The Swashbuckler (1971) User Reviews

Citoyens!

[bob998 · 7/10 · 30 November 2006]

Jean-Paul Rappeneau's second feature is not as funny and involving as his first, La vie de château. The French Revolution is the background for love and sword fights, with a veritable Pleiade of French stars: Belmondo, Jobert, Laura Antonelli, Pierre Brasseur, Sami Frey, Michel Auclair (who handles his role very well indeed). There is an amusing subplot involving the Royalist faction that shows the talents of Frey and Antonelli as brother and sister; they are plotting to restore the Prince to the throne, if only they can get their tangled emotions in order.

It's a lovely production: cinematography excellent, set design wonderful (Alexander Trauner), actors very enthusiastic, yet it seems to go on a bit longer than its ninety minutes.

classic comedy / adventure movie from France

[myriamlenys · 8/10 · 22 September 2018]

There are going to be some spoilers, so readers beware...

Nicolas, who has done very well for himself in America, is about to marry the beautiful daughter of his friend and business partner. However, during the ceremony an unkind soul points out that Nicolas has a legitimate spouse, back home in his country of origin. When the dust has settled, Nicolas decides to travel back to France, in order to obtain an official divorce from his wife Charlotte. This is not going to be easy, since the French Revolution is still moving at a good clip, complete with battles, trials and bloodbaths. Meanwhile Charlotte has shacked up with a dashing marquis who wants to restore the monarchy...

This is one of the great French classics. There are many things to like about the movie : the funny, twisty story, the superb costumes and the rousing musical score with its many clever references to the historical era. The main attraction, however, is the Jobert - Belmondo combination, which in the early 1970's must have meant box office gold and which even nowadays provides the viewer with a great deal of fun. Jobert is in charge of charm, frivolity and small-boned fragility, while Belmondo, who is in great swashbuckling shape, takes care of the countless fistfights, stunts and escapes. Together they are pretty near irresistable.

Still, it needs to be said that this is not your run-of-the-mill comical adventure movie. To begin with, during the first half of the movie the Charlotte character is living together with a handsome and charismatic young aristocrat. The young man, who is gallant and dashing, has a beautiful young sister who is also gallant and dashing. After some adventures, brother and sister decide to ditch their respective lovers and admirers, since they are each other's great love. French aristocracy was indeed inbred, but this is taking things to a whole new level... Secondly, it was a very unusual idea to set such a light, sunny story in such a dark period of history. In the movie the juxtaposition pays off, mostly, but one cannot shake the idea that most real-life Frenchmen (of whatever origins or convictions) went through a living hell.

As a child I had a little playmate who had a French family name and who did, indeed, descend from a French ancestor. The said ancestor had fled all the way to Belgium, under a variety of aliases, after having been condemned to death during the French Revolution. His great crime was this : as an infant, he had been baptized something like "Aimé Dieudonné Leroy" (Well-beloved Given-by-God King). This was an inoffensive, traditional name, but some twenty years later it could qualify as treason against the State. This is not the stuff comedy is made of, this is the stuff nightmares are made of...

super-Belmondo

[dromasca · 6/10 · 1 February 2024]

'Les mariés de l'an deux' made in 1971 and directed by Jean-Paul Rappeneau is an example of what in the 60s and 70s was a combination of period films and crowd-pleasers. They say that 'they don't make movies like this anymore', although I'm not sure that statement is very accurate. I think entertaining films with a historical background are still being made , but what is lacking is perhaps respectful care for historical details. Even if the adventures that take place on the screen cross the line between the possible and the impossible, "Les mariés de l'an deux" is absolutely believable in everything regarding the historical background. As the viewing of this film came for me two days after I had seen Ridley Scott's 'Napoleon', the comparison was inevitable - keeping all proportions of course. Rappeneau's movie is also known in the English-speaking markets as 'The Swashbuckler'.

The entire film is built around its lead star - Jean-Paul Belmondo. The actor plays the role of Nicolas Philibert, an adventurer who is exiled to America because he had killed in a duel an aristocrat who was flirting with his wife. He makes a fortune there, is about to marry the daughter of a very rich man, but first he has to get a French divorce certificate. He returns to France for this purpose and finds himself in the violent mess of the years after the French Revolution. He finds his wife (who had declared herself a widow and was also about to marry a royalist rebel) and the flame of love between the two is lit again. For the nearly 100 minutes of the film's duration, Belmondo runs, rides, shoots pistols and rifles, duels with swords and fights with fists, falls from heights and swims in the sea, courts and kisses women. He only stops when he's drugged and put to sleep, and not even then completely. The film begins with a prophecy made to the two future husbands in their childhood by a gypsy woman they met in a forest glade and ends in the Napoleonic period with the fulfillment of the prophecy, but not exactly the way the heroes expected.

In addition to the formidable Belmondo, we have Marlene Jobert with her familiar charm in the somewhat thin role of the wife, and a bunch of actors who build the human landscape of France at the time - revolutionaries and royalists, loyal friends and abject traitors, and especially beautiful women. One of the actresses is Laura Antonelli, who would become Belmondo's life partner for the next decade. I also noted Sami Frey, an actor I like a lot who had appeared in some of the important films of the new wave, the excellent comedian Julien Guiomar and Pierre Brasseur in one of his last roles. The action scenes are very well directed, the costumes and characters are authentic, and the whole production has rhythm and humor. The cinematography belongs to Claude Renoir, already then a veteran of French cinema, the nephew of the famous director Jean Renoir with whom he had collaborated decades ago. Michel Legrand's music accompanies everything and contributes to the gallant carnival atmosphere. 'Les mariés de l'an deux' is good entertainment that stands the test of time.

