Lagardère (1967) User Reviews

a classic

[luminous_luciano · 8/10 · 6 February 2004]

Jean Piat is the quintessential masked justice-seeking swordsman - almost as if Zorro had been transposed to pre-Revolution France...!

Sacha Pistoëff makes for a devilish foe; as was his casting lot most of the time throughout his career...

And the supporting cast is way beyond adequate (more on that below!)

LAGARDÈRE is a mix of CYRANO, THE THREE MUSKETEERS, even THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE-DAME and ZORRO - and such witty repartee is exchanged too...!

Far better than the movie remake recently made starring Daniel Auteuil in the title role, THIS Lagardère truly delivers on all fronts

Note also the presence of JACQUES DUFILHO, a legendary stage actor who, in his comic turn here, proves he could have been as funny as the great LOUIS DE FUNÈS if he had so chosen!

''Si tu ne viens pas à Lagardère, Lagardère ira à toi!'' said the mantra spoken by the hero in full regalia - literally; ''if you do not come to Lagardère, Lagardère shall come to you!'' - it makes a poor advertisement for a movie or a DVD though...! The viewer might be tempted to take it literally indeed and wait for the darn thing to come to him on TV! But since that worked against the Auteuil film only in France, it is not a factor in North America or elsewhere in the world, I dare believe - if you want something as good as The Musketeer and Zorro, as literate as Cyrano and all-around thrilling, do not hesitate to ''go to'' LAGARDÈRE!

The best version I've seen of this great French adventure story

[Rozinda · 9/10 · 30 April 2009]

----------Some spoilers.........

The only reason I don't give this 10 out of 10 is I've learned it's not the complete version. I simply CANNOT understand why they do this - show what was probably a simply superlative TV version given what is on these 2 disks is so close to the books and so immensely good.... but there are a few bits missing from the books that I'd have liked to see and what's the betting they are the bits that have been cut out.

It really isn't acceptable to chop out bits from the original. So WHY do they do it?

Bits I'd have liked to be included - first, that Lagardere has been in the army and had a duel with his superior and is subsequently well-known amongst the ladies of Paris before the original book commences (in the dramatisations like this one he's often shown as just a humble citizen), secondly the fascinating Mississippi financial fiddle that the Hunchback uses to attack Gonzague, and thirdly Lagardere gives in to Aurore much more easily than in the book which has several very entertaining fraught scenes between them.

Otherwise, it's perfect and the only version I've seen so far out of total 4 that is so amazingly evocative of the original book. It includes a bit from La Jeunesse du Bossu to tell us of his parents and lost inheritance and childhood history and, using the alternative ending of the original that Feval's son wrote so as to continue the series, there is a truncated version of Feval Fils's sequel - this doesn't materially alter the original story, it simply extends it before all concludes satisfactorily and the villain is confounded.

I first encountered this flamboyant and delightful cape and sword story in the enjoyable Daniel Auteuil movie version shown here with subtitles which prompted me to read the book (in French as I haven't found an English translation), which was hard work but I managed it and have since collected nearly all the sequels Feval's son wrote - you really do have to search for those on 2nd hand book sites in France. I realised the Auteuil version changed the story by taking part of the son's prequel for the years when the murdered duc de Nevers' child has to be hidden away from her enemies (the young Lagardere spent some of his time with travelling entertainers) and transposing it to Lagardere's period hiding the child Aurore. This is engaging and very nicely done but it's not the original theme and the Spanish section is omitted. Auteuil having dark hair and represented as a lowly orphan rather than a man who's already been a successful soldier and is in fact a dispossessed comte doesn't look the part at all and the script turns the heroine into a feisty modern teenager instead of the demure young girl of the book - very entertaining but hardly realistic for the time, I felt. However, it does include an excellent section on the financial fiddle which we can compare with the current banking collapse.

Next I found the good Jean Marais version where the manners and behaviour, clothing etc all seem authentic and it keeps to the original in what it actually includes but being a standard length movie for its time is too short to do more than the basics - though does them well. Marais was a little old for the part but otherwise is very suitably dashing and handsome, also this version shows him as in the book, already well-known and admired for his skills with a sword.

The third version I've seen is the recent TV 3 hours which keeps pretty well to the plot in part 1 but veers off in part 2 by changing the heroine to the original heroine's mother and keeping the daughter a young teenager ...! which is infuriating - though perhaps some people will prefer it.

The books have everything and so near enough has this earlier TV version starring Jean Piat - flamboyant, thrilling, handsome hero, actor perfect for the part, lots of the adventures in France and Spain, dramatic sword fights and wrongs done, lively other characters, a splendid villain with evil henchman, a charming dispossessed heroine in mortal danger, snatchings and savings and snatchings again, poor girl, she goes through it, the interesting sequences in Spain, and a simply delightful love story with plenty of angst. Also a charming second hero and heroine.

And of course the famous "botte de Nevers" in all versions and interesting to compare the different interpretations of it.

You need to know that the two TV series are in French only - there aren't even subtitles in French for the hard of hearing that could help you. But if you already know the story well, you can follow the TV plays well enough to enjoy them thoroughly. The movie versions have subtitles.