Landing of Dreyfus at Quiberon (1899) User Reviews

One of several chapters in the story of the wrongfully convicted Dreyfus.

[planktonrules · 4/10 · 10 September 2020]

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.

Dreyfus 5 of 8

[Michael_Elliott · 28 March 2008]

Dreyfus Court Martial - Arrest of Dreyfuss (1899)

Dreyfus: Devil's Island - Within the Palisade (1899)

Dreyfus Put in Irons (1899)

Dreyfuss Dreyfus: Suicide of Colonel Henry (1899)

Landing of Dreyfus at Quiberon (1899)

Dreyfus Meets His Wife at Rennes (1899)

The Fight of Reporters (1899)

Dreyfus: The Court Martial at rennes (1899)

This here is a eight-film series centering around one character and I must say I don't really understand what Melies was going for unless he was simply trying to make nine different movies to sell to people and earn more money by doing it. None of the nine films are very interesting but put together I guess they hold some interest but none of them are entertaining enough to make the series work. You can read the titles and know exactly what happens as each film runs just over a minute and nothing too special happens in any of them. The most interesting one is Landing of Dreyfus at Quiberon as it does contain some special effects in the form of a lightening storm but these effects aren't too good as several of the lightening strikes hit the people in the action but of course they don't feel it.

The Dreyfus Affair #6

[Tornado_Sam · 22 September 2018]

For a good chunk of his output in 1899, Georges Méliès committed himself to creating a series of short films detailing the events of the Dreyfus Affair political scandal, which was still progressing in France as the series was made. The serial, centering around Capt. Alfred Dreyfus who was accused of writing treasonous letters and discharged as a result, flared up the public which had already been divided into two groups: the Dreyfusards and the Anti-Dreyfusards (Méliès was one of the former). In the end, censorship was the answer--theater owners couldn't handle the disputes that the serial caused during showings. Thus, "The Dreyfus Affair" is now considered the first censored political movie.

Because of the serious feel to the serial, one wouldn't really find any of the elements you find in Méliès's other work. "Landing of Dreyfus at Quiberon" is actually a little different in this regard. Since the director was gung-ho about special effects, he probably couldn't resist the little touches he throws in here: while Dreyfus is, as the title suggests, disembarking from the boat at Quiberon, a few stray lightening strikes in the sky on that stormy evening create an interesting effect. As the other reviewer pointed out, however, Méliès didn't handle their making very well as several flashes are half-superimposed into the action rather than being confined into the sky area completely. This can be forgiven though. Double exposure were still developing in the director's career and it's interesting that he used them for a non-fantasy environment here.