Anne and her late husband Serge (Golon) wrote absorbing books,with brilliant depictions,be it the court of the Sun King,the Cour des Miracles or a royal galley.Serge Golon was an engineer,and his unusual culture surfaces in the novels:Descartes and analytical geometry,imaginary numbers.With his wife,they smartly blended fiction (Angelique's adventures) with historical facts(Louis XIV's wedding,the rise and fall of superintendent Fouquet,Madame de Montespan and the poisons affair,you name it.They were wonderful when they wrote pastiches of Madame De Sévigné's letters.The books were translated into many a language and deservedly gained a reputation abroad.(which they rarely have in their native France)
What about the movies?They completely betray the Golon's excellent historical novels.Bernard Borderie gambled on the superficial plot and turned what could have been a mammoth melodrama à la "forever Amber"(Preminger)into a Barbara Cartlandesque saga.Michèle Mercier,a beautiful actress, provides a good-natured eroticism,in the tradition of Martine Carol in the fifties,but what can she do with such a script?Her career floundered after Angélique ,and however she showed some talent in Italian comedies before.Robert Hossein easily outclasses the rest of the cast.This is the kind of movie(s) that's (are) in need of (a) remake(s)!(a) remake(s) which would do the Golon family justice.
What about the movies?They completely betray the Golon's excellent historical novels.Bernard Borderie gambled on the superficial plot and turned what could have been a mammoth melodrama à la "forever Amber"(Preminger)into a Barbara Cartlandesque saga.Michèle Mercier,a beautiful actress, provides a good-natured eroticism,in the tradition of Martine Carol in the fifties,but what can she do with such a script?Her career floundered after Angélique ,and however she showed some talent in Italian comedies before.Robert Hossein easily outclasses the rest of the cast.This is the kind of movie(s) that's (are) in need of (a) remake(s)!(a) remake(s) which would do the Golon family justice.