The Confession

The Confession (1970)

L'Aveu

In 1950s communist Czechoslovakia, a government minister, a war veteran long a loyal party man, leads a relatively comfortable life with his wife. However, he soon finds himself under surveillance, then under arrest. Unclear what his offense is, agents for the totalitarian regime interrogate and torture him, aiming to use their unending power to gain a false confession for these supposed crimes against the state.

Date of release
1970-04-29
TMDB
7.3 / 10 (152)
Runtime
2h 19m
Genres
Drama, Thriller
Director
Costa-Gavras

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Based on: The Confession

The Confession is a 1970 French-Italian film directed by Costa-Gavras starring Yves Montand and Simone Signoret.

Production

It was during the editing of the film Z — specifically at a Christmas dinner — that Claude Lanzmann spoke to Costa-Gavras about Lise and Artur London, the former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Czechoslovakia and one of the three survivors of the Prague Trials.

Filming for the film took place from September 25, 1969, to December 15, 1969, across the departments of Nord, Pas-de-Calais, Seine-Saint-Denis, and Alpes-Maritimes, specifically in Lille, Roubaix, Arras, Théoule-sur-Mer, and Cannes. It was shot almost entirely in chronological order relative to the film's narrative.

Many scenes were filmed in Lille, notably on the steps of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry and at the Porte de Paris. The confession scene takes place at the Hospice Général (now the IAE). The New Stock Exchange in Lille stands in for a government ministry in Prague; as Gérard (Yves Montand) exits this administrative building, an old Mongy tramcar can be glimpsed.

Additional scenes were shot in Croix and Tourcoing (at Clémenceau Park), while the meeting between Gérard (Yves Montand) and his former jailer, Vladimír Kohoutek (Gabriele Ferzetti), takes place on the Grand-Place in Arras.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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