COLONEL CHABERT
A film review by James Berardinelli
Copyright 1995 James Berardinelli
RATING (0 TO 10): 7.8
U.S. Availability: limited release 1-2/95 Running Length: 1:50 MPAA Classification: No MPAA Rating (Violence, mature themes)
Starring: Gerard Depardieu, Fanny Ardant, Fabrice Luchini,
Andre Dussolier
Director: Yves Angelo
Producer: Jean-Louis Livi
Screenplay: Yves Angelo and Jean Cosmos based on the novel by
Honore de Balzac
Cinematography: Bernard Lutic
Released by October Films
In French with subtitles
A snow-covered battlefield littered with the dead. Bodies stripped of armor and clothing, then tossed naked into mass graves. Seemingly- uninjured young men whose throats are uncovered to reveal mortal wounds. Unmoving horses dragged through the snow to join their fellows on an ever-growing pyre. Frozen corpses stacked like firewood. And one man, still breathing, mistakenly thrown into a pit along with countless numbers of his dead compatriots.
This still-living man is Colonel Chabert (Gerard Depardieu), the hero of 1807's battle of Eylau between Napoleon and the Russians. However, due to injuries, Chabert is unable to declare himself, and is presumed dead. His wife (Fanny Ardant) re-marries, becoming a countess, and takes Chabert's considerable fortune with her. Ten years later, however, in a RETURN OF MARTIN GUERRE-like turn of events, the Colonel comes back to Paris with the intention of re-claiming his lost life. After finding a sympathetic lawyer (Fabrice Luchini), Chabert confronts his former wife, now the Countess Ferraud.
One of the underlying questions in COLONEL CHABERT is whether it's possible to resurrect a life that no longer exists. Just because Chabert presents himself in the flesh doesn't mean that the hero of Eylau has come home. After ten years spent in poverty and near-madness, the Colonel has become aware of how little intrinsic value there is in money and material possessions. It's unclear whether his primary motive in revealing himself is to regain what he lost or to exact revenge upon those he views to have taken it from him--most notably Countess Ferraud.
COLONEL CHABERT is not a romance about two former lovers finding each other after a tragic ten-year separation. Any real affection between the title character and his former wife has long since burned out. Instead, this film is about how those two manipulate one another in vying for control of a fortune that each has a legitimate claim upon. Cupidity and backstabbing lie at the center of CHABERT, and there's enough legal and political maneuvering to satisfy any who enjoy those sorts of murky machinations.
Wonderfully photographed and deliberately directed, COLONEL CHABERT progresses slowly (sometimes painfully so), often lingering on images rather than proceeding to the next scene. There are times when this method of storytelling works exceptionally well, but others when the attention to detail causes the plot to grind to a halt. Fortunately, however, novice director Yves Angelo is savvy enough never to lose his characters amidst all the cinemtographic splendor. Finely-furnished houses and scenes of battlefield dead never upstage Depardieu, Ardant, or Luchini, all of whom give honest, entirely-believable performances.
Depardieu says he was attracted to this film version of Honore de Balzac's novel because he was fascinated by the opportunity to play in this sort of tragedy. And, ultimately, that's what COLONEL CHABERT is--a tragedy. The question that looms large throughout the movie is not whether Chabert will regain his honor and fortune, but whether there's enough of him left to appreciate it. Death, after all, has many faces, and just because the body goes on doesn't mean the personality still exists. This is what Depardieu conveys to the audience, and why CHABERT possesses a level of subtlety beyond that of most historical dramas.
- James Berardinelli (jberardinell@delphi.com)
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