27/09/2018 - The film about the Dreyfus affair will star Jean Dujardin and Louis Garrel. A Légende Films production to be sold by Gaumont

Filming is due to commence on 26 November on the22^nd feature film by the Oscar-winning Franco-Polish filmmaker Roman Polanski: An Officer and a Spy [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]. According to Le Film Français, which has revealed all major project details, the film will star Jean Dujardin (winner of a Best Actor award at the Oscars in 2012 and at Cannes in 2011 for The Artist [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Michel Hazanavicius
film profile], and currently starring in a lead role in I Feel Good [+see also:
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trailer
film profile]), Louis Garrel (nominated for a César award in 2018 for Best Actor for Redoutable [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Michel Hazanavicius
film profile] and a César award in 2015 and 2016 for Best Supporting Role for Saint Laurent [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Bertrand Bonello
film profile] and My King [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], also appreciated recently at Venice in One Nation, One King [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Pierre Schoeller
film profile] and at San Sebastian Film Festival in A Faithful Man [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Louis Garrel
film profile]), Emmanuelle Seigner (nominated for a César award in 2014 for Best Actress in Venus in Fur [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Roman Polanski
film profile]), Grégory Gadebois (nominated for a César award in 2014 for Best Actor for One of a Kind [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]), the Belgian actor Olivier Gourmet (Best Actor award at Cannes in 2002 for The Son [+see also:
trailer
film profile], nominated for a César award in 2012 for Best Actor for The Minister [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Pierre Schoeller
film profile]), Hervé Pierre (The Sense of Wonders [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), Didier Sandre (Not My Type [+see also:
trailer
interview: Lucas Belvaux
film profile]), Melvil Poupaud (nominated for a César award 2017 for Best Supporting Role in Victoria [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Justine Triet
film profile]), Éric Ruf (Maryline [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) and Mathieu Amalric (César award for Best Actor in 2005 and 2008 for Kings and Queens [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly [+see also:
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trailer
film profile], nominated in 2014 for Venus in Fur and soon to hit our screens in Sink or Swim [+see also:
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trailer
film profile]).

Written by Roman Polanski and Robert Harris (already partners on The Ghost Writer [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), the screenplay focuses on the Dreyfus affair, which deeply shook France from 1894 to 1906, with international repercussions. Conceived as a thriller against a background of espionage, the plot will tackle the Dreyfus affair from Colonel Picquart’s point of view (Jean Dujardin) who, appointed head of counterintelligence, finally discovers that the evidence against Captain Alfred Dreyfus (Louis Garrel) is false. From that moment forward, risking both his career and his life, he continues to identify the true culprits and rebuild Alfred Dreyfus’s image, before being appointed the war minister in Clemenceau’s first government in 1906.

For the record, Roman Polanski began the project several years ago under the title D.. Its new title, An Officer and a Spy, refers to a famous open letter by Emile Zola published in 1898 in defence of Dreyfus. Because, as the production emphasises, the Dreyfus affair "has always been a symbol of the injustice of political authorities in the name of the State. Miscarriages and denials of justice and anti-Semitism collide in this huge scandal, probably the biggest to hit France in the late nineteenth century.”

Produced by Ilan Goldman for Légende Films, An Officer and a Spy will be co-produced by Gaumont (which will release the film in French cinemas on 4 December 2019), France 2 Cinéma and France 3 Cinéma. Pre-purchased by OCS and Canal+, the feature film will be shot from 26 November 26 to 7 March in Paris and the surrounding area, with Polish-born Pawel Edelman on board as the director of photography.

(Translated from French)