicted as being nearly finished after the 1899 pardon; dreyfus' s nearly six - year struggle to obtain complete rehabilitation and the proclamation of his innocence are not dealt with. a few images show the 21 july 1906 ceremony in the courtyard of the ecole militaire. it is true that, for dreyfus, this was a
a day of elation
thanks to the military honors that were paid to him by two squadrons of the 1st armored cavalry and two horse batteries, and also due to the
delicious embraces
of all those whom he loved .
welcome to the bioscope, a blog on early and silent cinema, with an emphasis on research. the bioscope is no longer active, but you will find here nearly 1, 400 posts on all aspects of silent film published from february 2007 to august 2012
) a gun, to kill himself if he is guilty, but dreyfus refuses. the other men in the room lead him out .
with the next scene the news realism takes over. dreyfus is shown returning to france at the port of quiberon, at night, in the middle of a storm. lightning flashes, the performers are soaked in water, sailors on the boat bob up and down on the waters – it is as far as possible the scene as it had occured only a few weeks before méliès started filming. we then see dreyfus in jail, where he converses with his lawyers (including méliès as labori, giving himself the heroic defender role – was this series the first set of films in which named living people were portrayed by actors ?) before meeting with his wife lucie in a calculatedly pathetic scene .
the next is “dreyfus meets his wife at rennes. ” dreyfus is in a more - comfortable - looking cell, writing at a table, and an officer directs some men to meet with him. they are suddenly interrupted by the arrival of two women. dreyfus shows his pain at seeing his wife after so long, and the two embrace .
part two will explore the dramatic records made by pathé, at the time of the trial and later, and the extraordinary actuality films of the trial made by biograph. part three will be a dreyfus filmography .
l’affaire dreyfus: attentat contre m. labori. 14 august 1899 – in the company of colonel picquart and m. gast, mayor of rennes, dreyfus’s lawyer labori is shot in the back by a would - be assassin beside the river vilaine at rennes .
since 1899, the dreyfus affair has been the subject of a number of films as well as many photographs, particularly during the rennes trial and afterwards—although a photograph from january 1895 does exists. it shows the courtyard of the ecole militaire and, although blurry, one can make out the moment captain dreyfus is being stripped of his rank. this photo and other little - known images were exhibited in 2006, first in aurillac and then in mulhouse. the occasion was a show that was mounted by vincent duclert and brigitte lépine, under the title of l' affaire dreyfus révélée. photos et photographes dans l' événement .
l’affaire dreyfus: le conseil de guerre en séance à rennes. 12 august 1899 – the court room at rennes, with the lead prosecution witness general mercier (centre) making a showy entrance. dreyfus, dressed in military uniform, is seated on the raised dais to the right .
given the french government’s recent decision to post the dreyfus dossier online, perhaps a new generation of novelists will be inspired by its melodramatic possibilities .
dreyfusards (those seeking exoneration of captain dreyfus) saw the issue as the principle of the freedom of the individual subordinated to that of national security. they wanted to republicanize the army and put it under parliamentary control .
was set up in june 1899 with the express purpose of defending the republic and with the hope of settling the judicial side of the dreyfus case as soon as possible. when a new court - martial, held at
i enjoyed reading this historical account of the dreyfus affair. it gave me a lot of insight into nineteenth - century french politics and culture. i found the battles between the catholics and the secular government over education very interesting, especially in light of the present - day battles between the united states government and the anti - science, anti - intellectual educational agenda of the religious right. i also learned a great deal about the development of anti - semitism in modern european
the following section, which fully endorses the melodramatic possibilities of the affair, is entitled “squirting cameras and rubber noses, ” and is told through a series of letters also dating from the 1930s, exchanged between claire francoeur, esterhazy’s fictional mistress, and her sister lille. the fourth part of the book called “the section of statistics” is set in the era of the affair and follows various characters, among them félix griblin, the real - life archivist of the french counterintelligence unit (the infamous section des statistiques) and a family of petty forgers he has engaged to fabricate evidence against dreyfus. these characters, given the title of the novel, are understandably obsessed with paper—establishing false paper trails, recreating different versions of reality, in order to incriminate dreyfus. this group of characters, including claire who also forged evidence, can no longer differentiate truth from falsehood, so enmeshed are they in their own recreations. indeed, claire, whose fate is central to the plot, is a rather pathetic and disagreeable character—rather like her paramour esterhazy; not only does she deny all responsibility for her actions, she is worried about her own reputation, seeing herself as a wronged victim .
