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La Femme Musketeer |
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Staring:
Gérard Depardieu,
Michael York,
Nastassja Kinski,
Susie Amy,
John Rhys-Davies
Average Customer Rating:  
List Price: $14.98
Our Price: $3.96
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Product Description
The daughter of the great musketeer D'Artagnan, sheds the restrictions of modern morality to follow in her father's footsteps.
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Valentine D'Artagnan joins up with her dad and his three comrades, plus their sons, to save Louis XIV from Mazarin's scheming, 2009-05-03
In this Hallmark TV production Louis XIV is still under the thumb of Cardinal Mazarin (Gerard Depardieu). It's 1660, and the Cardinal will brook no opposition. Mazarin sees personal advantage in continuing the war with Spain, but the callow Louis is beginning to think otherwise. Then there's the king's arranged marriage to the Spanish Princess Maria Theresa, the pesky possibility that Louis just might not be rightful king of France and the festering resentments of Mazarin's deadly creature, Francois Villeroi. A certain letter is all Mazarin needs to keep Louis under his control. Cardinal Mazarin doesn't hesitate to turn those who oppose him into angels.
All this has nothing to do -- yet -- with Valentine D'Artagnan (Susie Amy), who was taught to fight with a sword by her father and who is determined to be accepted as a Musketeer. D'Artagnan (Michael York) sends her off to Paris with his encouragement. "You've got two good reasons to be brave," he tells her. "First, you're a Gascon. Second, you're my daughter. Always fight at the least provocation and never submit to insults or edicts. Above all, remember who you are...a D'Artagnan!"
It's not long before Valentine is up to her pommel trying to save the king and to foil Mazarin's schemes. She is accused of murder by Mazarin's beautiful agent, Lady Bolton (Nastassja Kinski) and must rescue the Princess. Valentine often skewers members of the Cardinal's Guards. Even with the aid of the three sons of Porthos, Athos and Aramis, who have just been accepted as Musketeers themselves, all looks like France might be lost. But then the old men show up. With Valentine and their sons by their sides, they show how it's done. Although we're an hour into the 170 minute production before they appear and the movie isn't about them, there's something poignant, amusing and inspiring when we see the aging D'Artagnan, Athos (Christopher Cazenove), Aramis (Alan Corduner) and Porthos (John Rhys-Davies), heavier now, gray, a little slower and often used for comedy relief, answer the call to honor and arms. We don't see as much of the four as we'd like, but they help make the movie.
On the TV movie's plus side: Those actors who can actually act -- mainly the older ones -- do a fine job. The production values are high. The story, however drawn out it becomes, still contains enough of Dumas' great swashbuckling tales of derring-do, evil, honor and action to be entertaining. Bringing in the sons of those three musketeers, then their fathers plus D'Artagnan himself, gives a nice glow to the story.
On the minus side, too many of the under-30 actors have that wrinkleless, earnest and unexciting talent found in network television comedies. Depardieu, while one of the world's great actors, has never been at his best trying to act in English. This movie is no exception. And there are all those corny back flips, rollovers and sword twirling during fights, usually by Valentine. The great weakness, however, is the lack of style. The production is pleasant but, as Cyrano would say, it has no panache.
To see a first-class version of what the daughter of D'Artagnan, aided by her dad and his old comrades, can accomplish with great style, humor and adventure, watch Bernard Tavernier's La Fille de D'Artagnan, renamed Revenge of the Musketeers for the U.S. DVD release. Sophie Marceau plays an energetic Eloise D'Artagnan and Philippe Noiret is her father. When she recruits him and his three comrades to save Louis XIV, look out. Eloise is almost as good with a sword as they are. And they, although sometimes out of breath, are still the best around.
The DVD transfer is just fine. There are no extras. Is La Femme Musketeer worth four stars? Maybe not, but it means well.
The Next Generation Musketeers???, 2007-08-20
La Femme Musketeer was a bit of a disappointment, considering the presence of Gerard Depardieu (!), John Rhys-Davies, and Nastassja Kinski, among others.
D'Artagnan's daughter (!!!) decides to ride to Paris to join the King's Musketeers...
There, she meets up with Athos', Aramis', and Porthos' sons in order to foil Cardinal Mazarin's plans and save France.
In short, the acting was average to substandard (though Marcus Jean Pirae as Captain Villeroi does steal the show and provide for that second star), the setting and the music are good, while the plot and the dialogues are average and way "below average," respectively.
The four old musketeers' performances were insulting to say the least; they were a walking circus of old geezers, mocking the original characters/heroes.
D'Artagnan, the father, was pathetic in his interaction with both his wife and daughter to the point that one wonders whether the film was a parody!
John Rhys-Davies is far from being the experienced actor that we are used to, and if I'm not mistaken, Aramis is played by someone straight off the Xena set!
