What's new?
Balzac.
Thanks to Xavier Giannoli and his wonderful adaptation of
Lost Illusions
, a major masterpiece and the cornerstone of
La Comédie humaine
.
With this abundant film released in 2021, the director of
Originally
and
The Apparition
collected no less than seven Césars, including those for best film and best actor awarded to Benjamin Voisin.
After
Marguerite
in 2015, the filmmaker confirms that period films are not doomed to academicism or mothballs.
Here again, the costumes do not weigh tons and Balzac's novel, transposed by Giannoli, holds up a striking mirror to the present day.
The 1820s and 2020s, same fight.
The rise and fall of Rubempré
Die-hard Balzacians will regret that the first part of the novel is sacrificed.
Once again, poor David Séchard, poet friend of Lucien de Rubempré with a pure heart, indebted by his printer father, is forgotten.
But then they will not sulk their pleasure.
Giannoli very quickly embarks the naive provincial in the carriage of Madame de Bargeton, his protector and mistress.
Lucien, his collection of poems under his arm, leaves Angoulême for Paris where his dreams as an artist will be shattered.
The filmmaker stages the rise and fall of Rubempré with great virtuosity, keeping all the threads together, neglecting no character or plot.
In his panoply, Giannoli uses the voiceover wisely.
It is anything but a crutch to make the story stand up, nor an admission of weakness.
It allows Balzacian prose to be heard.
Above all, the filmmaker uses it above the action, like Martin Scorsese in
Casino
or Brian De Palma in
L'Impasse
.
She is one step ahead of the characters and creates the same tension, the same suspense.
Moreover,
Lost Illusions
is a gangster film in which words, printed or not, replace guns.
Painting from the world of the press, publishing and the theater is at the heart of the novel and Xavier Giannoli has a field day.
Lucien, abandoned by his patron, meets the journalist Étienne Lousteau, discovers a corrupt profession where criticism is bought and sold, bad faith reigns, rumors ("ducks" in the jargon of the time and not fake news) launch themselves in a snap of their fingers to kill someone, artist or politician.
The poet becomes an unscrupulous paper pusher.
“Social puppet”
We can be sure that Gaumont did not spend a euro to obtain this glowing review, but any parallel between the gazettes under the Restoration and the mediacracy in the age of social networks is not fortuitous.
“The compromise is of all the centuries”
, says Nathan, rival writer.
Lucien turns his jacket around, goes from the camp of the liberals to that of the royalists without batting an eyelid.
“A late but sincere rallying
”, he tries to justify himself.
Fortunately, Giannoli does not pour into the pamphlet.
He does not make a moral judgment on his hero but accompanies the
“social puppet”
in his descent into hell.
The success of
Lost Illusions
also owes much to its distribution.
The young Benjamin Voisin (Lucien), Vincent Lacoste (Étienne) or even Xavier Dolan (Nathan without accent) say the words of Balzac with a disconcerting naturalness.
Jeanne Balibar is a perfect Marquise d'Espard, a sweet and cruel manipulator.
Cécile de France as Madame de Bargeton, Gérard Depardieu as a publisher who can neither read nor write but can count very well, Louis-Do de Lencquesaing as a cynical press boss, the late Jean-François Stévenin as a triumphant or flop-maker in the theater , André Marcon as Baron du Châtelet, a jealous suitor rejected by Madame de Bargeton, or even Salomé Dewaels, actress and Lucien's mistress, they are all wonderful.
And participate in restoring faith in a popular and ambitious French cinema.
