- Actors: Anaïs Demoustier, Jérémie Elkaïm
- Director: Valérie Donzelli
- Format: Color, NTSC, Widescreen
- Language: French
- Region: Region 1
- Number of discs: 1
- Rated: Unrated
- Studio: MPI Home Video
- DVD Release Date: July 12, 2016
- Run Time: 103 minutes
The only
consistency within Marguerite &
Julien is the idiocy with which it is constructed, each moment failing to
achieve the desired result unless director Valérie Donzelli only intended to
make a movie for the purpose of mockery. This is a film of vanity mixed with
vapid stylistic decisions, all resulting in a romance which is all pretension
and no pathos. Adapted from a screenplay originally written for François
Truffaut, even the moments of anachronistic additions to the true story come
off as imitation rather than originality. This is an awful film which feels
like a copycat attempt at an art film from a filmmaker who doesn’t even
understand the sources being mimicked.
Told through
unnecessary narration as an erotic fairy tale for a group of very young girls
in what appears to be an orphanage, Marguerite
& Julien is about the incestuous relationship between aristocratic
brother and sister in 17th century France. The story begins with
their childhood, though the film obnoxious treats them as adults at even a
young age, allowing their romance to blossom before they reach their teens. I
can’t stand when child characters are presented as able as adults, and this
film lost me early on when young Julien unrealistically rescues his sister from
a ride on a runaway horse in sequence of romantic cliché at its worst. After
being separated for many years, we rejoin Marguerite and Julien (played by
adult actors Anaïs Demoustier and Jérémie Elkaïm) as they reconnect with each
other. Their romance begins again, despite a lack of any convincing chemistry
between the leads.
In all fairness,
Demoustier is instantly captivating. There is something about this actress
which feeds the energy of any given scene, demanding the attention from the
camera that only a movie star deserves. She has a natural quality which is
instantly enigmatic, even in this slog of a film and despite having a co-star
with as much charisma as a cardboard cutout. Although he co-adapted the
screenplay with Donzelli, Elkaïm by comparison seems completely out of place in
each scene. He certainly looks like an attractive young model, but it almost
feels as though this is Elkaïm’s first time on set and he hasn’t yet figured
out that being handsome isn’t enough to retain audience interest. While
Demoustier tries in vain to breathe life into the insipid material, Elkaïm
mostly just mugs for the audience, resulting in an off-balance cinematic
pairing in no way conducive to romance.
The premise
itself is difficult, to say the least. Very few filmmakers would have had
success making incest appear romantic, but Donzelli muddles it even further
with period incongruity and stylistic indecision. She can’t seem to decide
whether this is a period film or a parody of the period in which Truffaut was
originally intended to adapt the narrative. For much of the film it feels as if
the story takes place when the actual events unfolded, but there are random
sprinklings of modern intrusions. Despite taking place in the 17th
century as the setting and wardrobe would suggest, Julien is equipped with a
camera that looks as though it belongs in the 1970s. Towards the end of a film
which has shown horseback, carriages, and boats as the primary mode of
transportation, a modern helicopter suddenly shows up to take away our
protagonist. These alterations are so randomly sporadic that they feel more
like error than stylistic choice. Donzelli doesn’t seem to be saying anything
with these moments and by comparison it even makes Sophia Coppola’s treatment
of Marie Antoinette look like a
masterpiece. Considering how much I disliked Coppola’s film, this is actually
quite impressive, but in the worst possible way.
The only special
feature is a trailer.
Entertainment Value:
3/10
Quality of
Filmmaking: 3/10
Historical
Significance: 4/10
Special Features: 1/10
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