French War Films and National Identity By Noah McLaughlin

forgetfulness and pray for redemption do the walking dead depart. Later Jean rediscovers his notebook of poetry. His idyllic, romantic “Ode au soleil” now sounds hollow and naïve. He modifies the last stanzas, shouting his last “J’accuse!” at the sun itself, and then dies.

Other Theatrical Conventions

A five-act narrative structure may hearken to centuries of theatric convention, but alone it is not sufficient to categorize the bricolage in J’Accuse. The film also contains other conventions of the genre. Eavesdropping functions both to create tension and as a method of characterization. Likewise, the reporting of news “from the wings” (that is, via letters and telegrams) advances the narrative.

J’Accuse contains important instances of eavesdropping or ironic interceptions. In Act One, before war has been declared, Maria-Lazare daydreams in his study of retaking the Alsace-Lorraine. Hearing someone approach, he quickly hides behind a curtain (perhaps not wanting to appear as an overt warmonger). François enters, searching for his father-in-law, and sees the maps and effects left upon the table. Only when François visibly approves of such militaristic thought does Maria-Lazare make his presence known. The scene resembles the events of the first act of Victor Hugo’s Hernani, where Don Carlos hides in a closet during his wife’s interview with the title character. Later in J’Accuse, Jean intercepts the orders for François to detonate a German ammunitions depot. Rather than send his rival, he assumes the suicide mission himself. Both of these sequences serve to define the characters further. Maria-Lazare is a warmonger and révanchiste, but he is also a coward at heart. He enjoys a positive relationship with his son-in-law that is based upon their common violent and chauvinistic natures. Jean Diaz is more than a kind soul; he sheds his timidity and bares the other cheek.

It is quite logical that in a world before contemporary methods of communication, news would arrive secondhand. Nonetheless, the abundance of written messages in J’Accuse is more than merely pragmatic; it is a conscious nod to the theatric convention of reported events. Constrained by the three unities, Sophocles does not show the suicides of Haimon