Merveilleuse Angélique (1965)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

Bernard Borderie

Writers:

Anne Golon (novel) &
Serge Golon (novel) ...

Release Date:

7 July 1965 (France)

Genre:

Adventure | History | Romance

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Paris | Royalty | Historical | Beautiful Woman | King Louis XIV

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Michèle Mercier	...	Angélique de Peyrac
Claude Giraud	...	Philippe de Plessis-Bellières
Jean Rochefort	...	Desgrez
Jean-Louis Trintignant	...	Claude le Petit, dit Le poète croté
Giuliano Gemma	...	Nicolas
Claire Maurier	...	Ninon de Lenclos
Ernst Schröder	...	Le capitaine du Châtelet
Charles Régnier	...	Conan Becker
Jacques Toja	...	Louis XIV
François Maistre	...	Prionce de Condé
Robert Porte	...	Monsieur
Denise Provence	...	Barbe
Noël Roquevert	...	Maître Bourjus, l'aubergiste
Rosalba Neri	...	La Polak
Elizabeth Ercy	...	Rosine (as Elisabeth Ercy)

Also Known As:

Angélique, 2. Teil (West Germany)
Angelique: The Road to Versailles (UK)
La meravigliosa Angelica (Italy)

Runtime:

105 min

Country:

France | Italy | West Germany

Language:

French

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Iceland:L | West Germany:12

Filming Locations:

Cinecittà Studios, Cinecittà, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company:

Compagnie Industrielle et Commerciale Cinématographique (CICC)

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Die Legende von Paul und Paula (1973)

From the Cour des Miracles to the Court of the Sun King.

That's Angelique's route.The title of the Golon's novel was "le chemin de Versailles"(=Versailles route).And like the other movies of this famous -in France- saga,it does not do the book any justice.Once again,the Golons ' depictions were often first-class,mainly in the first chapters which dealt with the notorious "Cour des Miracles" (also depicted by Victor Hugo in "Notre-Dame de Paris" (The Hunchback of Notre-Dame)).Their work was cheapened and watered-down by the screenwriters ,giving a romantic flavor to Nicolas' character (who in the book is a crude brute),and avoiding many a "horrible" line.For instance ,the fighting in Saints-Innocents charnel house -where the Belles de Paris used to come during the day to do some shopping among the skulls and the bones-is nowhere to be seen on the screen.

This is fairly entertaining swashbucklers adventures,a genre that was at its (commercial) peak in France circa 1960 thanks to actor Jean Marais ("le bossu","le capitan" "le miracle des loups")but was on the wane after 1965."Angélique was,all in all,the last hurrah(so to speak).