'The Dominici Affair' by Orson Welles

[lavenderdiva]

I just watched this fascinating documentary by Orson Welles. It was an unfinished portion of his television series 'Around the World', back in the 1950's. Welles brought to television, through this series, synchronous sound, on-site interviews, over-the-shoulder camera views of the interviewer and interviewee. I never realized all these achievements were due to Welles. Moreover, the story was compelling. This documentary tells the true story of a high-profile murder case in France in the 1950's. 3 people were murdered (English nobility: mother, father, and 10yr. old daughter) in a remote region of France, while they were on holiday. Gaston Dominici was convicted, sentenced to death by guillotine, sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, yet eventually freed by Charles deGaulle to live out the last 18 months of his life in an old folk's home.

The film was in French at times, and then at other times in English. The film tells the story of how the documentary was envisioned and made. You then see the documentary for yourself. I would recommend it to anyone who appreciates Welles' work and see how he 'invented' the True Crime docudrama reporting style. I watched it on Netflix streaming to my DVR, but I also found this link, which is to a library where I think you can download it:


http://overdrive.dclibrary.org/961B7E80-80D2-48E3-8350-A0E7FA447BD7/10/391/en/ContentDetails.htm?ID=FED66743-99FE-4BC7-8E5A-8F477D118D6C