French War Films and National Identity By Noah McLaughlin

promise, and the director goes about fulfilling it through literary bricolage. His borrowings are manifest in three areas for which the opening statement of purpose serves as our guide.

Tragédie

Gance begins his borrowing and cobbling together in modal and generic terms. The tragic genre finds its roots in ancient Greek theater, and its tradition was enriched by the Neoclassicical literature of the seventeenth century in France. J’Accuse contains several theatrical elements that I divide into three areas. First, there is the narrative structure, which takes place in five acts and follows the customary arrangement of exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and dénouement. Secondly, the film has a number of theatrical conventions, situations often found in plays to create tension and/or progress the narrative. Finally, much of the work, including the acting style, functions in the melodramatic mode. As Peter Brooks points out in The Melodramatic Imagination, this mode of narrative and acting style originates from the French street theater of the early to mid-nineteenth century. It is characterized by exaggeration, both of the actors’ gesturing and of situations of conflict, and also includes Manichaean concepts of good and evil.

When summarizing the plot of J’Accuse, most critics seem to follow the three- or four-part structure implied by the original release in 1919. Handily, each section is punctuated by a “J’accuse!” from Jean Diaz. However, I find that the film is divided into five acts that, while they do not adhere to the classical three unities, still follow the classical and linear narrative tradition. Act One is expository, setting the time and place and introducing us to the main characters whose fates we shall follow: the simple villagers of Orneval, the sensitive Jean Diaz, who longs for the affections of the timid Edith Poitin; Edith’s brutish husband, François; and her strict father, Maria-Lazare. The exposition concludes with the announcement of war with Germany and the posting of the general mobilization orders. Gance takes this moment to leave no doubt about his film’s temporal situation: the orders are clearly labeled August 8, 1914.