Les caprices d'un fleuve

Bernard Giraudeau has always been one of the most ambitious actors of his generation,but his parts were sometimes below par.Fortunately,Scola and Ozon provided him with roles worthy of himself.He tackled directing with a very interesting work "l'autre" ,some kind of Wilder's "the big carnival" in reverse ."Les caprices d'un fleuve" is ,at least to my eyes, not as moving as his debut,but it nevertheless displays a demanding side which we already felt in "l'autre".

Adapting himself the account of a noble who lived circa 1789,Giraudeau makes an endearing if sometimes dragging movie.When this gentleman was exiled in 1987,it was the end of an era,and like La Fayette some years before,the hero discovers wider horizons which make the enclosed atmosphere of Versailles -see the first sequences which feature Jean-Claude Brialy,Lambert Wilson,and other luminaries in cameos- stifling.

A marvelous cinematography makes up for the slow progress of the story.Time seemed to stand still in this Africa and his inhabitants whose main wealth stemmed from slavery ,whereas in France,it moved at the speed of sound.A revolution happened in the country of Voltaire and Rousseau..And yet ...we learn that one of the" heroes "of this revolution dabbles with slaves trade!Giraudeau's hero ,who does not believe in the values of the European "civilization" anymore,has a child with a black woman,and braces himself to an uncertain future.