The daughter, Susie Amy, was completely out of place and seemed that she did not belong in this role or on this set.
As to what Gerard Depardieu and Nastassja Kinski were thinking taking part in this film, I honestly have no idea!
The cherry on the cake was how all the Frenchmen had English accents, while the Italian Cardinal had a French one!
Though the potential for a decent movie was definitely there it fails to take off, primarily due to the writers who seem to lack the ability to write, and the actors who do not seem able or willing to act.
Most importantly, the film goes "Xena" (sloppy/amateur work) on us early on, shattering any hope of it being anything more than a mediocre movie that unless you're under 13 and/or are heavily intoxicated, cannot truly enjoy.
Save your money and wait till they show it on TV for free.
Adventure with fun, 2006-08-09
I enjoyed this movie because there was no cussing, foul language or nudity. The actors did a good job and kept me
interested in the plot until the end, even though a lady musketeer probably never existed in real life. I had previously seen this movie on TV and enjoyed it enough to buy the DVD.
One more worthy of the junk pile, 2005-10-05
For the most part none of the musketeer movies even come close to doing justice to the original series of books by Alexandre Dumas. Which is surprising given the fabulous potential of the oiginal material. Why the material has been bastardized to fill the egos of movie stars such as Depardieu, Irons, Di Caprio and the like beats me. Or why they would chose to demean this wonderful material to stage yet another thin, vacuous, and misleadingly moralizing "politically correct" charade to stand for women's lib. It's insulting to anyone who read these books that the greedy pinheads who infect the moviemaking industry would seek to plagiarize Dumas' work simply becase his copyrights have expired. The Lester piece with Michael York, Raquel Welch and the rest is probably as good as it gets...yet it remains at heart simply a spoof of the original story. I am hoping that one day someone will come and make a decent "Three Musketeers", not to mention bring to screen the unforgetable, poignant and exciting follow-up, "Twenty Years Later" with a middle-aged and career-stuck Artagnan, a well established and wise Athos, Porthos as a widowed baronet and Aramis as a philandering priest...not to mention the amazing revenge from the past...For the time being just read the books.
Musketeer, Next Generations: OK Adaptaion of Dumas' Classic Story, 2005-07-28
Back in 1973, Richard Lester made a film of Alexander Dumas' popular story 'The Three Musketeers,' a delightful film, with Michael York as young D'Artagnan. After 31 years, Hallmark Entertainemt took up the same material to make this TV Mini-series, again starring Michael York as "older" D'Artagnan, with Susie Amy as D'Artagnan's daughter Valentine. This time, it is Valentine who goes to Paris, encounters three musketeers, and vows 'All for one, one for all,' to protect the king from the plotting Cardinal.
[NEXT GENERATION MUSKETEERS] In short, this is the story of 'The Three Musketeers' of the next generation. If you remember the story of Dumas's book (or Charlie Sheen's filmed version if you like), put in the sons of Alamis, Atos, and Porthos in their original muskteers' place, and you know what you will see in this film. Instead of deadly femme fatale and spy MiLady, you see Lady Bolton played by Nastassja Kinski. In place of Cardinal Richelieu, you get Cardinal Mazarin played by Gérard Depardieu.
Considering the origin of the TV film, the actions are decently done (often very acrobatic for this kind of film), and the locarions are beautiful. The acting is reasonable, if not exceptional, and it is amusing to see a female muskeeter in the central role, though the unique casting could have been more effective with deeper interpretation of being a female musketeer. Anyway, Susie Amy succeeds in making the heroine a likable one, with strong will occasional humor.
The film has, however, deep flaws. One of them is, the film has too many characters. You see eight musketeers in one film -- the original four and their children. John Rhys-Davies appears as Porthos (no, not his son), but I'm afraid he is not required to do much. The direction is often slack, and though Steve Boyum (responsible for many TV films) is good at presenting actions, he needs more skills in showing dramatic scenes. That means the Cardinal should be made more charismatic, and Lady Bolton should be made more bewitching, if not sexually.
[TRIVIA] By the way, Richard Lester made 'Return of the Musketeer' starring Michael York as D'Artagnan in 1989. In this film, "Cardinal Mazarin" was played by Philippe Noiret (French actor like Depardieu).
As to the female version of musketeer, we have already seen 'La Fille de d'Artagnan' (aka 'Revenge of the Musketeers') in 1994 starring Sophie Marceau as D'Artagnan's daughter. Incidentally, D'Artagnan was then played by none other than Philippe Noiret.
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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: DVD
Brand: Lions Gate
EAN: 0707729126935
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
Label: Lions Gate
Manufacturer: Lions Gate
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Lions Gate
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2004-07-20
Running Time: 163
Studio: Lions Gate |
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