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Film Review: La Nuit de Varennes
Several decades ago, I saw a historal film for the first and until recently last time (as it turned out, it was only broadcast the once on German tv) which impressed me immensely. It's out on dvd now, and it was fascinating to rewatch without having done that intermittendly through the intervening years, which is what I did with most films that impressed me when I was a girl. So: La Nuit de Varennes, English title, That Night in Varennes. An Italian-French film, directed by Ettore Scola, with a first class cast, including Jean-Louis Barrault, Marcello Mastroianni, Hanna Schygulla and Harvey Keitel; it starts during the night from June 20th to June 21st 1791, which was when King Louis XVI and family made a run for it only to be captured a night later at Varennes. However, we don't see the Royals at all, except bits and pieces near the end; the film follows a different coach, travelling close behind, in wich there is a mixture of actual and invented characters, including Thomas Paine (aka why they hired Keitel), Giacomo Casanova (three guesses as to whom Marcello is playing), Restif de la Bretonne (as a girl, I thought he was invented, but no, he existed (a French novelist about whom more here, though I have to say, the German wiki entry is way more informative than the English one) played by one of the all time French theatre legends, Barrault, as well as a revolutionary student, an Italian singer, a rich widow, a countess who is friends wiith Marie Antoinette (Schygulla), a magistrate and a wealthy entrepeneur. And thus we get a historical road movie about the world that was and the world that will be, and Ettore Scola does a really great job showing both why there has to be a revolution and what will be lost with it. It's a witty script, the acting is great, and rewatching brought me just one nitpick and one can't-up-my-mind-on-this observation.
The later first: on the plus side, all the female characters except for the Countess' black maid (not a big part, but with her mini arc) are in their early 40s at least, and you sigh enviously and think, ah for the days with films with lots roles for actresses over 40 or in their very late 30s who aren't anyone's mother and aren't forced to play ingenues, either. (This particular film is from 1982, btw.) (Alex Drake would have enjoyed it.) On the minus side, the men have the better lines and their own agendas, while the women, with the possible exception of the Italian singer (played by Laura Betti) who is very much her own person and while travelling with a (married) lover treats him as almost incidental and has most of her scenes with other people, either long for love or follow someone else's.
Something I hadn't remembered from my girlish watching and thought would make a complaint but instead turned into a virtue of the film: the treatment of Monsieur Jakob, the Countess' sidekick (played by Jean-Claude Brialy). At first I thought he was another example of the camp and gay servant as comic relief, but lo and behold, the film then later treated him with unexpected tenderness and dignity. So does the aged Casanova, on whom he crushes (as does the rich widow). Incidentally, and speaking of Casanova, I did remember this was probably my favourite fictional treatment of him (closely followed by the Tennant/O'Toole double act for RTD and Alain Delon) and it held up magnificently. It's a remarkably unvain performance by Marcello Mastroianni, because Casanova is supposed to be over 70 and looking like it, escaping one last time from his existence as a librarian in Bohemia; the camera exposes all the ravages of time and the script thematisizes Casanova's aging. And yet it never ridicules him, either, giving him a weary elegance, ongoing wit and hardwon wisdom as he gently lets the widow after she offers herself down by pointing out that what she really wants isn't the old man in front of her but the legend, and, which brings me back to Jacob the gay footman, in the way he responds to Jacob (who crushed on him through the film) saying as a farewell that he wishes they could have met when they were both younger by kissing him thoroughly as a farewell present, the only person whom Casanova kisses in this film despite the presence of three attractive ladies in the coach. (In the lengthy interview on the dvd, Ettore Scola says Brialy enjoyed that scene very much because "Marcello put his all into each take".)
Casanova is of course a creature of the Ancient Regime, impossible in the developing new world (and very aware of it), while the other two writers, Restif de La Bretonne (only a decade younger, but looking forward to the new time) and Thomas Paine belong to the new age. Restif is basically our point of view character throughout the film, and this brings me to my one definite problem, consisting of two or three minutes of a scene early on that make clear he's having a sexual relationship with his daughter. Now, the film didn't make that up. According to the German wiki entry, he did have an affair with said daughter. But in the age of awareness of child abuse, horror stories from Austria (and elsewhere), you can't just swallow "this amusing fellow is a writer of social critisim, erotic novels, had shoe fetishm named after him, and oh, he also sleeps with his daughter" without going ?!!!!!? and being thrown out of the narrative presenting this as yet another of Restif's excentricities. It's not brought up again for the rest of the movie (which takes place on the road between Paris and Varennes) and the (adult, and presented as willing) daughter doesn't show up again, either, but despite really liking the film, I nonetheless on this rewatch never managed to get completely over my double take.
I actually am not fond of Hanna Schygulla as an actress in general, but she was perfect for this particular role as the Countess, an ardent monarchist unwilling to believe the people aren't really rooting for their king and it's just a few discontents in the capital making all the trouble. The other two adherrents to the old order are the magistrate who is just offended by all the chaos and unrulyness and Casanova who is sarcastic about kings and nobles as well but basically misses his youth and thus longs for the world as it had been when he was young, increasingly aware that he has no place in the new one so that librarian for a Bohemian duke is the only thing left, but the Countess is the only monarchist who is passionate about the actual royals, and even she, as it turns out, is in love with an idea rather than the reality.
