Islamabad
Director: Costa-Gavras
Cast: Yves Montand, Simone Signoret
Pakistan National Council of Arts in collaboration with the Embassy of France and Alliance Francais screened French classic ‘L' Aveu’ (The Confession) at PNCA.
This is the account of Communist Arthur London. According to director, this film is against totalitarianism and the time in 1951.
Arthur London is arrested, jailed and put in solitary confinement without being told the reason. The worst is that his family is kept in the dark and his wife is downgraded at her job. The film revolves around arrest. imprisonment, mistreatment, trial and finally release. Interrogation remains major part of the film. Costa-Gavras who later directed State of Siege in 1972, has won distinction as political filmmaker. However, in later years, he was taking his work with liberal elements. His films became less radical with wider appeal to reach larger audiences in US and Europe. Yet, political brutality and corruption remained integral to bring out the filth of the rotten system. This obviously displeased the authorities and censor. However, Costa-Gavras sustained his reputation of a diehard and committed filmmaker.
In ‘The Confession’, the two superstars Yves Montand and Simone Signoret, who also happen to be exceptionally good actors, were outspoken leftists. The film in the beginning was planned to be filmed in Prague but things did not work out and all the filming began and ended in France.
‘The Confession’ became a landmark piece of cinema because it is both powerful and effective. According to the director, it was generally believed that system in East was bad and West was good but that was no longer true. There was no difference between the two systems. The film runs for 140 minutes.
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