“Lost Illusions” swept this year’s César awards. Given that this is an adaptation of Balzac, one can expect ambition, plenty of costumes and social commentary. It’s the kind of bait the French academy loves. I was excited to catch up with it.
The issue I have with this adaptation is that despite a runtime of 150 or so minutes, you do feel as though director Xavier Giannoli is trying to cram too much into his movie.
At the center of his epic is Lucien de Rubempré (Benjamin Voisin), a wannabe young poet from the French country who moves to Paris to pursue a career in writing only to stumble his way into becoming a renowned “journalist.” He’s also in Paris to reunite with a former lover in the provinces, Louise de Bargeton (Cécile de France), although she’s quick to abandon him due to societal and class pressures.
The city is politically divided between the liberals and royalists. There he meets a fellow writer, Nathan (Xavier Dolan) and publisher Dauriat (Gérard Depardieu), both of whom lead him down a dark path of corruption. By selling his soul to tabloid journalism, Lucien finds fame in the theater scene, taking bribe money in exchange for glowing reviews.
The rise and fall of this young man seems to occur in the blink of an eye. Giannoli keeps quickening the pacing considerably, making his film feel stuffy and distancing. Balzac’s novel was 600 pages in length, but watching this movie you’d think it was half that.
The casting of Depardieu as the grotesque editor is an inspired choice; it’s a supporting role, but one wishes Giannoli would have expanded more on this character. Ditto Louise, who quickly comes to realize that she may have made a mistake by ditching Lucien.
Springing Balzac’s sprawling material to the screen, such as what Giannoli does here, proves problematic. Characters come and go, you barely get to see them fleshed out enough, as subplot upon subplot gets stacked until the whole deck falls apart like a game of risky domino with one too many pieces to fit. [C+]
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