The film actually makes no judgments on either the republicans nor the monarchists and takes Restif's position of just wanting to experience and chronicle the times, but it offers a few digs at the then present, as when Thomas Paine (who will be imprisoned later during the Terreur, but the film doesn't do any cheap foreshadowing of this) talks with the industrialist about whether or not the new French Revolution is the logical follower of the American Revolution. Paine is all for it and his fellow traveller points out that "your countrymen at the embassy" don't think so and have already turned away from the revolutionary spirit and prefering to embrace conservatism instead now they're rid of the Brits. Meanwhile, Restif predicts an European Union in 1991 which for a film made in 1982 is pretty impressive. There are also a few breakings of the fourth wall which the interviewer on the dvd when talking with the director calls Brechtian but I'm more tempted to call Pratchettian because they resemble Terry Prattchet's type of footnotes far more than Brecht's illusion-breaking.
Best entirely-possible-but-who'd-have-thought-of-it? gag/sequence that captures the vivacity and charm of the film: Casanova and the Italian singer, when strolling with the other travellers through the woods for a bit, improvising a duet from Mozart's Don Giovanni (or rather, making an aria into a duet) which as Casanova (historically correctly) mentions he saw the premiere performance of in Prague.
The later first: on the plus side, all the female characters except for the Countess' black maid (not a big part, but with her mini arc) are in their early 40s at least, and you sigh enviously and think, ah for the days with films with lots roles for actresses over 40 or in their very late 30s who aren't anyone's mother and aren't forced to play ingenues, either. (This particular film is from 1982, btw.) (Alex Drake would have enjoyed it.) On the minus side, the men have the better lines and their own agendas, while the women, with the possible exception of the Italian singer (played by Laura Betti) who is very much her own person and while travelling with a (married) lover treats him as almost incidental and has most of her scenes with other people, either long for love or follow someone else's.
Something I hadn't remembered from my girlish watching and thought would make a complaint but instead turned into a virtue of the film: the treatment of Monsieur Jakob, the Countess' sidekick (played by Jean-Claude Brialy). At first I thought he was another example of the camp and gay servant as comic relief, but lo and behold, the film then later treated him with unexpected tenderness and dignity. So does the aged Casanova, on whom he crushes (as does the rich widow). Incidentally, and speaking of Casanova, I did remember this was probably my favourite fictional treatment of him (closely followed by the Tennant/O'Toole double act for RTD and Alain Delon) and it held up magnificently. It's a remarkably unvain performance by Marcello Mastroianni, because Casanova is supposed to be over 70 and looking like it, escaping one last time from his existence as a librarian in Bohemia; the camera exposes all the ravages of time and the script thematisizes Casanova's aging. And yet it never ridicules him, either, giving him a weary elegance, ongoing wit and hardwon wisdom as he gently lets the widow after she offers herself down by pointing out that what she really wants isn't the old man in front of her but the legend, and, which brings me back to Jacob the gay footman, in the way he responds to Jacob (who crushed on him through the film) saying as a farewell that he wishes they could have met when they were both younger by kissing him thoroughly as a farewell present, the only person whom Casanova kisses in this film despite the presence of three attractive ladies in the coach. (In the lengthy interview on the dvd, Ettore Scola says Brialy enjoyed that scene very much because "Marcello put his all into each take".)
Casanova is of course a creature of the Ancient Regime, impossible in the developing new world (and very aware of it), while the other two writers, Restif de La Bretonne (only a decade younger, but looking forward to the new time) and Thomas Paine belong to the new age. Restif is basically our point of view character throughout the film, and this brings me to my one definite problem, consisting of two or three minutes of a scene early on that make clear he's having a sexual relationship with his daughter. Now, the film didn't make that up. According to the German wiki entry, he did have an affair with said daughter. But in the age of awareness of child abuse, horror stories from Austria (and elsewhere), you can't just swallow "this amusing fellow is a writer of social critisim, erotic novels, had shoe fetishm named after him, and oh, he also sleeps with his daughter" without going ?!!!!!? and being thrown out of the narrative presenting this as yet another of Restif's excentricities. It's not brought up again for the rest of the movie (which takes place on the road between Paris and Varennes) and the (adult, and presented as willing) daughter doesn't show up again, either, but despite really liking the film, I nonetheless on this rewatch never managed to get completely over my double take.
I actually am not fond of Hanna Schygulla as an actress in general, but she was perfect for this particular role as the Countess, an ardent monarchist unwilling to believe the people aren't really rooting for their king and it's just a few discontents in the capital making all the trouble. The other two adherrents to the old order are the magistrate who is just offended by all the chaos and unrulyness and Casanova who is sarcastic about kings and nobles as well but basically misses his youth and thus longs for the world as it had been when he was young, increasingly aware that he has no place in the new one so that librarian for a Bohemian duke is the only thing left, but the Countess is the only monarchist who is passionate about the actual royals, and even she, as it turns out, is in love with an idea rather than the reality.
The film actually makes no judgments on either the republicans nor the monarchists and takes Restif's position of just wanting to experience and chronicle the times, but it offers a few digs at the then present, as when Thomas Paine (who will be imprisoned later during the Terreur, but the film doesn't do any cheap foreshadowing of this) talks with the industrialist about whether or not the new French Revolution is the logical follower of the American Revolution. Paine is all for it and his fellow traveller points out that "your countrymen at the embassy" don't think so and have already turned away from the revolutionary spirit and prefering to embrace conservatism instead now they're rid of the Brits. Meanwhile, Restif predicts an European Union in 1991 which for a film made in 1982 is pretty impressive. There are also a few breakings of the fourth wall which the interviewer on the dvd when talking with the director calls Brechtian but I'm more tempted to call Pratchettian because they resemble Terry Prattchet's type of footnotes far more than Brecht's illusion-breaking.
Best entirely-possible-but-who'd-have-thought-of-it? gag/sequence that captures the vivacity and charm of the film: Casanova and the Italian singer, when strolling with the other travellers through the woods for a bit, improvising a duet from Mozart's Don Giovanni (or rather, making an aria into a duet) which as Casanova (historically correctly) mentions he saw the premiere performance of in Prague.
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