“Costa-Gavras‘s The Confession is not, I think, a better movie than his prize-winning Z, with which it will inevitably be compared, not only by the critics but also by those members of the public who may look for a repeat performance. The earlier film was a nearly perfect topical thriller whose form pretty much defined the substance of its liberal politics.

“However, because the subject of The Confession is much more complex, much more human, I find it vastly more interesting than Z, even when one is aware of the way Costa-Gavras manipulates attention by the use of flashy cinematic devices that sometimes substitute for sustained drama. It is a horror story of the mind told almost entirely in factual and physical terms, which is something of a contradiction.

“These are, however, the terms of which Costa-Gavras is a movie master, and in which Artur London originally wrote his book, adapted for the screen by Jorge Semprun, who also wrote the script for Z.” — from Vincent Canby‘s 12.10.7 N.Y. Times review.

The Criterion Bluray of The Confession pops of 5.26.