It’s as if there is a rule that the classic novel by Alexandre Dumas, The Three Musketeers, must be remade every few years, and now the first part of a new two-part retelling, The Three Musketeers: Part I - D’Artagnan, has just opened in theaters across Israel and took part in the latest French Film Festival.
These movies remind me a little of the Ocean’s Eleven series if it were set a few centuries ago, with swordplay and puffy sleeves: There’s a mostly male team of stars, a few key sexy women, and a mix of comedy and action. One of the pleasures of this new French film, directed by Martin Bourboulon (Eiffel), is picking out all the vedettes hidden underneath the floppy hair and mustaches, since it features a who’s who of France’s top talent.
The movie is enjoyable, filled with swashbuckling and banter, and concentrates on presenting the 1600s with realistic grit and filth, and on the intrigues of the palace and the clergy in all their double-crossing detail, rather than emphasizing the comic elements.
Anyone adapting this tried-and-true tale of Charles D’Artagnan (played by Francois Civil, one of France’s new, young stars, who was in Back to Burgundy and Love at Second Sight), a brave-hearted, slightly foolish young man from the provinces who dreams of joining the royal guards and makes his way to Paris. The French capital in the 1620s is bustling with intrigue and dirt, and the focus is on creating a realistic look. Only the royal characters seem to have access to soap and water, which was probably accurate. The action is frenetic, and there’s a great deal of plot to get through – even given that there is another movie to come – since the original Dumas novel runs about 800 pages.
After a few misadventures, D’Artagnan makes it to Paris, carrying a letter of introduction to the chief guard of King Louis XIII (Louis Garrel, best known for playing Alfred Dreyfus in An Officer and a Spy and Godard in Godard Mon Amour). Usually, Garrel plays brainy characters, but the monarch is rather dim, although he inspires unquestioning loyalty. It turns out that joining the Musketeers isn’t as easy as D’Artagnan hoped. The bumbling young man quickly manages to tick off the titular trio: Athos (Vincent Cassel of Black Swan and The Specials), Aramis (Romain Duris, who played the title role in Eiffel and was in The Beat That My Heart Skipped), and Porthos (Pio Marmaï, who so funny in A Difficult Year), and somehow finds himself scheduled to duel with all of them. But before any duel can take place, they are attacked by the soldiers loyal to Cardinal Richelieu (Eric Ruf), who fight against the crown, and D’Artagnan fights alongside them, bonding with them.
Determined to stay in Paris, he rents a room from Constance (Lyna Khoudri, who has starred in so many recent films, including Haute Couture and The French Dispatch), who is close to Queen Anne (Vicky Krieps, who also played a philandering queen in Corsage). While he is falling for Constance and pushing his way into the musketeers, D’Artagnan finds himself embroiled in plots that involve the conflict between Catholic France and Protestant England – as well as in a conspiracy by Richelieu and the delightfully seductive Milady (Eva Green, best known for Casino Royale and Penny Dreadful) against the queen, who is having an affair with the British Duke of Buckingham (Jacob Fortune-Lloyd).
Plenty of action, but not enough comedy
The action, and there’s a lot of it, moves from the dirty streets to the muddy forests to the musty, ornate palaces. It’s a world full of danger lurking in every dark corner. The only thing you really need to remember when the plot thickens is that D’Artagnan and the musketeers are the good guys and have each other’s backs. There are women, but at its core, it’s a bromance. Duris is especially dashing in his role, Cassel is at his sardonic best, and there’s no quip that Marmaï doesn’t enjoy uttering. In the key role, the sunny Civil manages to convince us that he’s up for anything and that no matter how many times he gets double-crossed, he is still sweet and brave.
I prefer the versions with a little more comedy, and the most fun of these is the 1973 film by Richard Lester, who also directed A Hard Day’s Night. That version featured Michael York as D’Artagnan, Richard Chamberlain (who just passed away), and Oliver Reed as the three musketeers, Raquel Welch as Constance, Charlton Heston as the cardinal, and Faye Dunaway as Milady. Jean-Pierre Cassel, the father of Vincent Cassel, who plays Athos in the new film, portrayed the king in Lester’s film, and previously portrayed D’Artagnan in a 1964 French film.
The new film is far more realistic and less light-hearted than the 1973 English version, but the swordfights and attendant male bonding are still diverting. The upcoming film, The Three Musketeers: Part II – Milady, promises to put Green’s wily, sexy character and the other women more front and center, so fans of the franchise have something to look forward to.