La Tulipe noire (1964) - film review

June 1789.  On the eve of the French Revolution, a masked bandit, "The Black Tulip", is prosecuting his own reign of terror in and around the town of Roussillon.  The poor people of the district consider him a hero, as his victims are always the detested aristocrats.  The Marquis de Vigogne is resolved to put an end to the Black Tulip’s exploits and engages the Baron de la Mouche to capture him.  La Mouche is certain that the bandit is the nobleman, Guillaume de Saint Preux, and lays a trap to unmask him.  In a swordfight, Saint Preux is facially scarred by La Mouche, but manages to escape.  Aware that not to show himself in public will prove that he is the Black Tulip, Saint Preux appeals to his younger brother, Julien, to assume his identity for a time.  Julien accepts, believing that Guillaume shares his belief in the impending revolution.  When he then learns that his brother has been acting only out of self-interest, Julien decides to use the Black Tulip’s notoriety to further the revolutionary cause... 

Christian-Jaque directed this well-paced and likeable adaptation of a novel by Alexandre Dumas, which is best remembered for featuring iconic actor Alain Delon in a demanding double role.  With excellent choreographed fight scenes and lavish production values (not least of which is Decae’s sumptuous cinematography), the film is nearly as good as Christian-Jaque’s previous adventure-historical, Fanfan la Tulipe (1952).

Those who will enjoy the film most will undoubtedly be fans of Alain Delon, since the film offers two Delons for the price of one.  For the young actor, who had already cut his teeth with the greatest directors of his time (Luchino Visconti and Michelangelo Antonioni, amongst others), the film was something of a baptism of fire.  Christian-Jaque’s perfectionism and unwillingness to compromise pushed Delon to the limit of what he was capable of, and what we see in this film is Delon at his near-best.  The two characters he plays in the film are portrayed so differently that it is sometimes hard to believe we are watching the same actor in two roles – particularly when the scenes in which they are shown together on screen are realised so well.  In the Saint Preux brothers, we see the two opposite sides of Delon’s on-screen persona – the tender, flawed hero, and the cold, cynical anti-hero.

La Tulipe noire stands as a shining example of the popular French historical film.    What is most enjoyable about this film is its great sense of fun, which stems from the satirical element in Dumas’ novel.  With the historical film, it is notoriously difficult to straddle the thin dividing line between serious drama and outright farce, but this film manages it remarkably well.   There is plenty of comedy, but it is used sparingly, to relieve tension and allows unlikeable characters (such as the luckless La Mouche) to appear sympathetic.   Even Francis Blanche, a much-loved French comedian, is restrained – and virtually unrecognisable – in his well-tailored comic role.   In essence, La Tulipe noire is the perfect marriage of comedy and swash-buckling adventure, a timeless classic which is just as entertaining for adults as it is for children.

© James Travers 2004

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