'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: on-site synchronous sound, on-site interviews, and over-the-shoulder camera views of the interviewer and interviewee. I never realized all these achievements were due to Welles; we just take them for granted nowadays, especially if you are a fan of true-crime docudramas, such as Dominick Dunne's series. Moreover, this 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 for yourself his 'inventing' reporting True Crime. 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

on edit:

I just found this additional information about the murders, and it seems that Sir Drummond may have been a spy for the English, and in France to check out a chemical plant that was not far from Lurs, the site of the murders. It does make sense that he would have been killed for what he knew or was finding out. Much more so than an old farmer killing all 3 so brutally, for what? And he didn't know how to work the rifle? Read this and see what you think:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/jul/29/humanities.artsandhumanities