The novel published in 1844 The Three Musketeers has been brought to the screen many times, most notably in a 1993 Disney film. By reinterpreting this classic of French literature in an epic and ambitious diptych, filmmaker Martin Bourboulon wanted to refresh the work of Alexandre Dumas by giving him a gave a new touch of realism and modernity.
“It's literally been 60 years since the French appropriated this story,” actor Vincent Cassel said in an interview, recalling that recent adaptations of The Three Musketeers came from Hollywood or England.
“It has a bit of a chauvinistic feel to it. The vision that the English and Americans had of the Three Musketeers was always somewhat sophisticated and imaginative. That's when I know it's the producer's will [Dimitri Rassam] and the director [Martin Bourboulon] was to give this work a realistic side and to lighten it up a little by making it a little more accessible to the public, between the western and the war film.
At the moment, Martin Bourboulon and his cast of star actors (including Vincent Cassel, Romain Duris, François Civil and Eva Green) seem to have made their bet successful. The first part of the diptych “The Three Musketeers: D'Artagnan,” released last spring, attracted more than three million viewers to French cinemas.
The second film – The Three Musketeers: Milady – which is coming to cinemas this weekend, is also expected to attract many visitors a few days before the Christmas holidays.
Vincent Cassel, who defends the character of Athos in the two films, is pleased that French film is giving itself the means to realize its ambitions at a time when cinema attendance is declining.
“COVID has disrupted things tremendously and when we saw that people were no longer going to the cinema, there were a few people who wanted to respond and offer a cinema cinema, and not just something we see on their iPad or on TV want.”, observes the 57-year-old actor.
“It takes effort to see a film in the cinema; and that's why you have to come up with something that's worth it. We want to see a film like “The Three Musketeers” in the cinema because we know it will delight us.”
For Cassel, Dumas' work doesn't just have the potential to be entertaining. The themes covered there are still very modern: religious war, political manipulation, disinformation, female characters trying to find their place in a man's world…
“There is something decidedly modern in Dumas' work. And we only retained these aspects in the adaptation we made.”
Collective unconscious
SPHERE FILMS
As the title suggests, the first part of Martin Bourboulon's diptych focused on the character of D'Artagnan, played by François Civil. The second film focuses in particular on the fate of Milady de Winter, the Musketeers' main enemy, played by Eva Green, daughter of the legendary actress Marlène Jobert.
“It's always a little intimidating to deal with such an iconic figure because we don't want to disappoint people and we don't want to fall into stereotypes,” Eva Green told a group of journalists who met via video conference a few days ago.
“I tried to approach him as a human being and not as a superhero, to find the flaws in the character. She is a woman who must move forward to survive.”
With his role in this new version of The Three Musketeers, Vincent Cassel follows in the footsteps of his father Jean-Pierre Cassel, who played King Louis XIII in an earlier 1973 adaptation by Britain's Richard Lester. had played. Vincent Cassel, a child at the time, even had the opportunity to visit the film set. But his first memories of the Three Musketeers go back even further.
“In a completely pointless way, the first memory I have of the Musketeers is a candy bar called 3 Musketeers,” he says, laughing.
“The Musketeers are so much a part of our collective unconscious. There were even references to it in Bugs Bunny! As a child I had Three Musketeers costumes with plastic swords. That was always present in my subconscious.”
The Three Musketeers: Milady, in cinemas from December 15th.