An Officer and a Spy

Unfortunately, I haven't seen a more boring film this year. Except for The Pianist, Roman Polanski has never satisfied me, and with this one he definitely signed his director's verdict with me. The combination of France, Polanski and the Dreyfus affair sounded promising, but it's an incredibly uninteresting film, without a single interesting character. The dialogues didn't entertain me at all, there is no tension, and somewhere in the middle I thought about turning it off – I should have as I wouldn’t have missed anything. Probably the most boring film of the year. A star for the costumes and another for the director's craftsmanship. Story***, Action>No, Humor>No, Violence>No, Entertainment*, Music**, Visuals***, Atmosphere**, Suspense>No. 3/10. (05/02/2020)

If this film had been made some forty-fifty years ago, Alain Delon would probably have played the main role in it, and today it would be an absolute classic. Looking at Polanski's precise work, which is so different from contemporary filmmaking (the slow first half gets good pace from the sophisticated dialogues, the second half escalates due to time jumps from important moments to even more important ones, and also thanks to Desplat's music), it's not at all hard to imagine it. It is a great conversational drama with the excellent Jean Dujardin, and no matter how uninterested he looks, it offers a lot of memorable moments (absolutely amazing are the escalating conflicts of Picquart and Henry, which start at one table and culminate in a duel) and especially the good message about the duty to the truth that the viewer takes away from it. (04/14/2021)

A thoughtfully structured narrative in subjective flashbacks that introduces a notoriously famous affair from the only correct and defensible perspective. It’s directed in a nicely old-fashioned way that often focuses on the systematic movement of the characters around the mise-en-scène, with great performances and a satisfactory build-up. When it comes to the development and the culmination of the relationship between the two main characters, it’s not very strong or original, but the intransigence of Dreyfus's character at the expense of the proponents of justice has its obvious purpose. Another competently made film by Polanski about a personal topic. 80% (01/16/2021)

Whatever you may think of Roman Polanski, you certainly cannot deny his ability to provide solid direction and a certain dexterity in staging, as he also proves with this historical movie An Officer and a Spy, which focuses on the infamous Dreyfus affair of the late 19th century. The beginning of the movie drags on a bit, but then the scandalous story of a great judicial injustice (told from the point of view of the army officer, Georges Picquart, brilliantly played by Jean Dujardin) completely absorbed me. My overall experience was enhanced by the background music by Alexandre Desplat. (80%) (03/30/2023)