Les Trois mousquetaires [TV] (1959)
Directed by Claude Barma

Film Review

Far from being a piece of television ephemera Claude Barma's production of Les Trois mousquetaires, broadcast live on France's one television channel RTF on Christmas Day in 1959, continues to be of interest, if only because it made an instant star of a young man who would soon become one of cinema's most iconic actors - Jean-Paul Belmondo.  French cinema audiences would already have seen Belmondo in supporting roles in such films as Marcel Carné's Les Tricheurs (1958) and Claude Chabrol's À double tour (1959), but it was as D'Artagnan in Claude Barma's lavish TV movie that Belmondo the Star was revealed to the French public, three months before Jean-Luc Godard's À bout de souffle (1960) was released and accelerated him towards superstardom.

The casting of the unknown Belmondo in the lead role of what was one of RTF's most prestigious dramas was a huge gamble, and originally Barma had considered giving the part to another emerging talent, Jean-Pierre Cassel.  A comparative stranger to cinema at the time, Belmondo was devoted mostly to the French stage and it was his performance in a production of Claude Magnier's play Oscar that led Barma to cast him as D'Artagnan.  Likewise, the rest of the cast comprised actors who had more experience of stage than film, including some prominent members of the Comédie-Française (Robert Hirsch, Bernard Dhéran, Georges Descrières) and the Théâtre National Populaire (Daniel Sorano, Edmond Beauchamp).  The way in which television drama was made at the time - broadcast live almost as a stage play - meant that theatre actors were almost always favoured over film actors by television producers and directors.

Claude Barma is not someone most French film enthusiasts will have heard of but his is one of the most revered names in French television.  A pioneer of the medium, he had directed the first ever live drama broadcast on RTF in February 1950 -  Marivaux's Le Jeu de l'amour - and subsequently directed, produced and scripted some of the channels most popular series, including Belphégor ou le Fantôme du Louvre (1964) and several episodes of Les Enquêtes du commissaire Maigret (1967-1981) starring Jean Richard as Maigret.  Adapted not from Alexandre Dumas's novel but from the stage play Dumas later wrote in collaboration with Auguste Maquet, Les Trois mousquetaires was one of Barma's most ambitious television projects, not least because of its remarkably well-staged swordfight sequences (which were choreographed by André Gardère, a famous fencer who won a silver medal for France in the 1936 Summer Olympics).  Barma's love of the close-up prevents this from looking too much like a piece of filmed theatre and allows the audience to get into the heads of the protagonists, through what is a curiously effective hybrid of cinematic and theatrical technique.  Les Trois mousquetaires has the visceral spontaneity of a live theatrical performance, together with the pace and intimacy of a film drama.

The intense drama of the court intrigue and swashbuckling set-pieces is perfectly balanced by some light-hearted comedy provided by Robert Hirsch and Michel Galbru, who are admirably well-cast as the comedy valet Planchet and cowardly Monsieur Bonacieux respectively.  The performances are generally excellent although our attentions are monopolised mostly by the hyper-charismatic Belmondo (attention-grabbing without the excesses that would later define his screen persona).  The other cast member who has a lasting impact is Gaby Sylvia as a thoroughly venomous Milady de Winter, deliciously evil in the company of a Mephistophelean-looking Count de Rochefort played by a sinister Robert Porte.

As was the standard for television at the time, the film was shot continuously in the studio, with real-time switching between several cameras and only a few breaks for the inclusion of some pre-filmed inserts.  Astonishingly, the actors had only three weeks to rehearse what is effectively a two-hour long play, in a bare room with chalk markings on the floor to show the position of props.  It was only on the morning of the broadcast that the cast could rehearse 'for real' in the studio sets, ahead of the live transmission later that day.  Knowing this, it is extraordinary how slick and compelling the performances are (there are a few line fluffs, but these are hardly noticeable), and how polished the production is overall.  Belmondo was grateful for the opportunity the film afforded him but the experience of making it was not an entirely enjoyable one - indeed it  put him off working for television almost for life.  It would not be until 2001, when his cinema career was all but over, that he appeared in another television film, Bernard Stora's L'Aîné des Ferchaux (2001).

Film Synopsis

France, 1625.  King Louis XIII reigns but it is the Cardinal de Richelieu who governs.  As he is reprimanding Athos, Porthos and Aramis after being thrashed by the cardinal's men, Monsieur de Tréville is visited by the young Charles D'Artagnan, who is keen to serve as a musketeer.  Alas, D'Artagnan has lost his letter of introduction in a fight with the Count de Rochefort and before he knows it he has challenged each of the king's musketeers to a duel.  Instead of duelling with Athos, Porthos and Aramis, D'Artagnan ends up fighting alongside them when they are attacked by the cardinal's guards, accompanied by Lord de Winter.  Once the skirmish is over, de Winter befriends D'Artagnan and introduces him to his sister, Milady, whose charms he has some difficulty resisting.  Unbeknown to D'Artagnan and his musketeer friends, Milady is plotting with de Rochefort and the cardinal to disgrace the queen by exposing her love affair with the Duke of Buckingham.  On learning that the queen has handed over some jewels to the Duke as a parting gift on his return to England, the conspirators have the perfect opportunity, but D'Artagnan is ahead of them and is soon on his way to England to save the queen's honour...