An Officer And A Spy is a superbly written, skilfully executed thriller about one of the most outrageous judicial errors in history, and Jean Dujardin is flawless.
Director: Roman Polanski
Genre: Drama, Historical, Thriller
Run Time: 132′
Venice Premiere: August 30, 2019
U.S. Release: August 8, 2025 (limited)
U.K. Release: TBA
Where to watch: At Film Forum (NY) and in select U.S. theaters
If I were to mention Alfred Dreyfus, you’d probably be reminded of a certain “affaire” that was at the very core of what is known, to this day, as one of the most outrageous judicial errors in history. Yet, while the name Dreyfus is bound to spark recognition in most readers, not many of us are actually familiar with the event itself – that is, the controversial life imprisonment sentence that divided France in 1895. Roman Polanski explores this case in An Officer And A Spy (J’Accuse), which had its World Premiere at the Venice Film Festival.
Polanski’s take on the Dreyfus affair is an historically accurate look at 19th Century France that reconstructs a complex sequence of events in a way that is not only incredibly easy to follow, but also captivating, thought-provoking and hugely engaging. An Officer and A Spy feels more like an edge-of-your-seat thriller than a historical drama, and the result is a truly impressive film that is a real cinematic pleasure to watch.
The two protagonists of our story, based on Robert Harris’s 2014 novel of the same name, are Georges Picquart (Jean Dujardin, of The Wolf of Wall Street) and Alfred Dreyfus (Louis Garrel, of Scarlet), and, though we get to see the former much more often than the latter, we meet them both at the very beginning of the film. And what an opening it is: Polanski’s decision to start telling his story where many of us expected it to end places us right in the middle of the action. And so we find ourself in a riotous France, where Captain Alfred Dreyfus has been wrongly accused of being a spy for Germany and, as a result, is being degraded and sentenced to life inprisonment on Devil’s Island, a place meant “for him alone”.
“Soldiers! They are dishonoring an innocent man!”, Dreyfus’ desperate shouts are in vain, as his fellow soldiers appear more interested in exchanging witty banter and keeping the bureaucrats happy rather than listening to him, which pretty much sums up their attitude throughout the movie.
This tense, dramatic opening sets the tone for the rest of the film, but nothing could prepare us for what’s yet to come, as more than one secret is buried within the walls of the military counter-intelligence unit that found Dreyfus’s incriminating evidence. When George Piquard is promoted to run the unit, some of these secrets begin to emerge. Our leading character makes a series of discoveries that lead him to start digging into the Dreyfus scandal, and that’s when the real trouble begins.
It’s also when we realise that Jean Dujardin‘s flawless performance has managed to turn what was already a fascinating character on paper into the perfect protagonist for this story. Captain Piquard is likeable, relatable and believable. Not only do we care about his fate and root for him when no one else does, but we instantly connect with him on an emotional level. Jean Dujardin’s ability to convey so much emotion in a matter of minutes is truly remarkable, and George Piquard is, without a doubt, his best performance to date.
The other performances are just as good. From Louis Garrel and Emmanuelle Seigner to the actors of the Comédie-Française (Hervé Pierre, Didier Sandre, Eric Ruf, Laurent Stocker, Michel Vuillermoz, Denis Podalydès, Laurent Natrella and Bruno Raffaelli), the quality of the acting is a constant throughout the movie. But, as Dujardin himself put it at the Venice Film Festival‘s press conference, in the end, “the real star of the film is history”.
An Officer and A Spy is a faithful reconstruction of events that combines masterful directing with exceptional screenwriting and superb acting, and a gem of a film that gives us a hero to root for and has our eyes glued to the screen from start to end. Despite its 132 minutes runtime, the movie is full of tense, memorable moments that will keep you guessing along with its likeable, compelling hero. J’Accuse is a technically flawless, gripping thriller that, yet again, confirms Roman Polanski as one of the best directors of our time.
An Officer and A Spy (J’Accuse) had its World Premiere at the 2019 Venice Film Festival, where it won the Grand Jury Prize and the FIPRESCI Prize. The film will have its U.S. Premiere at New York’s Film Forum on August 8, 2025.