There’s no question that Roman Polanski‘s An Officer and a Spy, a drama about the infamous Dreyfus case, is a strong, worthwhile film. It won the Silver Lion at last month’s Venice Film Festival. But of course it can’t be theatrically distributed or streamed in the U.S because of Polanski has been cancelled over his late ’70s statutory rape case, as well as a couple of other unsavory allegations left over from the ’70s and ’80s.
HE to distribution pally: How might I some day see An Officer and a Spy (aka J’Accuse) in this country? I realize that the odds are against theatrical distribution because of the wokester #MeToo political climate, but surely someone has the bravery to distribute this film, at the very least on a streaming basis.
A distributor pally suggested that I reach out to the worldwide sales agent, Playtime, and in particular Francois Yon, a Playtime Group partner who presides over Sales & Business Development.
I did so right away, and an hour or two later Francois responded as follows: “Thank you Jeffrey. Maybe you should write about this situation and how the American audiences are being culturally cut out from the rest of the world. It did happen a few times in past American history, so I remain hopeful that [things] will change once the Trump years are behind us.”
HE to Francois: “You’re saying I might have to wait until Trump is out of office before seeing An Officer and a Spy? Seriously? Will there be some way for me to at least stream it from a European company? Can you offer me a private link? I’d really like to see this as I went to Telluride instead of Venice.”
