Abel Gance 's 1955 version was based on Dumas's play but this French-German one is closer to Michel Zevaco's swashbucklers;it's definitely inferior to the fifties' effort ,but the French Lead, Jean Piat ,essentially a stage actor , has plenty of go and wields the sword with gusto ; he does not take the story too seriously , the right thing to do when you deal with a part unworthy of your talent , and his playing verges on tongue-in- chick.
First thing you've got to bear in mind is that it's not history :it's legend ; Marguerite de Bourgogne was Philippe Le Bel's daughter-in -law and this king was no joker :when he learnt that his son's wife had an affair with Philippe d'Aulnay and her sister-in-law Blanche was sleeping with brother Gaultier ,he had both unfortunate young men flayed alive and Marguerite was strangled in her dungeon;as for Buridan ,he was never a victor ,but a scholar :he used to teach philosophy at the university . It's François Villon's poem "ballade des dames du temps jadis" who spawned the legend of" this man thrown into the Seine in a bag."All these characters are featured in the film.
There were already nudities in Gance's work,which was risqué at the time ;in 1968 it was more common ,but the plot involved an incestuous relationship (consummated in the movie) .
The first part was certainly influenced by Gance ,but the second one turns melodramatic ,confused,the queen changing her mind every five minutes ; the king seems to be out of a card game ,and the giant chess game out of "Alive in wonderland" ;the cinematography is nice and shots of the tower are particularly successful ; the director already showed a fondness for soft eroticism which he would carry on in the seventies.
First thing you've got to bear in mind is that it's not history :it's legend ; Marguerite de Bourgogne was Philippe Le Bel's daughter-in -law and this king was no joker :when he learnt that his son's wife had an affair with Philippe d'Aulnay and her sister-in-law Blanche was sleeping with brother Gaultier ,he had both unfortunate young men flayed alive and Marguerite was strangled in her dungeon;as for Buridan ,he was never a victor ,but a scholar :he used to teach philosophy at the university . It's François Villon's poem "ballade des dames du temps jadis" who spawned the legend of" this man thrown into the Seine in a bag."All these characters are featured in the film.
There were already nudities in Gance's work,which was risqué at the time ;in 1968 it was more common ,but the plot involved an incestuous relationship (consummated in the movie) .
The first part was certainly influenced by Gance ,but the second one turns melodramatic ,confused,the queen changing her mind every five minutes ; the king seems to be out of a card game ,and the giant chess game out of "Alive in wonderland" ;the cinematography is nice and shots of the tower are particularly successful ; the director already showed a fondness for soft eroticism which he would carry on in the seventies.