l’affaire dreyfus: bagarre entre journalistes. 14 august 1899 – rival news reporters fight one another during the court martial proceedings upon hearing the news of the attempted assassination of labori .
in 1978, a television show, les dossiers de l' ecran, broadcast émile zola ou la conscience humaine (emile zola or the human conscience); stellio lorenzi introduced a debate about human rights based on broadcasts concerning the zola trial. in 1995, the public television station antenne 2 showed l' affaire dreyfus, a two - part television film by yves boisset, based on a script by jorge semprun .
for allegedly selling military secrets to the germans in december 1894. at first the public supported the conviction; it was willing to believe in the guilt of dreyfus, who was jewish. much of the early publicity surrounding the case came from anti - semitic groups (especially the newspaper
in 1994, the director of the historical section of the french army stated that dreyfus’s innocence was merely “a thesis generally admitted by historians”. he was sacked, and dreyfus’s innocence declared indisputable by his successor. it illustrated, once again, the difficulty of approaching with even - handed detachment this critical event in the history of france .
back when i started this project, i watched a bunch of melies, much of which i still haven’t gotten around to reviewing. this series really stood out, because it’s so different from what we expect from him, and i’ve been meaning to write it up for a long time now. thanks for reading !
five years after dreyfus’ conviction, his supporters, the “dreyfusards, ” including zola, henri poincare, and georges clemenceau, forced the government to retry the case. dreyfus was ultimately pardoned, and later fully exonerated and reinstated in the french army. he went on to serve with distinction in world war i .
it was waldeck - rousseau, by then prime minister, who faced the prospect of an international boycott of the universal exposition. he advised the president to pardon dreyfus, and arranged an amnesty for anyone involved in the affair. he then turned on the catholic religious orders, making them scapegoats for the villainy of the dozen or so officers who had conspired to keep dreyfus on devil’s island. only one of them was a practising catholic but, on the pretext that jesuits had been behind conspiracies against the government, waldeck - rousseau, and later emile combes, passed laws dissolving religious orders and closing catholic schools .
this event is a part in the framework of “timescapes, images and performances of time in late capitalism”, a partner project of badco. (zagreb), maska (ljubljana), science communications research (vienna), walking theory (belgrade) and film - protufilm (zagreb). with the support of the culture programme of the european union .
re - reading the piece, it goes on a lot about the particularities of film and could have said a bit more about the issues involved. it was a terrible instance of where deeply ingrained racial prejudice and obsessive nationalism trampled over the due process of law. it was patently obvious that dreyfus was innocent at the second trial, but the court still felt it had to pronounce him guilty because its idea of nation and army was more important. it shows how weak the law can be in the face of prejudice. bravo georges méliès for showing common human decency .
1898 an important document implicating dreyfus was found to be a forgery. after maj. hubert - joseph henry of the intelligence section confessed to fabricating the document in order to strengthen the army’s position, revision was made almost certain. at the same time, the affair was becoming a question of vital concern to politicians. the republican parties in the chamber of deputies recognized that the increasingly vocal nationalist right posed a threat to the parliamentary regime. led by the radicals, a left - wing coalition was formed. in response to continuing disorders and demonstrations, a cabinet headed by the radical
this book was a very good accounting of the dreyfus affair and how it affected france. i' m glad i read it, but i must say that the author seemed to get carried away naming individuals, and their connections, that had little or no relevance to the main topic of the book. i also though there were too many needless references to french terms, some repeatedly .
i enjoyed reading this historical account of the dreyfus affair. it gave me a lot of insight into nineteenth - century french politics and culture. i found the battles between the catholics and the secular government over education very interesting, especially in light of the present - day battles between the united states government and the anti - science, anti - intellectual educational agenda of the religious right. i also learned a great deal about the development of anti - semitism in modern european history, the conservatism and corruption of the catholic church, and the influence of freemasonry on french politics. i appreciated that the author occasionally surveyed other modern authors to offer different perspectives and interpretations of certain key events in the affair. the general public might find this book too dense and dry, but those looking for a comprehensive account of this important historical scandal that rocked the government and citizens of france will not feel disappointed. recommended .
