On April 5, 2023, we will discover a new d'Artagnan.
François Civil takes on the clothes of the musketeer in front of Martin Bourboulon's camera.
He is supported in his mission by Vincent Cassel (Athos), Romain Duris (Aramis) and Pio Marmaï (Porthos).
But what exactly do we know of Charles de Batz, the real name of the musketeer?
The docufiction
The True Story of d'Artagnan
, masterfully led by director Augustin Viatte, follows in the footsteps of this man born around 1610 in present-day Gers, and tries to portray him despite the absence archives and the distance of centuries.
To discover
Miss France 2023 is Miss Guadeloupe, Indira Ampiot
Between two excerpts from an adaptation of The
Three Musketeers
, this portrait multiplies the reconstructions.
The specialists interviewed are nicely highlighted by contrasts of light.
They also look like they are taken from a period film.
With the seriousness of a chamberlain, Jean-Christian Petitfils leafs through the work which laid the first stone of the legend: the fictitious
Memoirs of d'Artagnan
, signed Courtilz de Sandras.
They will make Dumas happy.
Secret agent
As we read in
The Three Musketeers
, the Gascon probably left his province young, determined to grab the foil and conquer Paris, asking for protection from M. de Tréville.
This prominent aristocrat had sympathy for his neighbors in the Southwest.
In a 1953 screen adaptation, screenwriter Michel Audiard wrote that
"he practiced a certain form of religion based on the certainty that God was from Béarn".
But, unlike the fictional d'Artagnan, Charles de Batz did not participate in the intrigues of Louis XIII, Anne of Austria and Richelieu.
He rises in rank in the service of the next monarch, protecting him from childhood.
A sort of secret agent, an indispensable little hand of the Grand Siècle, "
he was ready for anything for Louis XIV
", says specialist Odile Bordaz.
Even to become "
captain of the king's little dogs running the deer"
.
In any case, he seems much less impetuous than his literary double.
So he asked the monarch one day for a lettres de cachet to get rid of his wife, who weighed on him.
Did our musketeer lack heart?
Jean-Christian Petitfils protests, recalls that he surrounded the unfortunate prisoner Nicolas Fouquet with his care.
No doubt d'Artagnan was above all the zealous servant of his king.
He died in his service in 1673 under the Dutch fortifications.
Before being reborn in 1844 under the pen of Dumas, too brave to be forgotten, too wise not to be reinvented.