ON GUARD (LE BOSSU)
Directed by Philippe de Broca
NR, 128 minutes
Plan B
Philippe de Broca, the irrepressible French New Wave director best known here for two enduring favorites he made in the '60s ("That Man from Rio" and "King of Hearts"), has whipped up a fine broth of a swashbuckler to take us back to the days when going to the movies was going to the movies, and the pure enjoyment of it all saturated the skin and warmed the bones. "On Guard" has the dash and the feel of such classics as "Scaramouche" and "The Prisoner of Zenda", with Daniel Auteuil ("Girl on the Bridge") stepping into the fencing boots once worn by the great Stewart Granger.
The source material is Le Bossu, a roman-feuilleton (serialized novel) by Paul Féval from the mid-19th century, when readers waited breathlessly from month to month to see what was going to happen next in the stories being spun out in the pages of their favorite periodicals. Le Bossu actually translates as The Hunchback, but it has been changed for American consumption either to honor the delicacy of politically correct nomenclature, or to avoid confusion with the more famous hunchback of Féval's more famous contemporary, Victor Hugo.
This one is all 17th century swash and buckle, served up with brio and humor and eye-filling extravagance by a cast of actors who obviously enjoy what they're doing and are very good at doing it. There is one aspect to the romance plot that may stir a little queasiness in the breasts of American audiences already sorely tried by Woody Allen and Soon Yi, but which presumably went down fine with the contemporary French crowd.
Lagardère (Auteuil), an orphan raised by a couple of Parisian fencing masters who gave him love and skill but no first name, is befriended by the Duc de Nevers (Vincent Perez) after he fails as a hired assassin. He had been hired to kill the Duke, but Nevers is a broadminded sort who doesn't hold a grudge and admires pluck and loyalty. Lagardère and Nevers become such great pals that the Duke teaches him a couple of brilliant techniques of swordplay, and even bestows a knighthood on him as the two are journeying to the castle of the Duke's true love, Blanche (Claire Nebout), with whom, he has just discovered, he has fathered a child. Nevers intends to make an honest woman of Blanche and a legitimate heir of his newly-discovered offspring. But this does not sit well with his current heir, his soft-spoken but treacherous cousin Gonzague (Fabrice Luchini). There is gory villainy afoot, and the short version of the resulting long story is that Lagardère finds himself with a baby girl to raise and a blood score to settle.
Years go by. Lagardère has joined a troupe of traveling mountebanks, and his little foster daughter Aurore has grown into a ripe and spunky young wench (Marie Gillain). Gonzague, meanwhile, has inherited the vast wealth and title of the Duc de Nevers, and has inherited Blanche into the bargain. But Blanche is not being a good sport; she has retired to her chambers, where it is said she neither eats nor drinks, although over the sixteen years or so that pass one suspects she may have ingested the odd crust of brioche washed down with the odd tumbler of wine.
Circumstances conspire to suggest to Lagardère that it is time to make his move for revenge and to right the wrongs of all those years ago. When Gonzague's personal assistant and good-luck hunchback is killed, Lagardère dons a disguise and applies for the job. Soon he is in tight with the dastardly Duke-pretender, running his business affairs and plotting his downfall.
When he reveals her true identity, and the secret of her parentage, to the lovely Aurore, however, her reaction is not what he, and perhaps we, might have anticipated. To say the least, she takes it well. She has no trouble casting aside the emotional baggage of a lifetime of believing Lagardère to be her natural father, and this is where perhaps some in the audience will experience a mild frisson of culture shock.
But that scruple aside, "On Guard" is a pure delight. The cinematography by Jean-Francois Robin ("The Browning Version") is spectacular, and drenched in the gauzy warmth of '50s Technicolor. Auteuil is handsome, dashing, and brimming with good humor, and the same can be said of Perez, while he lasts. Luchini is a serpentine delight of villainy, and Gillain makes a lovely and spirited heroine, with a pretty good way with a sword herself.
And it is a treat to see once again the guiding hand and humor of de Broca, so long absent from our view and hidden away in French television. "On Guard" was made in 1997, and has just found its way here. Let's hope it doesn't take his next one as long to make the crossing.
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