Mademoiselle_Lemon Reviews

Kingdom of Felony (2008 TV Movie)

Clumsy and clichéd

[30 September 2012]

The fact that this two-part French miniseries is "liberally inspired" by Alexandre Dumas' novel of the same name, sequel to the more famous "Queen Margot," should be a warning to those who are looking for a faithful adaptation. The writer keeps a number of the characters but changes their personalities immensely (and, consequently, the way that they interact with each other). A few major subplots and characters are removed entirely, and others are drawn from the writer's bland imagination and "La Dame de Monsoreau"'s own sequel, "The Forty-Five Guardsmen."

Diane de Méridor (a terribly miscast Esther Nubiola) goes to a ball hosted by the smitten - or rather, inexplicably obsessed - Comte de Monsoreau, the king's Chief Huntsman (Frédéric van den Driessche, wasting a strong performance). There, she catches the eye of the younger brother of Henri III, the Duc d'Anjou (Frédéric Quiring, also decent), while Monsoreau looks on jealously. The prince's messy-haired, soul-patched crony Comte de Bussy (a fairly dreadful Thomas Jouannet) soon arrives and also shows an interest in the beautiful Diane. Later that night, the besotted Anjou attempts to kidnap her, but Monsoreau flies to her rescue and steals her away to Paris to shield her from the prince. Upon arriving in the city, however, the Chief Huntsman forces her to become the Comtesse de Monsoreau. Meanwhile, Bussy, his hair still carefully disheveled, aligns himself with the king and spies on the Duc d'Anjou, uncovering the prince's plot with Monsoreau and the Guises (mainly Marie de Guise, played by a hammy Anne Caillon) to steal the throne. Naturally, all of the bad guys are double-crossing each other, which complicates their scheme. After another fateful meeting with Diane, Bussy decides to become her protector and rid her of Monsoreau. And thus, Bussy and Diane fall in love whilst attempting to thwart the treacherous designs of the conspirators.

If you're familiar with either the novel or the excellent 1971 miniseries with Nicolas Silberg, Michel Creton, and Karin Petersen, you probably won't think much of this adaptation. But even if you want to judge it on its own merits, you'll have a hard time trying to find just what those are. Van den Driessche and Quiring and a couple of the other secondary actors give solid performances, but the leads aren't likable in the slightest and the viewer will have a hard time caring about their great love, no matter how much the over-the-top music tries desperately to compensate for the actors' lack of chemistry. Jouannet's Bussy is not the noble, powerful, strong, multi-layered Bussy of the novel, but a whiny Huguenot who spends most of his time disrespecting the prince (his supposed friend) and complaining about how his people are persecuted. The dynamic of the relationship between Bussy and Anjou is completely ruined, corrupting the stories and characters that make "La Dame de Monsoreau" one of Dumas' finest works. The changes to Diane's character at first seem predictable and even understandable; they try to transform her from "damsel in distress" into a sassy tomboy. But, like Bussy, she comes off as holier-than-thou, ungrateful, and annoying. The role of the villains is to swan around and have scary conversations with their allies about their transparently evil ambitions. The less said about them, the better.

In short, the writing is sloppy, the scenes choppy, the characters flat and poorly constructed, and the situations contrived. This means that it is not only a badly delivered and stupid adaptation, but one lacking in real entertainment value. The miniseries aims to be a romantic swashbuckler and tale of political intrigue, and it fails miserably on both counts.

Koroleva Margo (1996)

A masterful adaptation of one of Dumas' best

[1 July 2012]

"Queen Margot" is undoubtedly one of Dumas' most convoluted and intricately-plotted novels, a masterpiece populated by fascinating and flawed characters trapped in lives of greed, danger, and intrigue. This 9.5-hour-long Russian adaptation of the novel (trimmed down from a longer television broadcast) not only succeeds in translating the story from the page to the screen, but it does so with inventiveness. And, while the miniseries stands out in its own right, it compares very favorably to the mediocre 1994 French film version, which simplifies the story and characters considerably and puts sensationalism above quality writing and acting. All in all, this series is not only the best "Margot" film, but one of the best Dumas adaptations.

The story begins with the wedding of Charles IX's sister, Marguerite de Valois (Yevgeniya Dobrovolskaya), to the Protestant King Henri de Navarre (Dmitri Pevtsov), and unfolds as the marriage that was designed to bring peace to a country plagued by religious warfare forges and breaks alliances within the royal family, ultimately resulting in suffering. As Margot, her mother, her brothers, and her husband plot against or with each other, enter La Mole (Dmitri Kharatyan), a Protestant nobleman who has fallen in love with the queen, and Coconnas (the miniseries' producer, Sergei Zhigunov), his Catholic friend/foe. The relationships between Henri and Margot, Margot and La Mole, and La Mole and Coconnas lie at the heart of the story as each is created or destroyed by the ambitions, admiration, and conspiracies within the Louvre.

The casting isn't necessarily obvious – a number of the characters don't resemble Dumas' descriptions – but the actors play their parts to perfection. They don't just read lines from the book; the script adds to and even improves upon aspects of the novel. The characters at first appear as archetypes – villains, heroes, sidekicks, minions – but they soon become breathing, complex individuals with understandable motivations and desires. Dobrovolskaya's Margot thinks, manipulates, begs, struggles. She is seen at her strongest and her weakest, and, through it all, seems real. Pevtsov is also inspired; a character that could easily have become too sympathetic, Henri is charming, wily, fickle, ambitious, maybe even a touch ruthless. While there isn't a weak link in the cast, the true scene-stealers are Viktor Abolduyev as Margot's crafty and cowardly brother François, Zhigunov as the tragicomic Annibal de Coconnas, and, above all, Mikhail Yefremov as the sinister Charles.

