The Court Martial at Rennes (1899) Online

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.

"The Court Martial at Rennes", episode ten in the docu-drama serial, is also the longest movie of all eleven installments. Whereas the others all run only a minute and are twenty meters in length, this short runs at forty meters--which is almost two minutes. Being a Méliès film, it's still very theatrical and will no doubt bore a lot of uninterested people now. But, because of the (always) realistic set design, (always) realistic costumes, and realistic acting (which is not, surprisingly, overplayed too much) it deserves some credit. Sadly, and as the final installment (showing Dreyfus exiting the Lycee to be escorted to prison) has not been made available for online viewing, we never do get to see the sad result of these proceedings. Too bad.

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.