The new joys of divorce.

[dbdumonteil · 10 September 2006]

Pleasant harmless adventures in costume during the French Revolution (L'an II is 1793).The first half is my favorite ,for it features Italian beauty Laura Antonelli whose photo romances I had read a few years before.There's also a very good score by Michel Legrand (who else?) and a splendid cinematography by Claude Renoir.The story is pleasant : a raider (Belmondo) comes to back from Canada to find that his wife (Marlene Jobert) is wooed by two nobles."Divorce" was a new word in the French vocabulary.Patrick Dewaere,who was about to become one of the most popular actors of the French seventies ,appears as a conscript.

a beautiful epic during the french revolution

[Jeliosjelios · 9/10 · 21 June 2011]

This film is a beautiful epic which takes places during the times of the French Revolution.

As Alexandre Dumas and his colleagues as A. De Leuven, Auguste Maquet,… , Jean Paul Rappeneau based his story perfectly on the historical facts of this very troubled time. Through the adventures of Nicolas Philibert, the film illustrates and makes us easily understand the ins and outs, ideologies, claims and the affinities of the protagonists of this historical period.

A wind of freedom blows with the revolution and the adventurous Nicolas Philibert go quickly in the gaps of history to make the best for his incredible destiny irrevocably and irresistibly tied to her best friend from childhood, his wife Charlotte.

Great adventures in the tone of comedy, particularly accentuated by the strong and turbulent relationship between Nicolas and Charlotte which is light and adventurous and well embodied on the screen by the couple and Jean Paul Belmondo Marlene Jobert. The distribution of this film is noteworthy in view of the many talented and famous actors present: Charles Denner, Patrick Dewaere, Pierre Brasseur, George Beller, Sami Frey, Julien Guiomar, Paul Crauchet, Guibet Henry, Jacques Legras, Jean Pierre Marielle, Sim, Michel Auclair, Maurice Barrier, Laura Antonelli ... A French cast worthy of the greatest productions.

Indeed, it is a great production, as evidenced by a lot of action scenes; by, most of the time, authentic natural sets, by a lot of great period costumes for the large number of extras. The final battle is a perfect illustration of the means of production. This battle may also seem too widely developed on the screen relative to its own importance in the history of the characters, but it allows us to immerse well, to better accommodate with the clever, strong, short and very nice epilogue. She also serves as a spectacular finale to the film that may have some lengths and appears to be longer than it actually is. Lengths are very easily digested when the whole scenario took place on the screen.

Adventure, Comedy, technical talents and a special mention for the intelligent use of history make this film "les mariés de l'an deux" a very good film.

jelios

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Enjoyable fast-moving comic and romantic drama

[Charlot47 · 11 August 2013]

Enjoyable fast-moving comic and romantic drama set in the USA and France during the eventful year of 1793. Central to it is the stormy relationship between Nicolas Phillibert (Jean-Paul Belmondo) and his childhood sweetheart Charlotte (Marlène Jobert), daughter of a wine merchant in the port of Nantes. The ups and downs of their rocky marriage and of their temptation by others are played out against the much greater dramas engulfing France.

We see the Reign of Terror raging, with kangaroo courts, drowned corpses in the river and royalists carted off to the guillotine. We also see the royalist counter-revolutionaries at war against the new régime in the Vendée. Finally we see the Soldiers of Year II, the mass levy raised to fight the Austrian invaders. Much of the film was shot in the unspoiled Romanian countryside, using thousands of soldiers with authentic weapons and kit.

As a re-creation of a complex historical time as well as a humorous exploration of a quirky couple's on and off relationship, the film is constantly exciting. Belmondo gives us his usual action man, indulging in continual fights, chases and dramatic escapes while exuding manly charm. Jobert shines as his spirited wife, switching from combative to coquettish in less than an instant but collapsing in a swoon if caught out. Smaller roles are well fleshed out, so we continually meet interesting and original characters, while the score by Michel Legrand adds an often ironic period flavour. Recommended!

A beautiful and charming film

[kleiner_fuchs · 18 August 2003]

Jean-Paul Belmondo and Marlène Jobert star as a very memorable loving couple: In the beginning, we see them as children running through a snow-covered wood, teasing each other. Many years later, when husband Belmondo comes back from America to divorce his wife Jobert, they still act like children, who show their mutual affection by fighting, teasing and slapping each other. The relationship of our protagonists is mirrored by the incestuous and equally ardent love between a nobleman and his sister (played by the beautiful Laura Antonelli).

Belmondo, certainly not a great actor, is perfect in this film, because he plays not a "hero", but someone who often can't act but simply has to react, with a blank and uncomprehending face, to the strange events that take place around him (for example, there is one scene in court where he is sentenced to death within minutes). I have seen this film many times and am still amazed by the sheer pace of it. The script is brilliant and one of its most beautiful features is the triptych-like structure (curiously, about at the same time Stanley Kubrick made his own triptych masterpiece "A Clockwork Orange"): First the prologue, then the first part leading to the centerpiece and climax of the film, then the third part being a mirror image of the first, dissolving with a stylish transition to the short and sweet epilogue, that in itself is a mirror image of the prologue: Although many years have passed, nothing has really changed. "Les Mariés de l'an II" is a poetic film about an endless childhood.