In this film, “Landing of Dreyfus at Quiberon,” Méliès shows Dreyfus arriving at Quiberon on a dark and stormy night. In the cloudy background lightening flashes. This is one of the very first special effects ever, George Méliès is called the “First Wizard of Cinema.” A group of military personnel waits beside a boat moored in the harbor. The soldiers on the boat bob up and down as though they were on a boat in rough water. One soldier hands over papers to another officer. The officer gives them his signature. Then Alfred Dreyfus emerges from the boat. The soldiers surround him and they escort him off scene. The actual occurrence of this event is quite similar to what was portrayed, however it is also the scene that is most apparently fake with the clouds in the background not moving and and obvious lack of space between the foreground and background. Dreyfus landed at the port of Quiberon on July 1 1899. A severe storm had kept the ships from landing in the docks and Dreyfus had to be taken to shore in a smaller boat. The soldiers in the film were those responsible for transporting Dreyfus to the military prison located in Rennes. The army had chosen Rennes because they were hoping to keep the retrial under the rug and did not want publicity. The last thing the military wanted was to seem like they had made a mistake, which is part of the reason the retrial was not a success until the king pardoned Dreyfus eight days after his conviction.
“Dreyfus meets his wife at Rennes” follows the “Landing of Dreyfus at Quiberon” in the Dreyfus Affair series. Dreyfus is sitting at a desk in a room busy with some papers. Then two men enter the room after a guard. They are Dreyfus’s two lawyers, Edgar Demange and Fernand Labori. They sit around the desk and Dreyfus points to something on a paper and a lively discussion begins.Then the guard reenters, says something and then Lucie Dreyfus enters along with her friend Madame Havet. Lucie and Alfred rush into each other’s arms and have a warm embrace. It is short lived however and Dreyfus sits forlornly down seeming to know their reunion will be short-lived. In contrast to the previous film, this one does not rely on special effects, but on the emotional portrayal of Alfred and Lucie.
