Aka - La fille de
d'Artagnan
It is rather nice watching a Musketeer movie in French. It gives it a certain
charm and authenticity. The film teeters between adventure and droll French
wit but eventually leans towards humor. There are many dastardly deeds done
but other than the dozens of dead, it generally feels comic in nature. It
is French through and through though with food a constant concern and a narrative
that needs a good slap on the bottom to speed it up. That I suppose is the
Hollywood in me speaking. Still it has Philippe Noiret as D'Artagnan and
no one can exude French appeal like he does. Such a great actor even as an
over the hill ex-Musketeer. I watch him and I want to eat snails. It is directed
by another French great - Bertrand Tavernier whose first feature The Clockmaker
of St. Paul starred Noiret as did his international hit a few years later,
Coup de Torchon. They were old friends.
I just recently watched Princess of Thieves in which Robin Hood has a daughter
who takes up adventure and so does D'Artagnan. Robin Hood has Kiera
Knightly and here we have the equally beautiful Sophie Marceau. Stunning.
Right after this she was in Braveheart and a few years later in Bond's The
World is Not Enough. The film begins seemingly oddly with a black slave running
to escape and a group of men and one woman (Charlotte Kady) chasing him on
horseback. He runs into a nunnery and they follow and kill Mother Superior
before catching him. One of the novices swears revenge and goes to find good
old dad who she hasn't seen in years. D'Artagnan. Who she thinks is still
ahead of the Musketeers - but after getting to Paris - with a boyfriend she
picked up on the way fighting the Cardinal Guards - she discovers that he
was asked to leave after offending the young King, Louis XIV, and he now
gets by teaching fencing and borrowing money from Planchet. Planchet was
D'Artagnan's servant in the book and most of the films.
In a comedy of errors she has a laundry list from the Mother Superior and
Cardinal Mazarin gets hold of a love poem from her suitor and they both think
they are in code and that there is a conspiracy afoot. Pre-QAnon. In fact,
they are exactly what they seem but it sets things afoot and leads to a real
conspiracy to kill the King. D'Artagnan rounds up the boys - now very middle
aged men and sore after a few hours on a horse - Athos, Porthos and Aramis.
They may be older, a step slower, grayer, heavier but their blades work just
fine. A fun little romp that doesn't take itself too seriously.
