Duell der Besten

I discovered "Edge of the Blade" (aka Une Affaire d'honneur) at the Hong Kong French Film Festival, Vincent Perez was on hand to present his latest feature as director and actor. The film is a capable, entertaining and very good-looking period drama that borders on the swashbuckler, a genre that made Perez famous. The fights are very well-handled, and the historical background is a fascinating one: on the one hand the craze for duels following freedom of the press laws (now journalists could freely tarnish people's reputation), and first-wave feminism on the other. Both aspects, however, remain in the background and subservient to a main plot centering on male revenge dramatics that's not exactly enthralling. Considering who the real Marie-Rose Astié de Valsayre was (a freethinker, a doctor, a composer, a duellist, a passionate feminist), it's a shame to make her into a supporting character who can only watch the last duel from a distance. The protagonist, on the other hand, is a cliché war-scarred, hieratic veteran who speaks like a shaolin master and develops a vague crush on Ms. De Valsayre (cue aborted love story). That, I believe, is not the ideal treatment of the character. Perez himself in the Q&A session after the screening made it clear how incredible her life had been. My thought then was, hey, somebody should make a movie about her! In the end, "Edge of the Blade" made me want to watch that as-yet-inexistent movie, which is perhaps its greatest accomplishment.