| Tomorrow at the Pushkinsky cinema the French film festival will open with the film Blanche The festival “French Cinema Today” is held in Moscow for the third time, and every year a creative delegation of actors and directors comes from France to present their films to the Russian public. This year, the arrival of Vincent Perez, Gerard Depardieu, Letisya Kolomobani and several other celebrities is expected. The festival will screen seven films: “Blanche”, “Monique”, “The Promised Life”, “Skin of an Angel”, “Loves or Loves”, “Without Memory” and “Kiss Who You Want”. The grand premiere of “Blanche” will take place tomorrow at Pushkinsky, after which the film will immediately go into wide Russian release.
Of all the films at the festival, Blanche has the largest budget. 15 million euros were spent on the story of how, on the orders of Cardinal Mazarin, a KKK captain kills the shipowner Monsieur de Perron and his entire family. Only Blanche, the daughter of the victims, who saw everything with her own eyes, survived. After 15 years, she becomes the head of a gang, and her only goal in life is revenge on the cardinal.
We have already seen something similar in “Leon”, and this is no coincidence, because “Blanche” was produced by Luc Besson’s company. Bad power, good robbers and revenge as the engine of the plot - a proven, reliable scheme. It was also not by chance that it fell into the hands of screenwriter and director Bernie Bonvoisin: his own work has always been distinguished by its sympathy for adventurers and powerful anti-government pathos. Back in 1977, he created the rock group Trust, which, during the eight years of its existence, sang rebellion and denounced power. In the ninth year, the group broke up, and Bonvoisin went into acting. But this prestigious profession seemed not enough for him. In 1996, Bonvoisin became a director and based on his own script the film “The Demons of Jesus”, in which he recreates the life of a French suburb in the turbulent sixties. That film was remarkable for its images of noble swindlers, good music, strong language and witty picks. In “Blanche” there are also plenty of picks and abuse, but it is somewhat unusual to hear it, since Bonvoisin’s street punks are spoken by Cardinal Mazarin, Queen Anne of Austria and King Louis XIV. This trio is why the film is worth watching. Jose Garcia as the king elegantly kicks, makes funny faces and entertains the whores by playing the harpsichord. Carole Bouquet as the queen very naturally walks around in her underwear and snorts cocaine, and Mazarin, played by Jean Rochefort, teaches the king wisdom and builds three-story curses. Sometimes it seems that three famous actors staged a “cabbage”, which Bonvoisin only had to capture on film.
Bonvoisin was less fortunate with the other two leading actors. Largely due to the fault of Lou Doillon and Roshdi Zem, the images of Blanche and Angel turned out flat, like figures cut out of a comic book.
Bonvoisin's action turned out to be of some American type, many scenes were deliberately oriented towards the style of a Western, and the director made French taverns of the 17th century look like taverns of the Wild West. And the heroes fight somehow not in the French way. Previously, the French fought with swords - as if they were dancing. The main character always had his own cunning secret blow. And in Bonvoisin's film, fencing turned into bloodshed, senseless and merciless. Sergey TOKAREV |
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