Lucrèce Borgia

First effort in the Martine Carol (then the director's wife) period for director Christian -Jaque :"Lucrece " was followed by a horrible sketch in "Destinées" ,then two costume dramas ("Nana" "Madame Du Barry");"Nathalie" an undistinguished spy thriller was the end of the era .

UNlike the best works of the thirties and forties ,these glossy productions, filmed in color ,were icily impersonal ,but Christian- Jaque knows the tricks of the trade : impressive settings ,glistening colors ,prestige cast (Carol ,Christian Marquand,Pedro Armendariz ,even dwarf Pieral ,Maurice Ronet).Who cares if Martine is too old for the part? (In Delannoy's sketch in " Destinées ,Michele Morgan ,thirty-four,portrayed Joan of Arc!)enter Who cares if a whole sequence is borrowed from "the most dangerous game" ,complete with spears and dogs ?Who cares if the orgies were inspired by Abel Gance 's own version (1935)?

Lucrezia was essentially a pawn in her dad's and her brother's games ,a political way to enter into alliance with a potential enemy :so who cares if she really loves the duke of Aragon?On this point,the movie is accurate.

There's a sadistic scene in which two old men fight for their lives over fires :Lucrezia gladly watches this dubious show. Historians generally agree that the heroine 's bad reputation has been blown out of all proportion ,and she was mainly a patron ,protecting the arts.

It's not among Christian-Jaque's best films ,but it's perfect Saturday-night-at-the -movies stuff.Why deny yourself an entertaining yarn?

I just saw a French-language (w/subtitles) DVD of this film, which is/was famous for Martine Carol's bathing au naturelle. That is not the film's only nudity, and the film was probably thus censored upon release in the USA. Otherwise, the costumes and overall production values were impressive for the era, considering that European cinema didn't have Hollywood's finances. Martine Carol played the part adequately while showing a good figure for someone past the age of thirty (we could all do as well). I'm not sure if Pedro Armendariz spoke French, but he plays the part of Lucrezia's brother César credibly. This film is condensed and probably filtered history, though it is possible that the Borgias, especially Lucrezia, may suffer from a bad press. They had many enemies, some deserved, who may have exaggerated their deeds into misdeeds.

This reasonably well-mounted and quite stylish historical saga features impeccable period detail but, unfortunately, fizzles out in the second half – emerging to be rather uneven overall. Besides, it doesn’t rise to the full potential offered by its famous (and much-filmed) events – especially given the fact that the character of Lucretia has been considerably whitewashed! Still, the court intrigue is more interesting than the romance – but the pageantry is rather splendid, and there’s plenty of exciting action throughout (including a manhunt a' la THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME [1932]).

The casting, too, is exemplary: Martine Carol is an ideal Lucretia (she went on to portray another famous ‘courtesan’ in Max Ophuls’ sublime LOLA MONTES [1955]); a dashing Massimo Serato; a rather subdued Pedro Armendariz as Cesare Borgia; an impressively slinky Arnoldo Foa' as Cesare’s resourceful lieutenant; rugged Christian Marquand and an impossibly young Maurice Ronet as two of Lucretia’s ill-fated conquests; a blink-and-you’ll-miss-him Howard Vernon as a vicar; Valentine Tessier as a wealthy eccentric (she had been Madame Bovary in Jean Renoir’s 1933 version); and Pieral, the psychoanalyst dwarf from Luis Bunuel’s THAT OBSCURE OBJECT OF DESIRE (1977), who provides amusing but somewhat misplaced comic relief.

For the record, the following are the other films I’ve watched centering around this infamous noble family: Mitchell Leisen’s BRIDE OF VENGEANCE (1948), Henry King’s PRINCE OF FOXES (1949; recently released on DVD); and Sergio Corbucci’s much-inferior remake of THE MAN WHO LAUGHS (1966). One I’d love to check out is Abel Gance’s LUCREZIA BORGIA (1935; also available on disc through Image).