Heartwarming in Hindsight: Several times Piquard wonders if Dreyfus will survive his harsh imprisonment and subsequent retrial. In Real Life Dreyfus survived to fight in World War I, survived the war and lived well into his seventies, Although Piquard was killed in a riding accident in 1914, fifty-nine years old.
Film
Anvilicious: The film mainly addresses the antisemitism that was indeed very present at the time of the Dreyfus Affair and central to it, and does so in not-so-subtle ways, the cherry on the cake being a bunch of 1898 rioters being basically turned into Nazis by any other name by destroying Jewish-owned bookshops in a manner more reminiscent of the Kristallnacht.
Overshadowed by Controversy: Upon the film's release, the ugly shadow of Roman Polański's past sexual offense was revived yet again by another woman (photographer Valentine Monnier) accusing him of raping her when she was 18 in 1975. The affair made so much noise that several French government ministers were asked by the press if they would see the movie or not, and several screenings in Paris and Rennes had to be cancelled because of protests. The film was briefly pulled out of six theaters in the Seine-Saint-Denis area before resuming screening in them by local administrative decision. The controversy was renewed again when the entire board of France's César Awards resigned in February 2020 after the French Academy gave the film 12 nominations, the most out of any film that year. Polanski winning the Best Director award was received very divisively, most notably leading to actress Adèle Haenel, director Céline Sciamma and host Florence Foresti walking out of the ceremony, which made worldwide headlines.
Many aspects of the Dreyfus Affair other than antisemitism feel neglected by the film, such as nationalism, the Church's stand on the matter and the revanchism against Imperial Germany that would be one of the main catalyzers leading France to World War I. note Dreyfus was from Alsace, an area that was annexed by Imperial Germany in 1871, and this was heavily brought up against him.
Semi-related, it is never brought up that Esterhazy was of noble origin, from a family who had served in the French army since the 17th century, and a veteran of the Franco-Prussian War and the Papal Zouaves. All of them reasons that may lead people to trust his loyalty over Dreyfus - who had only served ten years during peacetime - as long as they didn't know the men personally.
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