The Confession [L’Aveu] **** (1970, Yves Montand, Simone Signoret, Gabriele Ferzetti) – Classic Movie Review 10,968

Yves Montand is a powerful presence in the intense, exciting and revealing true-story political thriller The Confession [L’Aveu] [La Confessione], based on the story of Czechoslovakian communist Artur London, that tellingly concentrates on the documentary-style details of what occurred rather than forced explanations.

Director Constantin Costa-Gavras’s 1970 follow-up to his 1969 success Z reunites him with star Yves Montand in an early 1950s Prague true-life tale about a faithful top-ranking minister’s secret arrest and interrogation to force him to confess to trumped-up charges of treasonous anti-communist activities.

Montand plays Anton Ludvik, aka Gerard, vice-minister of Foreign Affairs of Czechoslovakia, who is put in jail in solitary confinement and through mental torture during the investigation to make him confess to treason.

Compelling, gripping and intelligent though it is, it is a touch too long at 139 minutes and a couple of notches down from Z, but there again, it is another important story well told.

Montand’s wife Simone Signoret also stars as Lise and the two stars were criticised by some French Communists who thought they had betrayed their left-wing beliefs and perceived it as an anti-communist film, rather than an exposé of what can go wrong in the Soviet bloc.

Jorge Semprun’s screenplay (adaptation and dialogue) is based on the book by Lise London and Artur London.

Also in the cast are Gabriele Ferzetti, Michel Vitold, Jean Bouise, László Szabó, Monique Chaumette and Gérard Darrieu.

It was restored in 2014 by KG Productions with the support of the CNC under the supervision of Costa-Gavras by Éclair Group (image) and L E Diapason (sound).

The Confession [L’Aveu] [La Confessione] is directed by Constantin Costa-Gavras, runs 139 minutes, is made by Les Films Corona, Les Films Pomereu, Produzione Intercontinentale Cinematografica, Fono Roma and Selenia Cinematografica, is released by Valoria Films (1970) (France) and Paramount Pictures (1970) (US), is written by Jorge Semprun, is shot by Raoul Coutard, is produced by Robert Dorfmann and Bertrand Javal, is scored by Giovanni Fusco, and is designed by Claude Hauser (production manager) and Bernard Evein (production design).

It is released in The Criterion Collection (2015) (USA) (DVD) (subtitled).

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 10,968

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