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About the Film
Director: Philippe de Broca
Actors: Daniel Auteuil, Fabrice Luchini, Vincent Perez
About the Film
Set in the 17th century, Daniel Auteuil stars as an ace swordsman caught up in the rivalry between aristocrats Fabrice Luchini and Vincent Perez, saddled with a baby he must guard with his life to ensure that an inheritance goes to the right rather than the mighty. Breathtaking swordplay scenes that even Errol Flynn would bow to and enough plot twists and turns to spin the head of the Count of Monte Cristo, the film is joyous entertainment but endowed with a sense of morality and spirit that only someone of de Broca's experience can deliver.Praise
The film was nominated 9 times and won 2 awards, including a César Award for Best Costume Design. The film is certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with a rating of 87%.The sword fighting is well done and Auteuil is a goofy pleasure.– Desson Thomson, Washington Post
Despite its post-dated irrelevance and its dopey title, this Daniel Auteuil vehicle is ludicrous fun.- Wesley Morris, Boston Globe
About the Director
French director Philippe de Broca began as a documentary filmmaker in Africa, developing a taste for wanderlust and exotic locales that would later manifest itself in his feature films. de Broca worked as an assistant for several of the most prominent French nouvelle vague directors of the 1950s (he appears on-camera in Godard's Breathless [1959]), making his own directorial debut with the improvisational The Love Game. He then switched from the New Wave to box office-conscious comedy/adventure films, many of these starring Jean-Paul Belmondo. Though active into the 1990s, Broca's popularity crested in the 1960s with such international hits as That Man from Rio (1964) and Up to His Ears (1965). Philippe de Broca is best known to several decades' worth of college-age filmgoers for his sometimes whimsical, sometimes rollicking 1966 anti-war film King of Hearts.Above: ©Canal+