In 1899, the Dreyfus Affair was big news in France. This French officer had been unjustly convicted of treason and the foremost author of the day,
Émile Zola himself, defended the man and made the case a sensation. I could talk more about this, but you had best just read up on it yourself if you are interested.
The famous filmmaker Georges Méliès capitalized on the popularity of this story by creating a series of short films about the case. For the most part, they show just a tiny portion of the story...a mere snippet of the story of Dreyfus. This is because in 1899, films were usually only about a minute or perhaps two minutes in length....so the story was broken into many installments. All together, they tell an abbreviated and episodic look at the man's ordeals.
In this particular one, all you really see if a guy getting off a boat at a port in Brittany. The folks there all have nice uniforms and it was made inside a studio...which is odd as there is lightning and rain! Sure they look pretty primitive, but Méliès apparently was pulling out all the stops with this one. Mildly interesting but no more.
The famous filmmaker Georges Méliès capitalized on the popularity of this story by creating a series of short films about the case. For the most part, they show just a tiny portion of the story...a mere snippet of the story of Dreyfus. This is because in 1899, films were usually only about a minute or perhaps two minutes in length....so the story was broken into many installments. All together, they tell an abbreviated and episodic look at the man's ordeals.
In this particular one, all you really see if a guy getting off a boat at a port in Brittany. The folks there all have nice uniforms and it was made inside a studio...which is odd as there is lightning and rain! Sure they look pretty primitive, but Méliès apparently was pulling out all the stops with this one. Mildly interesting but no more.