The legendary heroes of Alexandre Dumas are back in the cinema under the leadership of Martin Bourboulon. Two chapters are planned: the first is dedicated to D’Artagnan, released this Wednesday, and the second, devoted in particular to Eva Green in the guise of Milady, will be released on December 13.
The director ofeiffel Martin Bourboulon offers Wednesday, April 5 a new version of the Three Musketeers. Romain Duris is part of the score in the role of Aramis, alongside Pio Marmaï (Porthos) and Vincent Cassel (Athos). D’Artagnan is played by François Civil, noticed in North ferry, and Eva Green is the fearsome Milady. As in the novel by Alexandre Dumas, we follow the young Gascon tempted to join the corps of the King’s Musketeers.
>> “The Three Musketeers”: why Alexandre Dumas is still at the top of the bill one hundred and eighty years later
Franceinfo: Why a new (umpteenth) version of the Three Musketeers ?
Martin Bourboulon: It was really the desire to revisit the French literary heritage to re-offer the most spectacular work possible and to reconnect a little with the film of adventures and cape and dagger, which had not been done for a sixty years in France. The desire to wear a new look too.
No digital effect, many scenes filmed at the Château de Fontainebleau (Seine-et-Marne)… And was it successful?
I don’t know if everything is fine, but if I did my film again, I would do the same. I have no regrets about the proposal. Afterwards, the public will judge. But in any case, we tried very collectively to go to the end of a conviction and a bias. I’m thinking of the look of the characters, the treatment of action scenes with, each time, a fairly defined reading. For example, I really wanted all the action scenes to be filmed in a sequence shot, to be as “immersive” as possible. A way to stay in contact with the characters as much as possible.
What are the difficulties in shooting a swashbuckling film?
All the sequences to be staged are a headache. We are in a period film where nothing resembles what we have today in the visual field. So every time, you have to constantly question all the elements of the image, from the mustache to the costume in the background, to try to see what would make you not believe it. Obviously, an action scene is all the more challenging and shot in a sequence shot, it required a lot of work. I couldn’t have done these scenes without the involvement and talent of the actors, because I had one requirement: it was them who do their fight scenes. In the forest, for example, they are the ones who roam. They have prepared a lot.
“There is no double. They learned the choreographies.”
Martin Bourboulon, directorat franceinfo
Then, technically, there are little magic tricks.
The period is not necessarily easy for films, with an overall decline in attendance, entertainment like yours can do good for French cinema in general?
All films have their place in the cinema. I assume as a viewer that I enjoy seeing all films. I think all the people who make films, the actors, the directors, the producers, we realize, and it’s shared with the public, is that ultimately the platform, the offer at home n has not necessarily replaced the cinema. Dating is going pretty well though. People continue to like going to the cinema. Afterwards, knowing if, when you make a film, it’s this one that’s going to be liked the most or not, if people are going to be extremely receptive, you never know. We each propose the best film, which we think is the fairest in relation to what we want to do there, and the spectator, afterwards, positions himself.