2B3: Art and Activisim in Abel Gance's Film, J'accuse: Revisiting Anti-war Sentiment in French Art and Society a Century Later

Emile Zola’s incendiary open letter “J’accuse” published on January 13 1898 marked the emergence of the “intellectuel engagé”, and was a turning point in the Dreyfus Affair, and in French history overall. Zola’s epistolary outburst would also be a defining moment in the history of “art engagé” in France. In entitling his 1919 movie “J’accuse”, Abel Gance certainly wanted to pay tribute to Zola and his history-changing pamphlet, but also to inscribe his own film in a tradition of activism that has historically been one of the hallmarks of French art. While the silent film was an immediate success in a French public eager to turn the page on the atrocious experience of war, it did not receive the same enthusiastic accolade in the US where anti-war sentiment wasn’t as strong as in France. In revisiting Gance’s film a century letter, I want to first examine Zola’s palimpsest in the movie, then survey anti-war sentiment in French art and society at the time the movie was released, and look at the legacy of the concept and tradition of committed art in today’s France.