Overall, this miniseries is a masterpiece worthy of the excellent novel from which it is adapted. The fact that it is a shortened version is undetectable. If you don't speak Russian, English subtitles are available. Anyone familiar with Russian films is probably used to funky subtitles enough not to be too bothered by the occasionally weird word choices and grammatical errors (Madame de Sauve is a "scoudrelly woman," Catherine de Médicis asks her perfumer, "Didn't you experimented?"); the mistakes aren't too distracting and the lines are never made incomprehensible by them. It's only a pity that this film isn't better distributed, because it is far better than the French version and deserving of much more attention and praise than it likely receives.

10/10

The Flame Is Love (1979 TV Movie)

One of the greatest unintentional comedies ever

[5 January 2011]

There are two ways of looking at "The Flame is Love". It is both an awful, awful historical romance/made-for-TV coming-of-age story and a brilliant, if accidental, comedy. While there is no doubt that this film was intended to be a serious adaptation of a romantic novel, and therefore fits comfortably into the first category, it's impossible to watch it without laughing a lot.

The story revolves around the young and impossibly naive Vada (Linda Purl), an American heiress who is sent to Paris with her poor cousin en route to England, where the fiancé she has not yet met, a duke, awaits her arrival. Her cousin is injured before getting to Paris, and Vada continues on unchaperoned. In Paris she meets the Marquis de Something-or-other (Timothy Dalton) and Pierre the Journalist (Shane Briant). As with other Barbara Cartland films, the heroine falls in love at first sight and there's very little suspense in that department. The villainous marquis, who happens to be the leader of a group of Parisian socialite Satanists, plots against Vada, and Pierre must save her from danger while they fall even more in love. Perhaps the most hilarious aspect of the film is the wonderful narrator, who translates French poetry for the viewer ("Love is the flame. The flame is love.") and keeps us up-to-speed on what's going through the characters' heads ("Vada could not know that Pierre was on his way... And Pierre could not know that Vada knew..." "If this was Pierre, she would have been *enchanted*. But this was not Pierre."). Add some fabulously out-of-nowhere plot twists near the end, and the obvious utter seriousness of the actors and filmmakers (except perhaps Dalton), and you get one hysterically funny and worthwhile movie.

Elisa di Rivombrosa (2003– )

Brilliant

[5 January 2011]

I stumbled upon "Elisa di Rivombrosa" after exhausting pretty much all of the English-language period dramas. Having seen British adaptations of classic novels countless times (everything from Austen to Hardy to Forster), I found this loose take on Samuel Richardson's "Pamela" and decided to give it a go. Anglophone viewers will appreciate its similarities to the period films that we're familiar with - gorgeous costumes and beautiful music, plots about virtue and vice, etc - but I'd also argue that "Elisa" offers a refreshing amount of fun and intrigue that most recent English-language period films are lacking (often more a result of the sobering sort of stories adapted than of any fault of the filmmakers). "Elisa di Rivombrosa" manages to be both entertaining and mildly intellectual and profound - in an unobtrusive, unpretentious sort of a way. It is playful and serious, and unabashedly exaggerated - without being ridiculous or Barbara Cartland-y. This approach is perfect for the source content (a sentimental novel, after all), and results in a thoroughly captivating and creative work.

An intriguing story with unexpected twists and turns, "Elisa" has a multitude of well-integrated subplots, lively and likable characters, and excellent performances. It has humor and suspense, and moments that pull at your heart strings. Admittedly, the plot isn't always very plausible, but "Elisa" is a soap opera (and doesn't try to disguise the fact), so the somewhat far-fetched events and over-the-top emotions are entirely forgivable and, indeed, beneficial to the atmosphere and pace of the drama. The costumes are attractive and varied, without being distracting, and the music is perfect (beautiful and original, but not a crutch to elicit the viewer's emotional reactions, as the performances are good enough to do that alone).

There's a lot of cheesy romantic dialogue, thwarting of the baddies' schemes, and energetic, rollicking adventure. In short, it's an excellent and entertaining piece of television, a period drama fan's dream come true, and I highly recommend it.

10/10

Valentine's Day (I) (2010)

Dreadful

[24 November 2010]

You don't know what awful is until you've seen this film. I wasn't looking for a profound commentary on the human experience - I watched "Valentine's Day" expecting 100 minutes worth of harmless and fun escapism. To say that I was disappointed is a bit of an understatement.

To begin with, the film is WAY too long - or perhaps it just seems like an eternity. Minute after minute, it is sickeningly sappy and sweet, without any depth of character or plot to justify its duration. The acting is for the most part atrocious - or, at best, mediocre. Taylor Swift, in a nightmarish "comic relief" role, and the annoying little boy, in particular, stand out as paragons of annoying incompetence. However, the writing is so awful, even the greatest of thespians could not make this movie bearable. I honestly felt rather embarrassed for the actors, most of whom I'm sure are quite capable if given a half-decent script. Perhaps worst of all, "Valentine's Day" acts like it is an eye-opening and touching study of human relationships, while it's really drivel.

If there's anything I'd like the reader to learn from this review it's to avoid this film at all costs. It isn't good, it isn't even so-bad-it's-good - it's just plain dreadful.