I Accuse

Jean and François love the same woman: Edith, François's wife. The two meet in the same trench in the First World War, and their hostility loses its meaning against the reality of the front. Abel Gance turns this triangle into a case file against the war itself; the title is an accusation. The film's best-known passage is the return of the dead at the end. Gance shot it in the south of France with two thousand soldiers on leave. They had come straight from the front at Verdun and were due back in eight days. Gance later said that within a few weeks eighty per cent of them had been killed. The dead on screen were played by real soldiers about to die. Shooting began in 1918, and some scenes were filmed on actual battlefields. Who it's for: Viewers interested in silent cinema, anti-war narrative, and turning points in film history. Who it's not for: The melodramatic sections are long and the acting is in the era's heightened register. The length is punishing and the film is hard to take in one sitting.