646f9e108c The story begins on the autumn of 1654 in South France. Eloise lives in a cloister. Her famous father left her there. The young lady is enthusiastic about honour, faithfulness, affection to the poor people, and life of course. She seems powerless when the leader of the nuns is executed because she tried to save an unlucky servant who escaped from odious Crassac and his evil Muse, the Red Lady. Eloise is seized with a fit of temper. France, 1654: D&#39;Artagnan&#39;s girl grows up in a convent. When the mother superior is murdered, Eloïse suspects a plan to murder the king and hopes to prevent this and revenge the murder by finding her father and the 3 musketeers. Frankly, I find it very hard to believe that a major Euro-Cult exponent, the legendarily irascible 85-year old Italian film-maker Riccardo Freda, came out of 13 years of retirement to make this belated French swashbuckler with such art-house favouritesSophie Marceau, Philippe Noiret, Claude Rich, Sami Frey and Luigi Proietti, got himself fired from the project (as so often happened in the past, often to the benefit of his cinematographer Mario Bava) and distinguished director Tavernier stepped in to complete the picture; the more likely scenario is that it was avowed Freda champion Tavernier&#39;s idea to dust off (and update) an old script from the elderly director&#39;s glory days of the &quot;Peplum&quot; subgenre - already filmed by himthe obscure and elusive THE SON OF D&#39;ARTAGNAN (1950), co-starring the ubiquitous Gianna Maria Canale, his then-current muse/companion - now that swordplay was once again en vogue on screen in France – presumably following the worldwide success of the Oscar-nominated 1990 Gerard Depardieu version of CYRANO DE BERGERAC! Having said that, Richard Lester had himself resurrected his long- dormant Alexandre Dumas diptych from the mid-1970s for one final (and, ultimately, fatal) fling with 1989&#39;s middling THE RETURN OF THE MUSKETEERS – in which Noiret (hereD&#39;Artagnan) had played Cardinal Mazarin i.e. Proietti&#39;s role in the movie under review! <br/><br/>Whatever the real story is, the eventual outcome was a solid effort all round which, while perhaps not scaling the expected heights given its pedigree of cast and crew, should provide lively entertainment for viewers of all persuasions. In retrospect, Marceau may have been right in complaining that, notwithstanding the film&#39;s title, her part should have been bigger: she still gets to shed her clothes and wield the sword on various occasions and her characterization here must have decided Mel Gibson to cast her in his own epic BRAVEHEART (1995) and she did get her own later period vehicle in MARQUISE (1997; which I am not familiar with) in which she romances Louis XIV (who is still a royal teenage brat in this one!). Instead, Tavernier&#39;s movie chooses to focus on the tattered relationship between the reassembled Four Musketeers: even the supposedly dead Athos turns upthe one-eyed henchman of Mazarin! Marceau gets her own romantic foil in a rebellious poet (played by Tavernier&#39;s own actor son, Nils),does bumbling villain Crassac (a delightful, Cesar-nominated turn from Rich) in his unscrupulous accomplice Eglantine De Rochefort (Charlotte Klady). For the longest time, we follow the two factions on the separate trails of &#39;Double McGuffins&#39;: the musketeers&#39; clue turns out to be nothing but a laundry list, in spite of Bishop Aramis (Frey) extracting Biblical references from the message, obtained from a fugitive black slave in the very opening sequence, the initials of which when combined together spell &quot;Crassac&quot;!; Mazarin&#39;s clue, then, was nothing but Tavernier&#39;s on-the- spot poem to Marceau during their first meeting in a tavern! Even so, fencing instructor D&#39;Artagnan and his aging buddies still manage to stumble on the real plot on the young king&#39;s life during his coronation.<br/><br/>Recently, it seems like I always get to make a reference to my unwatched pile in my reviews: this one is, obviously, no exception since I own several tenuously &quot;Musketeers&quot;-related films I have yet to catch up with: A MODERN MUSKETEER (1917; with Douglas Fairbanks), BARDELYS THE MAGNIFICENT (1926; with John Gilbert); CARDINAL RICHELIEU (1935; with George Arliss), THE THREE MUSKETEERS (1935; with Walter Abel), UNDER THE RED ROBE (1937; with Conrad Veidt), an unsubtitled Spanish-language copy of THE THREE MUSKETEERS (1942; with Cantinflas), Roberto Rossellini&#39;s THE TAKING OF POWER BY LOUIS XIV (1966), the uncut International version of THE FIFTH MUSKETEER (1979; with Cornel WildeD&#39;Artagnan) and THE MUSKETEER (2001; with Catherine Deneuve). To end this reviewI had started it by referring to Riccardo Freda again: it should be noted that I have just acquired off of &quot;You Tube&quot; a copy of his professional rival Vittorio Cottafavi&#39;s MILADY AND THE MUSKETEERS (1952), sourced from a late-night Italian TV broadcast 1654. When the titular daughter, Eloise(the stunning Marceau, who takes over her father&#39;s arc, and is equally big on honor, justice, and defending the innocent), gets a hint of a conspiracy, she leaves the convent her and her mother were at(…if you aren&#39;t safe there, then where?), goes to Paris, has her first suitor(Tavernier, a poet who is not exactly skilled with a weapon; he is the comic relief, and in spite of that, he is seldom annoying, they walk the line of that well), and asks the elder D&#39;Artagnan(Noiret, who recognizes himselfa youth in her… and the two have a great relationship, one of several that are sweet and,a lot of the humor, very human, very sympathetic… she wants to bebig an adventurerhe was, he wants her to be a woman, and listen to her, and in amongst the expectations, there is clearly a mutual love) for help. He sets about reuniting with Aramis(Frey, the religious and controlling of them) and Porthos(Billerey, always hungry; what of Athos? I won&#39;t give that away), (all three of them physically affected by it having been 20 years since they were last swashbuckling) and they will all seek out the mysterious Red Lady. This clearly loves the novels(with many references to them, and not all overt or direct) and wanted to add a new chapter to the overall narrative, that of the next generation, and it succeeds in delivering that and making it compelling. We get an early indication of how far our villains will go(and when you find out what they&#39;re doing, it&#39;s quite clever, and fairly historically accurate), the gradual build-up to seeing them together rather than immediately showing all of our favorite musketeers, and the fencing is great, both in quality and amount. Nice choreography, and the well-done visual composition of the fights ensures that you never lose track of where everybody is, in relation to each other, and what they&#39;re currently doing - even when it involves a dozen people, and they&#39;re in a crowded, well-furnished area, like a bar. This keeps to a moderate pace, and one can clearly tell it&#39;s French… you can practically smell the environment, sense it right in front of you - with people in the market selling, inside praying or writing, etc., according to the time. The mood is thus set effectively. Their passion is also clear, with several of the well-written characters suddenly bursting into rants, or arguing. And it is evident in the comedy, which I&#39;ve already mentioned. This balances laughs and tension well. There is a lot of mild violence, a little female nudity(topless, and butt) and sexuality, and, I&#39;m told by the Parents Guide(what? I don&#39;t speak it… MF&#39;er), some strong language in this. I recommend this to any and all fans of the Dumas stories. 7/10
Marknilaca Admin replied
295 weeks ago