L’aveu
Taglines: Costa-Gavras who gave us “Z” now gives us “The Confession”.
The Confession movie storyline. Gérard (Yves Montand), only his currently assumed name, has been a loyal Communist for most of his life, from being a member of the International Brigade in the Spanish Civil War, to working for the French Resistance against the Nazis. During WWII, he was imprisoned in a concentration camp being a Jew. Although not in the same camp, his French wife, Lise, was also imprisoned in a camp, and gave birth to their son there, being pregnant which was the only thing that saved her from execution.
Now in the early 1950s, they are in Czechoslovakia, he working as the Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs, and they and their family having access to perks of the government. He has noticed that he has been openly followed for several days, and while his fellow government officials don’t know for sure who is following him, most of them that were part of the International Brigade have recently been targeted in various ways.
Eventually, those tailing him do apprehend and hold him for questioning without official charge. Initially, all he knows is that his captors are with the Soviet regime and want him to confess, to what he doesn’t know. Through interrogation after interrogation interspersed with standard measures of brainwashing, Gérard is falsely accused by his captors as being a Trotskyite, a Titoite, a Zionist and a traitor against the Soviet Union in working in cahoots with the Americans, they who do whatever required to get a confession from him while piecing together signed “facts” to use against others who are also being placed under the same interrogation methods.
His captors use the non-logical argument that he should confess to these crimes to show his loyalty to the Communist Party. If he does confess, he will admit to crimes which could be punishable by death. As Gérard goes through this process, working hard to stay true to his beliefs, Lise is being told other things about his incarceration, she who believes that he will soon be released if he only cooperates with the Communists.
The Confession (French: L’aveu) is a 1970 French-Italian film directed by Costa-Gavras starring Yves Montand and Simone Signoret. It is based on the true story of the Czechoslovak communist committed leftist Artur London, a defendant in the Slánský trial. Gavras did not intend the film as an anti-communist film but as a plea against totalitarianism and particularly Stalinism.
The Confession – L’aveu (1970)
Directed by: Costa-Gavras
Starring: Yves Montand, Simone Signoret, Gabriele Ferzetti, Monique Chaumette, Michel Vitold, Jean Bouise, László Szabó, Marc Eyraud, Nicole Vervil, Georges Aubert, Gérard Darrieu, Gilles Ségal, Georges Aubert
Screenplay by: Jorge Semprún
Production Design by: Bernard Evein
Cinematography by: Raoul Coutard
Film Editing by: Françoise Bonnot
Makeup Department: Alex Archambault, Maud Begon
Music by: Giovanni Fusco
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Paramount Pictures
Release Date: April 29, 1970
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