"The people have changed. The lower classes in the cities and the peasants in the country have realized they're poor. They're starting to wonder if in the hereafter, after death, the last will really come first. Faced with that doubt, they've become interested in the here and now."
In June 1791, King Louis XVI of France, along with Queen Marie Antoinette and their family surreptitiously fled Paris and traveled east, hoping to secure safety under General Bouillé's army and galvanize support to quash the impending revolution. They got as far as Varennes-en-Argonne, 250 km away and just 50 km short of the citadel of Montmédy, when they were captured and ultimately returned under confinement to Paris. The event was of enormous importance in the revolution, and of course ultimately resulted in both Louis and Marie Antoinette meeting Madame La Guillotine.
In this story another coach follows them, carrying an interesting collection of characters. There's an aging Casanova played by Marcello Mastroianni (ooh), American revolutionist Thomas Paine played by Harvey Keitel (hmm), French author Rétif played by Jean-Louis Barrault, and several fictional characters, one of whom is a lady-in-waiting to the queen (Hanna Schygulla). They hear the rumors of who is in front of them but most of the film consists of them riding along, taking occasional breaks, and talking about the changing mood in the country. It's as if they represent the country (and indeed Europe) riding towards the future, facing a momentous turn.
It's a rather odd set of people who are cobbled together, though Paine and his views on revolution and democracy serve as a counterpart to the conservatism of Casanova and the lady-in-waiting, with Rétif somewhere in between. They're perhaps not the ultra-wealthy of their day, but they are people of power and influence, and as they ride through fields being worked by the poor, they try to intuit the mood of the people, some more accurately than others. Casanova, a lover of tradition and rather lethargically stuffing his face with French delicacies, decries the old days when people were respectful of their "betters," whereas Paine speaks earnestly about the idiocy of hereditary rule, where "a lion may be followed by an ass." It held my interest but oftentimes the conversations seemed forced, and it was unfortunate that Keitel had to be dubbed.
The film is also hampered by its slow pace and padded runtime, with moments that weren't all that compelling, e.g. Rétif and Casanova stopping to have a pee, or a tangential interracial romance. It is at least partially successfully in immersing the viewer into the period by letting us see the more mundane aspects of transportation among other things, but it's a little bit dragged down by it as well, and not resurrected by the inclusion of the shocking behavior of the libertines (e.g. Rétif's sex with a girl he discovers to be his daughter). I also thought that Mastroianni was too muted, and imagined an older Casanova still having a bit of spark about him even his days of physical passion were no longer. Regardless, the film dragged for me, and would have been better an hour shorter - a briefer sketch - and with a more realistic set of traveling companions.
What a lovely ending it had though, with the quote from Rétif and him stepping up into the streets of 1992, a couple of centuries later, and warning how history tends to repeat itself. Indeed.
In June 1791, King Louis XVI of France, along with Queen Marie Antoinette and their family surreptitiously fled Paris and traveled east, hoping to secure safety under General Bouillé's army and galvanize support to quash the impending revolution. They got as far as Varennes-en-Argonne, 250 km away and just 50 km short of the citadel of Montmédy, when they were captured and ultimately returned under confinement to Paris. The event was of enormous importance in the revolution, and of course ultimately resulted in both Louis and Marie Antoinette meeting Madame La Guillotine.
In this story another coach follows them, carrying an interesting collection of characters. There's an aging Casanova played by Marcello Mastroianni (ooh), American revolutionist Thomas Paine played by Harvey Keitel (hmm), French author Rétif played by Jean-Louis Barrault, and several fictional characters, one of whom is a lady-in-waiting to the queen (Hanna Schygulla). They hear the rumors of who is in front of them but most of the film consists of them riding along, taking occasional breaks, and talking about the changing mood in the country. It's as if they represent the country (and indeed Europe) riding towards the future, facing a momentous turn.
It's a rather odd set of people who are cobbled together, though Paine and his views on revolution and democracy serve as a counterpart to the conservatism of Casanova and the lady-in-waiting, with Rétif somewhere in between. They're perhaps not the ultra-wealthy of their day, but they are people of power and influence, and as they ride through fields being worked by the poor, they try to intuit the mood of the people, some more accurately than others. Casanova, a lover of tradition and rather lethargically stuffing his face with French delicacies, decries the old days when people were respectful of their "betters," whereas Paine speaks earnestly about the idiocy of hereditary rule, where "a lion may be followed by an ass." It held my interest but oftentimes the conversations seemed forced, and it was unfortunate that Keitel had to be dubbed.
The film is also hampered by its slow pace and padded runtime, with moments that weren't all that compelling, e.g. Rétif and Casanova stopping to have a pee, or a tangential interracial romance. It is at least partially successfully in immersing the viewer into the period by letting us see the more mundane aspects of transportation among other things, but it's a little bit dragged down by it as well, and not resurrected by the inclusion of the shocking behavior of the libertines (e.g. Rétif's sex with a girl he discovers to be his daughter). I also thought that Mastroianni was too muted, and imagined an older Casanova still having a bit of spark about him even his days of physical passion were no longer. Regardless, the film dragged for me, and would have been better an hour shorter - a briefer sketch - and with a more realistic set of traveling companions.
What a lovely ending it had though, with the quote from Rétif and him stepping up into the streets of 1992, a couple of centuries later, and warning how history tends to repeat itself. Indeed.