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Having unintentionally fallen head over heels for the 'Soviet D'Artagnan and the Three Musketeers' film, I ended up disappearing down a YouTube rabbit-hole of barely-comprehended unsubtitled Russian, which has been flowing dizzyingly over my head. ( The Treasure of Cardinal Mazarin )
The funny thing is that I did not in fact hate the film, which is apparently regarded as an utter travesty and insult to its beloved precursor. ( Read more... )The impression I got was that the purpose of making the film was to supply the Musketeers with the happy ending which Dumas had denied them, and while it had a largely ludicrous premise it wasn't without charm. It is effectively a fix-it fic that is pure fantasy and knows it.
And so far as I could work out, it goes as follows: ( Lengthy attempt to clarify plot in my own mind )
One advantage of filming your sequel[s] so many years after the original hit is of course that the cast have aged at the same rate as their characters are supposed to have done, without any special effects or recasting required; we genuinely are seeing Athos, Porthos, Aramis and d'Artagnan thirty years later.( Changes in the actors )
( Character relationships )
Rereading what I have been writing above, I think the reason for my relatively favourable reaction to the film lies in the fact that, however patently ridiculous and cardboard it might have been, it evidently managed to give me Feelings about the characters. Boyarsky still has the ability to carry the film practically single-handed with conviction (without his d'Artagnan, I'm not sure how much of it would be left) and, as with "Love Never Dies", I found myself spending far more time analysing the content than its quality objectively deserved -- in this case simply to try to understand what was going on when I could barely comprehend one word in five, but I did care enough to *want* to know....
I'm not sure how much more sense the plot would have made if I had watched the four films in order, rather than accidentally jumping to the final one in the series :-) An explanation for the existence of all those (?illegitimate) offspring might at least have been hinted at, and I definitely suspect there was some backstory for the Queen that I was expected to know.
( Gradually improving comprehension )
( Am I really that much of an Athos-fan? )
( Should I attempt to watch the other two 'sequels'? )
The funny thing is that I did not in fact hate the film, which is apparently regarded as an utter travesty and insult to its beloved precursor. ( Read more... )The impression I got was that the purpose of making the film was to supply the Musketeers with the happy ending which Dumas had denied them, and while it had a largely ludicrous premise it wasn't without charm. It is effectively a fix-it fic that is pure fantasy and knows it.
And so far as I could work out, it goes as follows: ( Lengthy attempt to clarify plot in my own mind )
One advantage of filming your sequel[s] so many years after the original hit is of course that the cast have aged at the same rate as their characters are supposed to have done, without any special effects or recasting required; we genuinely are seeing Athos, Porthos, Aramis and d'Artagnan thirty years later.( Changes in the actors )
( Character relationships )
Rereading what I have been writing above, I think the reason for my relatively favourable reaction to the film lies in the fact that, however patently ridiculous and cardboard it might have been, it evidently managed to give me Feelings about the characters. Boyarsky still has the ability to carry the film practically single-handed with conviction (without his d'Artagnan, I'm not sure how much of it would be left) and, as with "Love Never Dies", I found myself spending far more time analysing the content than its quality objectively deserved -- in this case simply to try to understand what was going on when I could barely comprehend one word in five, but I did care enough to *want* to know....
I'm not sure how much more sense the plot would have made if I had watched the four films in order, rather than accidentally jumping to the final one in the series :-) An explanation for the existence of all those (?illegitimate) offspring might at least have been hinted at, and I definitely suspect there was some backstory for the Queen that I was expected to know.
( Gradually improving comprehension )
( Am I really that much of an Athos-fan? )
( Should I attempt to watch the other two 'sequels'? )