French Film Collection(Film 12) J\'ACCUSE (1919)

ENGLISH SUBTITLES INCLUDED

J\' Accuse (1919)

Review
Abel Gance’s powerful anti-war film still has the power to move and shock. Through the intimate microcosm of two soldiers united on the battlefield, Gance shows the horror and absurdity of war for all its worth. The question he poses is: if two rivals in love can settle their differences in peace, why cannot political leaders?

The film is all the more impressive for Gance’s uses of location filming on the World War I battlefields of France, during the latter stages of the war. The film’s final scene where dead soldiers rise from their graves and see the better world they have created is sublimely moving.

Synopsis
Two men, Jean Diaz and François Laurin, meet in the trenches during World War I. Although Diaz is having an affair with Laurin’s wife, they reconcile their differences. Laurin asks Diaz, in the event of his death, for him to take care of his wife. Only one of the two men survives the war…

Credits

* Director: Abel Gance
* script: Abel Gance
* Photo: Marc Bujard, Léonce-Henri Burel, Maurice Forster
* 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
* Country: France
* Language: French
* Runtime: 166 min; B&W; silent
* Aka: I Accuse