two years later, compelling evidence came to light that showed another officer, ferdinand esterhazy, had committed the treasonous offence. but the evidence was buried, and the officer who found it transferred to north africa and later imprisoned. the dreyfus affair marked a major turn in european civil society, “the moment where [ guy de ] maupassant’s world of ambition and pleasure met kafka’s world of inexplicable bureaucratic suffering. ” after a perfunctory two - day trial, esterhazy was unanimously acquitted by a military court, and dreyfus convicted of additional charges based on falsified documents .
in the next installment, “landing of dreyfus at quiberon, ” méliès indulges himself in some simple special effects. we see a stage dressed as a quay, with boats painted on the backdrop, but also the tops of two boat - props visible, which bob up and down in the “water. ” there are lightning flashes (which sometimes seem to hit the actors) on the upper part of the screen, and when dreyfus disembarks from the closer of the two boats, suddenly rain pours down on the stage. what is depicted is a simple prisoner exchange, with officers checking that all the papers are in order and then marching dreyfus off stage .
erc has, to date, created over 40 original theatrical concerts. erc has partnered with or performed at institutions such as bam (brooklyn academy of music); shakespeare & company in lenox, ma; the jewish museum of new york; the archivio fano of venice, italy; the festival de musique de chambre montréal; the massachusetts international festival of the arts / mifa; the french institute - alliance française / fiaf, new york; the italian academy for advanced studies at columbia university; the italian cultural institute of new york; and the city university of new york (cuny). since 2007, erc has been a musicological affiliate in residence at the barry s. brook center for music research and documentation at the cuny graduate center, where erc has established an annual series of interdisciplinary seminars for each of the ensemble' s concerts. the seminar series is now officially recognized as one of the academic projects of the barry s. brook center for music research and documentation. erc' s artistic excellence has been recognized through professional performance grants from the new york state council on the arts (nysca) and the new york city department of cultural affairs (dca). these grants are a testimony to the growing recognition of the ensemble as one of the most innovative chamber music groups in new york .
to waldeck - rousseau, the religious orders were the “moral culprits” of the affair. “if dreyfus and his friends become historians and write textbooks, ” wrote the anti - dreyfusard author maurice barrès, “we shall be the villains in the eyes of posterity. ” that prediction has turned out to be more accurate than he could ever have imagined. in most histories, the anti - dreyfusards are indeed the villains, their anti - semitism linked to the behaviour of the vichy government during the second world war, and hence to the holocaust. the injustices done to monks and nuns forced into exile, and parents who wished their children to be educated in catholic schools, were airbrushed out of the picture .
written by eve wolf and directed by donald t. sanders, this multi - media production illuminates the controversial story of the 1894 treason conviction of captain alfred dreyfus that had a decades - long reverberation in the political landscape of france and the rest of the world .
after some ninety pages, daitch abandons frances and only returns to her in the novel’s final pages. while frances is an engaging character, i found the historical parts of the novel more captivating. in the second section, the novel, after a brief excursion to 1968, moves back to 1930s paris, where the narrator, a girl called madeleine, lives in her mother’s boarding house. one of the tenants is auguste bastian and the young madeleine describes the old woman’s sly intimations of dreyfus - era secrets not yet revealed. [ 3 ] those familiar with the affair will know that bastian was the cleaning lady - turned - spy who discovered the bordereau authored by commandant marie - charles - ferdinand walsin esterhazy (wrongly attributed to alfred dreyfus), in the wastebasket of maximilian von schwartzkoppen, the german attaché in paris, through what was called “the ordinary track”–hence the title of this section.
the dreyfus affair ( french : l'affaire dreyfus ) , also known as dreyfus court-martial , is an 1899 series of short silent docudramas , conceived and directed by georges méliès . released by méliès 's star film company and numbered 206 – 217 in its catalogs , each of the eleven one-minute installments reconstructs an event from the historical dreyfus affair , which was still in progress while the series was being made . 
the dreyfus affair (french: l'affaire dreyfus), also known as dreyfus court-martial, is an 1899 series of short silent docudramas, conceived and directed by georges méliès. released by méliès's star film company and numbered 206 – 217 in its catalogs, each of the eleven one-minute installments reconstructs an event from the historical dreyfus affair, which was still in progress while the series was being made.
the dreyfus affair (french: l'affaire dreyfus), also known as dreyfus court-martial, is an 1899 series of short silent docudramas, conceived and directed by georges méliès. released by méliès's star film company and numbered 206 – 217 in its catalogs, each of the eleven one-minute installments reconstructs an event from the historical dreyfus affair, which was still in progress while the series was being made.