François Villon - Poetul vagabond

this is the word for define it: charming. for atmosphere and for the story. for Florent Pagny performance and, especially, for admirable work of Romanian actors. for the Medieval flavor and for the coherence of a biography made from suppositions. for the right definition of the period. and, sure, for the impressive science of details. Sergiu Nicolaescu was, as basic profession, an engineer. this film is a good proof for this fact because , as a not comfortable challenge, it becomes a great project. so, Francois Villon and his time.

recreate Medieval atmosphere. use a great Romanian cast. present heart of a time as a large play in which faith, fear and fortune are parts of a fragile ladder. portrait of a genius. reflection about life. adventures of a spirit. hymn to profound freedom. like many films by Sergiu Nicolaescu, Villon is a fresco. exercise of revival for a period with careful preoccupation for details. but it is more. it is a labyrinth. the viewer is character of a trip in essence of things and not fight scenes, not individual events are real relevant but flavor of old Vanitas vanitatum. it is a beautiful film. for noble intentions, for respect of measure, for wonderful performance and subtle game of nuances. only problem - Florent Pagny who, in few sequences, is lost in a machine system to fast for him.

To those who haven't seen it (yet), I can only compare Nicolaescu's "Francois Villon" with Bergman's "Seventh Seal" - the same depth of vision, heavy, religion-impregnated atmosphere, the sense of "vanity fair". And yet, there's something more to "Francois Villon" - the typical medieval sarcasm, laughter in the face of Death - actually it's exactly the way the film begins, the newly-graduate students of Sorbonne celebrate their success by stealing house firms and putting them around the necks of the hanged at Montfaucon (a good opportunity for Villon to recite the famous "Ballad of the hanged" - actually, Florent Pagny is quite good at it, but he's only good until the seasoned Romanian actors enter the scene). Throughout the film there is misery and grandeur (when the poet arrives at Blois and takes part in a contest with his "Ballad of adverse truths", then meets a chess player who is tired of winning and keeps hoping to find at a crossroad "the one who shall give me back my soul - God!" - quite a starting coincidence with Bergman's Knight playing chess with Death, don't you think?), irony and ferocity (like when Villon is imprisoned at Thybault d'Aussigny's castle, and the bishop - masterfully played by Silviu Stanculescu, one of the best Romanian actors - wants to turn him into "God's poet", and keeps plaguing him "Francois, have you been thinking? Have you given it good thought?" while holding him in a dungeon to live on only bread and water, till one day, the exasperated poet cries "I want to die!"; not to mention a grand moment when the King of the Poor - played by another Romanian great, Ion Marinescu - says "I know my place lord, that is in hell, next to you, but what about this man? Is he yours or the other one's?"). In short, the film has everything a period piece needs to impress and imprint into memory. I can only hope that some day soon, Mr. Nicolaescu finds it proper to put it on DVD (as he has done with several of his other films). And now "God save you, and be with us!" as one soldier says.

Little is known about real biography of great Renaissance poet Francois Villon but by the end of the film I started to believe in his image created by Sergiu Nicolaescu.

On the one hand - the images of the Francois Villon and his lovers are taken from Paris of the 1980s and sometimes the film could remind you of theatrical play staged for TV. On the other hand - minimalistic dark colours and dark scenes are working for the idea of the film and general impressions from it are positive. Sometimes the events are developing slowly and dialogues are quite long, but I could agree with one of the previous reviewers - Sergiu Nicolaescu tried to create a kind of fresco or meditation about Medieval world. The fresco influenced by the poetry of Francois Villon, French cinema of the 1950-early 60s (films with Jean Marias), paintings by Peter Breugel and Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo.

The film hardly could be compared with Seventh Seal by Ingmar Bergman or treated as true reconstruction of life in Medieval France but it's still interesting because it's rare full length film about great poet and it was made with love to Francois Villon and with due respect to the spirit of his poetry.

I remember seeing this film years ago, when I didn't knew much about films, film-schools, film-tendencies and all that. My only criteria in appreciation of a film was if I liked it or not. And did I like this one! Florent Pagny's acting makes the spectator even forgive his songs. Sergiu Nicolaescu's directing, much like his acting, is serious and puts the accent on the strong-yet-retained-inside sentiment, which adds depth to the characters. The film is a must-see, and the ending scene magnificent, and also bears Nicolaescu's "patte" to a full 100 %. Great film.