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The Three Musketeers: D'Artagnan

Here's another version of the Alexandre Dumas classic, the latest in a long line of adaptations, possibly starting in 1903, but probably most famously directed by Richard Lester in the 70s (or the Douglas Fairbanks film in the 20s, if you want to go back that far). This one, directed by Martin Bourboulon, is given all bells and whistles - it was filmed together with its second part, The Three Musketeers: Milady and they had a pretty sizeable budget, apparently. I'm guessing a lot of those Euros went on the stellar cast - Vincent Cassel as Athos, Romain Duris as Aramis, Eva Green as Milady, and Vicki Krieps and Loius Garrel as the Queen and King. All on sterling form, though it's François Civil as the lead, D'Artagnan and Lyna Khoudri as Constance who must take the plaudits. The innocence of their burgeoning romance is the heart within the film that all the religious and political arteries feed into.

The story is slightly convoluted but it all spins around the affairs of the court of King Louis XIII, where Cardinal de Richelieu (Eric Ruf) is scheming to start a war against the Protestants and their backers, the English. The Cardinal's troops are constantly butting heads (and swords) with the King's Guard (or Musketeers, to steer us away from King's Landing) and it's one of these occasions where D'Artagnan shows his mettle to the titular trio, Athos, Aramis and Porthos (Pio Marmaï), even though all three were originally lining up to duel him to the death anyway. The fight scenes are enacted with some aplomb, all swinging camera and frenetic energy.

The film is stylishly grungy and full of verve, with equal servings of bucklers being swashed and skulls being duggeried. The tone is quite straight-edged, not too whimsical and dandy, but not at all arch or snide either. I imagine Monsieur Dumas' estate is very pleased with the treatment of his story and characters. One issue is that this is just the first part of the duology, therefore much of the story acts as a primer for the second coat. That aside, the setting up is pretty well handled, with enough posers to entice me to see the follow up.

There is a lot of intrigue in this, including a weak-willed but reasonable King, a Queen playing away from home with a Pommy Duke, an underground Protestant terror outfit and, in a nicely done final flourish, a wedding scene that was not quite 'red', as such, but near enough to a bloodbath as makes no mind.

All in all, I reckon I'll wait on the second installment to fully judge the pair, but as an opening episode, this has a lot of merit, leaving us with a cliffhanger to go home with. À bientôt, Milady.

The Three Musketeers: D'Artagnan is screening as part of the Alliance Francaise French Film Festival around Australia. In Perth, it's on at Palace and Luna cinemas.

See also:

I'll always direct folk to Jacques Audiard's The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005), starring a superb Romain Duris (Aramis). Also, a film from last years FFF, directed by, co-written by, AND starring Louis Garrel (Louis XIII), The Innocent (2022) was a little charmer.

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