Catherine

Bernard Borderie hit the big time in France during the sixties with his "Angélique marquise des anges" (there were no less than five movies!).But his star,Michèle Mercier wanted to call it a day -and it was the downfall of her career- and Borderie had to find another heroine and another star.The heroine was Catherine ,a young maid from the end of the Middle Ages,roughly Joan of Arc times .The star was Olga Georges-Picot who starred in Resnais's "je t'aime je t'aime" and who sadly committed suicide in 1997,age 53.This movie was intended to be the first of a series :thus,the ending will not satisfy the audience ,because it calls for more.The movie was neither a commercial nor an artistic success and Borderie gave up making a sequel.People who like the Angélique saga might be interested though.

Bernard Borderie hoped that this saga by Juliette Benzoni would meet the same success than his famous "Angélique"; but the sentimental swashbuckler ,which began in the fifties with Martine Carol's "Caroline Chérie" and continued with Michèle Mercier's "Angélique" seemed kitsch and passé in 1969 .Borderie thought he held all the cards though : a new gorgeous heroine (sexy long-haired Olga Georges Picot ,an embassador 's daughter , who had studied at the actor's studio ,begun her career with Alain Resnais ,ended in the porno pool in the late seventies and finally took her own life),impeccable cinematography by Henri Persin and chiefly Michel Magne ,whose music is as majestic as Angélique's ; he gave Roger Pigaut the part of the villain, not a bad choice,for he partly saved something from the wreckage of the last two "Angélique" .

Whereas "Angélique 's story took place under the Sun King's reign ,"Catherine is overtaken by events during the Hundred Years War ,particularly 1418 , when the Armagnacs were massacred by the Bourguignons with the help of the butchers of Paris and the town fell into the hands of the Duke of Bourgogne ,who was not Philippe Le Bon,but his father Jean Sans Peur (as the latter died the following year ,Benzoni substituted the father for the son .)

Forget history and note the similarities with Angélique :although a commoner ,a silversmith 's daughter ,Catherine is coveted by men in high places : the duke of Bourgogne 's attitude toward the young girl is the same as Joffrey De Peyrac 's in the first "Angélique ": he wants to be loved before sleeping with her ;and like her,she loses her one and only love (Roger van Hool who terribly lacks charisma , he's not Robert Hossein!)she would have searched and searched in the following sequels ,had they been made .

Because Catherine 's fate at the end of the movie is almost cliffhanger ; In the following books ,Philippe got her pregnant , she's mistreated by sadistic Garin ,her forced husband ,raped by Gillles De Rais, she meets Charles the Seventh ,Pierre Cauchon, tries to save Joan of Arc from the stake , all the who's who of French fifteenth century is summoned . A miniseries was made in the eighties and it tells the whole story.

Seen today , "Catherine " has a certain kitsch charm , naive and old-fashioned ; Olga Georges -Picot certainly deserved better (she was a clever polyglotte actress) and apart from bland Van Hool,the cast includes talented seasoned actors : Claude Brasseur, Roger Van Hool , German Horst Frank ,Francine Bergé ,André Pousse .The scenes ,in the last third ,seems to be taken by force from Robin Hood : the outlaws steal food to give it to the poor.

The story has nothing to do with the books from Juliette Benzoni! Past this annoying rearrangement i though the actress was a convincing Catherine same for the duke of Burgundy while Arnaud, in the book, is certainly not a student but a brave, fiery, arrogant, handsome captain of Charles VII... The music from Michel Magne is beautiful, décor and costume are fine too. So don't expect the story of "Catherine il suffit d'un seul amour" but you can still enjoy the show:-)