How do I feel about this movie?
After reading it again, some people suspected that this was "I complained"? A comment also said: Such a lifeless accusation makes people drowsy. In my opinion, movies with sensationalism as the main theme, such as "The God of Medicine", "The Defender", and "The Darkest Hour," may be more suitable for you to watch. And my sense of "I Accuse" is that calmness can also be an accusation. A major case of the century that is of national concern (I am referring to the Dreyfus case, and Polanski's case will be discussed later). Ming is accusing Dreyfus of treason, which is the discrimination and oppression of the Jewish people in European society. , Is the darkness of French bureaucracy.
But in the dark, it is actually presenting one thing: injustice and harm to a basic social person. The first thing is that Dreyfus has not been treated as an ordinary person by the society since he entered the suspect list because of his identity. Since then, whether he was unjustly imprisoned, rehabilitated, or eulogized, Dreyfus has always been a political symbol. Used by the bureaucracy, used by anti-Semitists, consumed by all politically correct people... What is the ironiest thing, Piquart's reversal! From the very beginning, when faced with Dreyfus’s doubts in the academy, Piquart clearly assumed a racist stance, until Piquart advocated for Dreyfus to vindicate. We once felt that he would be in the whole case. It will change after the redress, but in the last scene when Dreyfus finds him, hoping to raise his rank, Piquart categorically refuses, because many people don't want to see you as a lieutenant colonel.
And the whole film is such a kind of extremely anti-climax calmness, laying out a story that could have been very bloody. When you think that after several court appeals have failed, after the emotions have risen, it is time to usher in the final battle. , Just take the result with one sentence. When you think that Piquart will usher in a reversal of the human setting? nor. When you finally have a "Death Poetry Society" style drama or a "Darkest Hour" style chicken-blood speech, I'm sorry, neither. Whoever said that the accusation has to be passionate, Polanski wants a silent and calm accusation.
The accused Polanski, from the proud of heaven, to the tool man, to the calm one
I personally prefer that art and morality should be viewed in parallel. No matter how art or morality is used as a prerequisite, there will be biases. Art cannot be more than everything, and morality is the same. But at the same time, I absolutely believe that Polanski has expressed the so-called "sexual assault suspected case" in "I Accuse". (Because there is no final conviction, but Polanski, as an eternal suspect, should not be able to escape in an eternal suspicious case. After all, he is no longer willing to be interrogated.)
In the documentary "Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired", it records that Polanski was very nervous after being arrested in 1977, and he constantly tried to explain his understanding of sexual crimes and general sexual relations. He thinks that the difference is a very common thing in France. He thinks that as a star director who has made fame in Hollywood at a young age, no girl from 8 to 80 will reject him, but he does not. Realize that he is in the United States, a country where political correctness is more important than anything else.
Do you think that being a superstar must have more rights of expression than ordinary people and be protected by the law? No, on the contrary, you will become a political tool and be tricked. It doesn’t matter whether the Los Angeles prosecutor Steve Gorley intended to use Polanski’s case as a tool for election support, but in a political fashion with the media. The drama is true. If Polanski is an ordinary person, not a young playboy of Jewish descent in Hollywood, has he received such attention and treatment?
When high attention turns into a media phenomenon, saliva will be overwhelming. Everyone's focus is no longer the fact itself, but whether the story is exciting enough! Polanski is not only the protagonist in sexual assault dramas, but also an instrumentalist in political dramas. So the question arises. If only as a sexual assault suspect is brought to court for interrogation and accepts the punishment that an ordinary person should accept, will Polanski be willing to stay? In fact, being used as a political tool and being deliberately manipulated is the real reason for his absconding and absconding? Everyone can have their own answer in their minds...
But 40 years after the passage of time, I believe Polanski is still responding to the public with this "I Accuse":
Hi, let you hi, I will treat myself calmly!
Whether it’s a sexual assault case or the #me too# movement, any other feminist movement is good. Whenever racism is mentioned, it will blast, and when it comes to affirmative movement, it will climax. No one will pay attention to the movie itself, just want to establish it. A moral villain, then went to knock him down. This is not like the large group of French officers and popular generals in "I Accuse", do they care about the truth itself? They only focused on the racial stance, and then everyone cheered and shouted Long live France!
But it's your business. Polanski may just want to be a calm person, not arguing, and fight back in a calm way.
In an interview with Polanski in the “Illustrated Paris Competition” published in December 2019, he finally got upset: “Someone wants to demonize me.” In 2017, there was an American female artist, Malena Barna. (Marianne Barnard) publicly accused Polanski. She said that when she was ten years old, her mother sold her to Polanski for her university tuition. The latter had sexually assaulted herself for a long time. He couldn't sit still when he heard the news. He explained: "I'm afraid I don't know this person at all. This thing is really sad and ridiculous. Ten-year-old girl, my goodness. I was driving and I heard it on the radio. With this news, I immediately stopped the car and called my friends. This thing was so ridiculous that I complained to them that this time, it was too much to go on like this. As a result. Well, on the contrary, the media still included her in my list of "victims" and did not do any verification at all. It was really speechless. Her mother is still a teacher in that university, why not People go to her to verify? According to her daughter, her mother sold her to a pervert. The media should go to this mother to find out, right? My lawyer went to a private investigator to investigate and found the woman’s brother It has long been stated in official documents that her sister had accused her father of raping her, and she had also been admitted to a mental hospital twice. Her person, who tweeted and wrote and wrote, finally believed in her own push Those things written on the special note. In the end, we showed all these documents to the reporter, and no one paid any attention to us. What else can I do?"
I don’t know if it directly gave birth to Polanski’s response to the media with "I Accuse", but what is certain is that whether it is Polanski or Samantha (the 13-year-old female protagonist of the 1977 sexual assault case), All have received a major blow from public opinion, far exceeding the punishment of the law, and the blow will never stop, just like a curse.
In addition, what the movie didn’t tell you about Dreyfus’ follow-up:
On July 12, 1906, the Dreyfus case was finally settled. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court declared the previous two military court rulings invalid and the case would not be retrial. A week later, the War Department officially restored Dreyfus’ rank and was promoted to major. The ceremony took place on the campus of the military academy where Dreyfus was promoted twelve years ago. Dreyfus also wrote in his diary " Painful Memories, to record the trauma caused to him by the tragedy twelve years ago. However, the aftermath of the Dreyfus incident did not end. At the ceremony where Zola’s remains were moved to the Pantheon in 1908, Dreyfus was shot by a gunman. Fortunately, there was nothing serious. During the trial, the gunman claimed his The behavior was based on love for the country, and it was not against Dreyfus himself, but Dreyfusism-the jury actually agreed to the defendant's defense of innocence.
This is the fate of political symbols!
Finally, I want to add, is classical aesthetics bad? Is classical aesthetics obsolete? I think it's pretty good, let's have some love for each!
Reference materials for this article:
Interview title of "Paris Contest": on essaie de faire de moi un monstre Someone wants to demonize me, December 2019, author unknown
Zhihu article "What kind of case was the Dreyfus case in France in the 19th century?" ", May 25, 2017, by Du Lianpan
The documentary "Roman Polanski: The Wanted and Desired Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired", January 18, 2008, directed by: Marina Zenovic
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