Review of the Return of Martin Guerre 1983 Film
'MARTIN GUERRE'
- The Return of Martin Guerre
- NYT Critic'south Pick
- Directed by Daniel Vigne
- Biography, Law-breaking, Drama, History, Mystery, Romance
- 2h 2m
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June ten, 1983
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Section C , Page
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THIS is, as they say, a true story. In 1549 a young peasant named Martin Guerre disappeared from the small village of Artigat in the foothills of the Pyrenees in southwestern France. He left behind his married woman of 7 years, Bertrande de Rols, a young son, his parents and other members of a large, comparatively prosperous family.
All had not been going well for Martin, who seems to have been something of a misfit and a joke. He was able to consummate his spousal relationship only after the hamlet priest had exorcised his ''demons.'' The mean solar day before Martin vanished, his father had accused him of stealing and selling several sacks of family unit grain.
8 years later, after his parents had died, Martin Guerre returned to Artigat to reclaim his married woman and belongings. Bertrande greeted him warmly, and no 1 questioned his identity, though he had changed considerably for the improve. The villagers delighted in his stories of army life and were dazzled by the fact that he had learned how to read and write. He fathered 2 more children, i of whom died, and worked his farm hard and profitably.
This new life was without incident until the advent in Artigat of three vagabonds, who identified Martin as Arnaud du Thil, a beau who had soldiered with the existent Martin who, they said, was alive and living in Flanders. None of this would accept caused a serious stir until the day that Martin asked his uncle to account for how he had handled his property while Martin was away. Soon afterwards, the uncle filed accommodate confronting Martin, charging him with being an imposter.
All of this is past way of being an introduction to ''The Return of Martin Guerre,'' a fine new French film that retells the tale that has already served as the basis for novels, plays and operettas. Writers of history and fiction are forever indebted to one Jean de Coras, the Toulouse parliamentary counselor appointed to handle the case and who later on wrote a detailed business relationship of Martin Guerre's two trials, which are the center of the film.
''The Return of Martin Guerre,'' which opens today at the 68th Street Playhouse, is social history of an unusually rich sort. It has a quality of immediacy to equal Le Roy Ladurie's boggling book ''Montaillou,'' in which Mr. Ladurie reconstructs the social life of a French village in the 14th century.
Every bit directed past Daniel Vigne, a French pic maker new to American audiences, and as written by him and Jean-Claude Carriere, ''The Return of Martin Guerre'' has the kind of shapeliness that 1 assembly more often with fiction than fact. All the same, though information technology resolves the mystery of Martin Guerre, it also leaves room in which to speculate on the nature of life in 16th-century Artigat, on its institutions - especially the church - on family ties, on the sanctity of marriage, property and money.
Gerard Depardieu, who has recently been in danger of becoming a parody of his own striking screen personality, is superb every bit the returned veteran. The hulking Depardieu looks the way a 16th-century peasant should look or, as Mr. Vigne has said in an interview, he's i of the few contemporary actors who wouldn't be a sight gag in the period costumes. His is a beautifully executed performance, its power ever controlled and not, equally sometimes happens with Mr. Depardieu, exercised for its own flamboyant sake.
Almost as practiced and, in her ain way, nearly as mysterious is Nathalie Baye as the married woman, whose fidelity is rewarded when Martin returns every bit a far better husband than when he left. Primary among the excellent supporting actors are Roger Planchon, who plays Jean de Coras, the investigator who is as well wise to be shocked by the trials' revelations, and Maurice Barrier, as the uncle who initiates the court actions against Martin.
Most of the film was photographed in southwestern French republic, not far from Artigat, which Andre Neau, the cameraman, has lighted to suggest the tones of amber, olive and umber associated with Bruegel's paintings of 16th-century village life. Michel Portal's original score, like the performances and the dialogue, avoids sounding archaic, without being anachronistic.
Like ''La Nuit de Varennes,'' ''The Return of Martin Guerre'' is a menses film that, without seeming effort, speaks to our moment.
A Better Hubby
THE RETURN OF MARTIN GUERRE, directed by Daniel Vigne; screenplay (French with English subtitles) by Mr. Vigne and Jean-Claude Carriere; manager of photography, Andre Neau; edited by Denise de Casabianca; music by Michel Portal; produced by Societe Fran,caise de Production Cinematographique and Societe de Production de Films Marcel Dassault; re- leased past European International Distribution Ltd. At the 68th Street Playhouse, at Tertiary Avenue. Running time: 111 minutes. This film has no rating.
Martin Guerre . . . . . Gerard Depardieu
Bernard . . . . . Pierre Donnadieu
Bertrande de Rols . . . . . Nathalie Baye
Jean de Coras . . . . . Roger Planchon
Judge Rieux . . . . . Maurice Jacquemont
Catherine Boere . . . . . Isabelle Sadoyan
Raimonde de Rols . . . . . Rose Thiery
Pierre Guerre . . . . . Maurice Bulwark
Immature Martin . . . . . Stephane Pean
Young Bertrande . . . . . Sylvie Meda
Jeanne . . . . . Chantal Deruaz
Guillemette . . . . . Valerie Chassigneux
Augustin . . . . . Tcheky Karyo
Antoine . . . . . Dominique Pinon
Sanxi . . . . . Adrien Duquesne
The Cure . . . . . Andre Chaumeau
Jacques . . . . . Philippe Babin
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/1983/06/10/movies/martin-guerre.html
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