On Guard! (1997)
Swashbuckling Filmmaking at Its Best
Paris, France 1699. The flamboyant Duc de Nevers (Vincent Perez) breezes into fencing school seeking competition. He is challenged to a practice bout by the pushy commoner Lagardère (Daniel Auteuil). The two men fence, watched by France’s future Regent, Philippe d’Orléans (Philippe Noiret), and the supremely confident Nevers gets more than he expected from Lagardère.
After the bout, Nevers seems to find Lagardère everywhere he goes in the city. Admiring the commoner’s spirit, Nevers eventually hires him and even teaches him his secret sword stroke—the deadly “botte de Nevers”.
Nevers and Lagardère travel to Caylus castle. There, in the midst of snow-covered mountains, Nevers intends to marry Blanche (Claire Nebout), the mother of his baby daughter Aurore.
Nevers’ cousin, the scheming Compte de Gonzague (Fabrice Luchini), has other plans. Knowing that if he can eliminate Nevers, Blanche, and Aurore, he will become the heir to Nevers’ fortune, Gonzague sends his henchman Peyrolles with a group of soldiers to Caylus castle.
At this point in On Guard! veteran French director Philippe de Broca pulls off a virtually impossible feat: He gives us a totally preposterous scene—two master swordsman doing battle with a gang of assassins on the castle battlements while they juggle a babe-in-arms back and forth between them—and he makes it believable and thrilling.
De Broca’s made his first swashbuckling movie Cartouche in 1962. He also directed the cult hit The King of Hearts (1966). With On Guard! he demonstrates that he is still an audacious, confident filmmaker.
On Guard!was filmed in 1997, but inexplicably its US release was delayed until 2002. Based on Le Bossu, a popular novel by Paul Féval that was serialized in a newspaper when it was first published in 1875, it is one of that wonderful series of French heritage movies made in the mid 1990s.
It is less brutal than Patrice Chéreau’s brilliant Queen Margot (1994), less romantic than Jean-Paul Rappeneau’s The Horseman on the Roof (1995), and less elegant than Patrice Leconte’s assured, astringent Ridicule (1996)—but de Broca’s movie is just as vigorous and way more exuberant. Like Anglo-American Richard Lester’s The Three Musketeers (1973), On Guard! is a full-blooded entertainment—the kind of movie that makes you hope was just as enjoyable for the actors and technicians to make as it is for its audience to watch.
The plot is vivid and melodramatic—it involves treachery, disguise, and revenge, an evil count, Italian traveling players, a hunchback, seventeenth century stock manipulations, and deadly demonstrations of the “la botte de Nevers”. The striking, agile wide-screen photography is by Jean-François Robin. The action, thanks to de Broca, editor Henri Lanoë, and stunt co-ordinator and fencing advisor Michel Carliez, is fast and furious. There is much fine acting. The ever-reliable Philippe Noiret is Philippe d’Orléans. Fabrice Luchini is a menacing presence as the ever-gloomy, evil Gonzague. Marie Gillain is the beautiful, sword-wielding, sixteen-year-old Aurore. Vincent Perez is dazzling in an all-too-brief appearance as Nevers. Relishing Lagardère’s cry, “If you don’t come to Lagardère, Lagardère will come to you!” Daniel Auteuil is by turns eager, spirited, resourceful, tender, and vengeful. And, as if that wasn’t enough, de Broca and composer Philippe Sarde use Pietro Mascagne’s beautiful Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana as theme music. This is swashbuckling film making at its best.
John Bloomfield (7 October, 2002)
Paris, France 1699. The flamboyant Duc de Nevers (Vincent Perez) breezes into fencing school seeking competition. He is challenged to a practice bout by the pushy commoner Lagardère (Daniel Auteuil). The two men fence, watched by France’s future Regent, Philippe d’Orléans (Philippe Noiret), and the supremely confident Nevers gets more than he expected from Lagardère.
After the bout, Nevers seems to find Lagardère everywhere he goes in the city. Admiring the commoner’s spirit, Nevers eventually hires him and even teaches him his secret sword stroke—the deadly “botte de Nevers”.
Nevers and Lagardère travel to Caylus castle. There, in the midst of snow-covered mountains, Nevers intends to marry Blanche (Claire Nebout), the mother of his baby daughter Aurore.
Nevers’ cousin, the scheming Compte de Gonzague (Fabrice Luchini), has other plans. Knowing that if he can eliminate Nevers, Blanche, and Aurore, he will become the heir to Nevers’ fortune, Gonzague sends his henchman Peyrolles with a group of soldiers to Caylus castle.
At this point in On Guard! veteran French director Philippe de Broca pulls off a virtually impossible feat: He gives us a totally preposterous scene—two master swordsman doing battle with a gang of assassins on the castle battlements while they juggle a babe-in-arms back and forth between them—and he makes it believable and thrilling.
De Broca’s made his first swashbuckling movie Cartouche in 1962. He also directed the cult hit The King of Hearts (1966). With On Guard! he demonstrates that he is still an audacious, confident filmmaker.
On Guard!was filmed in 1997, but inexplicably its US release was delayed until 2002. Based on Le Bossu, a popular novel by Paul Féval that was serialized in a newspaper when it was first published in 1875, it is one of that wonderful series of French heritage movies made in the mid 1990s.
It is less brutal than Patrice Chéreau’s brilliant Queen Margot (1994), less romantic than Jean-Paul Rappeneau’s The Horseman on the Roof (1995), and less elegant than Patrice Leconte’s assured, astringent Ridicule (1996)—but de Broca’s movie is just as vigorous and way more exuberant. Like Anglo-American Richard Lester’s The Three Musketeers (1973), On Guard! is a full-blooded entertainment—the kind of movie that makes you hope was just as enjoyable for the actors and technicians to make as it is for its audience to watch.
The plot is vivid and melodramatic—it involves treachery, disguise, and revenge, an evil count, Italian traveling players, a hunchback, seventeenth century stock manipulations, and deadly demonstrations of the “la botte de Nevers”. The striking, agile wide-screen photography is by Jean-François Robin. The action, thanks to de Broca, editor Henri Lanoë, and stunt co-ordinator and fencing advisor Michel Carliez, is fast and furious. There is much fine acting. The ever-reliable Philippe Noiret is Philippe d’Orléans. Fabrice Luchini is a menacing presence as the ever-gloomy, evil Gonzague. Marie Gillain is the beautiful, sword-wielding, sixteen-year-old Aurore. Vincent Perez is dazzling in an all-too-brief appearance as Nevers. Relishing Lagardère’s cry, “If you don’t come to Lagardère, Lagardère will come to you!” Daniel Auteuil is by turns eager, spirited, resourceful, tender, and vengeful. And, as if that wasn’t enough, de Broca and composer Philippe Sarde use Pietro Mascagne’s beautiful Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana as theme music. This is swashbuckling film making at its best.
John Bloomfield (7 October, 2002)
posted by John Bloomfield at 12:59 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home