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The Confession

Play trailer Poster for The Confession PG 1970 2h 20m Mystery & Thriller Play Trailer Watchlist
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100% Tomatometer 8 Reviews 85% Popcornmeter 250+ Ratings
In 1950s communist Czechoslovakia, a government minister, a war veteran who has long been a loyal party man, leads a relatively comfortable life with wife Lise. However, he soon finds himself under surveillance, then under arrest. He has no idea what his offense is, but agents for the totalitarian regime interrogate and torture him, aiming to use their unending power to gain a false confession for supposed crimes against the state.
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The Confession

Critics Reviews

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Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times 07/07/2018
4/4
The structure becomes complex but never confusing, and Costa-Gavras always seems to be urgently on the move, wanting to tell us more than can be told. Go to Full Review
Noel Murray The Dissolve 06/02/2015
3.5/5
The Confession exhibits signs of post-masterpiece fatigue, though it makes up for some of it with sheer gutsiness. Go to Full Review
David Elliott Chicago Daily News 10/03/2023
It is a trenchant, harrowing movie, all bone and muscle, that seems not so much a drama or even a document as a replica, a cast lifted directly from the face of history. Go to Full Review
Armond White National Review 06/17/2022
Costa-Gavras and screenwriter Jorge Semprún’s approach doesn’t allow Kafkaesque sentiment, so the film stays tough and brilliant. Go to Full Review
Nicholas Bell IONCINEMA.com 10/27/2020
3.5/5
Though less invigorating than the iconic Z, it remains a compelling depiction of a harrowing experience rarely caught so astutely in narrative filmmaking as it is here. Go to Full Review
Tony Mastroianni Cleveland Press 11/16/2018
The movie is perfect in its attention to detail, in its casting of Montand as the political prisoner. Confession fails as entertainment while it succeeds as a statement. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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Maai K Oct 8 A powerful film about purges. Yves Montand gives a strong performance. See more Nicolas M 11/08/2023 A well acted and compelling lens on the Stalinist show trials, but it fails morally by disconnecting the trials from the barbaric history of global communism. That is a remarkable failing given the events in Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and East Germany (among others) decades after Stalin's death and not unknown to the director and cast. See more 01/03/2020 The split between Tito and Stalin (1948), in the late 1940s and early 1950s, was followed by show trials of prominent Communists all over Eastern Europe and the wave of Stalinist purges in which tens of thousands suffered or lost their lives. This movie is about the 1952 process in Prague, conducted against Rudolf Slánský and 13 other leading members of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ). The main protagonist - Anton Ludvik, aka Gerard, is based on Arthur London, veteran of the Spanish Civil War and the French resistance movement, who, at the time of the arrest, was vice-minister of Foreign Affairs of Czechoslovakia and a senior official of KSČ. Display of Stalinist torture and interrogation process in preparation for rigged political trial is very realistic. Based on actual events. See more andres s 11/02/2017 A very tough subject material to watch but a very important one at that. Seeing how conniving and evil parties can be just to get the information they want to hear out of someone, even if it isn't true, is a very frustrating but interesting thing to watch. And what's even more noteworthy, is that this really happens is still happening. Torture tactics and secret confession trials. The only problem I have is tat the movie could have been reasonably shorter. It felt like the confessions and the talking went on and on with no end. And being that this is a Costa-Gavras film, he probably did it intentionally to make the viewer uneasy. Well, it worked. Overall, very powerful political movie about construing the truth through confessions. Remarkable and pretty important film. See more 04/01/2017 A set of counter-truth emerged from their historical contexts. Not a word about McChartism that raged in the United States at the same time. Costa Gavras, convincing when he denounces fascism and racism, deceives in a doubtful film of American propaganda. Pity. See more 09/20/2016 The Confession is an exquisitely crafted dissection of political disintegration and anti-Semitism, using brilliant Gavras-style editing, a great Yves Montana and Simone Sigornet, and dark, murky sets to their fullest emotional potential and ultimately unsettle, thrill, and frustrate the audience. See more Read all reviews
The Confession

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Movie Info

Synopsis In 1950s communist Czechoslovakia, a government minister, a war veteran who has long been a loyal party man, leads a relatively comfortable life with wife Lise. However, he soon finds himself under surveillance, then under arrest. He has no idea what his offense is, but agents for the totalitarian regime interrogate and torture him, aiming to use their unending power to gain a false confession for supposed crimes against the state.
Director
Costa-Gavras
Producer
Robert Dorfmann, Bertrand Javal
Screenwriter
Jorge Semprún
Production Co
Les Films Pomereu, Selenia Cinematografica, Fono Roma, Les Films Corona, Produzione Intercontinentale Cinematografica
Rating
PG
Genre
Mystery & Thriller
Original Language
Canadian French
Release Date (Streaming)
Nov 5, 2014
Runtime
2h 20m
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