Le colonel Chabert

Wonderfully acted by Gerard Depardieu and Fanny Ardant, and beautifully shot.

A man re-emerges 10 years after being declared dead in the Napoleonic wars. He wants something, but even HE doesn't seem sure what – his money his wife kept, and brought to her new marriage? Revenge on her for forgetting him? To win her back?

Meanwhile, her own lawyer also takes on Chabert's side of the case, trying to broker a compromise, before word leaks out and all involved are ruined in scandal. (Fabrice Luchini is great as the lawyer who's motives are always a little mysterious).

An interesting, subtle study of what's really of value in life.

My only complaint is that some of the Machiavellian machinations are a little obviously played by both Ardant's character and her greedy, wormy new husband, who values a peerage over marriage, love or family. Somehow that artifice makes the film a bit less emotionally powerful than it might be. But I'd certainly see it again.

Colonel Chabert is one of the best adaptations from novel to screen I have seen in the movies. It combines the realism of French cinema with excellent characterisation, from Depardieu's lost Chabert to Fabrice Luchini's proud Lawyer to Fanny Ardant's complex widow. The movie has wonderful dimension, as you might expect from a top cinematographer such as Yves Angelo. The characters keep this movie in gear and although a bit slow in the beginning, picks up pace and is a fine movie by the time it reaches the finish.

Award winning cinematographer Yves Angelo makes his directorial debut here with this adaptation of one of the novels that make up Honoré de Balzac's monumental 'La Comedie Humaine', a 'natural history' of post-Napoleonic French society.

Not a few cinematographers have tried their hand at directing with decidedly uneven results but Angelo does a first rate job here and has the blessing of an exemplary cast.

It concerns an army veteran, long presumed dead, who returns in the hope of regaining his fortune, his status and his wife. A former prostitute, she has since become a Countess and is unwilling to jeopardise the social position she has acquired with his money..........

This is in fact the sixth film adaptation of Balzac's novella and the character of Colonel Chabert has been played most notably by Werner Krauss, Raimu and Vladislav Strzhelchik. At the time this current version was made there was surely no French actor around with box-office power who was capable of following in their footsteps other than Gerard Depardieu whose performance is utterly mesmerising. Not for nothing has he been referred to by Yves Montand as 'THE actor of his generation.' Playing the morally ambiguous Comtesse Ferraud is the wondrous Fanny Ardant with whom Depardieu made 'The Woman next door' thirteen years earlier and once again their scenes together are riveting.

André Dusollier as Comte Ferraud is as always good value and the characterisation of the lawyer Derville by Fabrice Luchini is well-drawn although his mannered delivery can be rather tiresome.

As with all of Balzac's novels the multi-faceted characters live and breathe whilst the theme of how a hero of War can become an outcast of Peace is tragically timeless.

Whilst this film is not a classic it is absorbing and at times distinctly unsettling. Rather than use a specially composed score Angelo has cleverly used classical pieces notably Schubert's final piano sonata and Beethoven's trio of which the title 'Ghost' is singularly appropriate to Chabert's reappearance as if from the dead.

It has first class production values and continues the superlative tradition of costume drama at which French film-makers excel.

This film will be variously be described in critical summaries as either a historical drama or dramatic tragedy. It is neither. It is a profoundly unsettling ghost story, as luridly horrifying as any classic film of the supernatural. It left me contemplating the permanence of loss that fate can decree for an individual as well as with an image of death more chillingly authentic than anything I have ever experienced in film or print.

Our "ghost" is one Colonel Chabert, a seedy and unpleasant vagrant who materializes in the streets of post Napoleonic Paris to solicit the services of a deliciously clever lawyer to legally prove his identity and therefore claim the legacy of his once considerable estate. 9 years previously, the Colonel had been mistaken for dead after the bitter winter battle of Eylau in 1807. Stripped naked and buried in a mass grave with hundreds of others, Chabert managed to claw his way out of the grave and recovers with the aid of local villagers. Now, after nine years of poverty and semi lucidity {brought about at least partly by the grievous head wound he received which has never fully healed} he has returned to find his wife remarried and his fortune being used to keep her in comfort as well as financing her new husband's political ambitions. It is this bleak situation that has him seeking out a smoothly Machiavellian lawyer who also happens to be his wife's attorney. The brilliant machinations of this lawyer will put the long suffering Chabert within reach of his goal, yet will also raise in his mind and ours a disturbing question: Did Chabert cheat deaths physical grip, only to realize ultimately that it had swallowed his soul, his very being, everything that made Chabert Chabert, and leave him with ethereal memories and an empty husk of a body? I will let the viewers of this film come to their own conclusions about that question.

To make such an emotional impact, most everything about a film must click in just right and this is no exception. The performances are no less than brilliant. Fanny Ardent hits all the marks as Chaberts scheming yet all too human wife. Fabrice Luchini almost steals the show with his searingly precise depiction of the masterly lawyer Derville. As for Chabert, Gerard Depardieu's is a pure manifestation of brilliance. An acting coach could probably break down his performance into instructive segments illustrating how to truly engender character thru subtle juxtapositions of gesture and voice. As an audience though, you never once think about what a great job Depardieu is doing, you are too interested in where he is going to take you next. A strong cry of "Auter!" also to Writer Director Yves Angelo for his sure handed story telling and a "Bravo!" to the exquisitely rich lensing of Bernard Autic.

If you start watching this film and feel my term of "Ghost story" is inaccurate, be patient and wait for the late night first interview between Chabert and Derville. Listen to Chabert describe the sensations of death. And then try to sleep well that night...

The French movie Le colonel Chabert was shown in the U.S. as Colonel Chabert (1994). Yves Angelo directed it. It's the story of a brave, highly decorated cavalry officer in Napolean's army, who is left for dead on the battlefield. He leads a horrible existence for ten years, until he finally manages to return to France. In his absence, his wife has remarried, and now has two children. She also has all of his fortune. Who is going to believe Chabert's story's? Chabert finds someone who believes him. It's the almost superhuman Attorney Derville. The problem is that Derville is also the attorney for Chabert's former wife.

Gerard Depardieu plays Colonel Jabert. He is a consummate actor. We know it and Director Angelo knows it. Fanny Ardant is the former wife. When she's on screen, you can't take your eyes off her. She isn't beautiful in the classic Hollywood way; she's beautiful in the French way. She has strong features that tell us that she's competent and capable. When Chabert asks Derville to describe her, he uses just one word--superb.

Believe it or not, I think the best acting is displayed by Fabrice Luchini as Derville. His part is complex, because Derville is an unlikable character. He's snobbish, arrogant, and absolutely certain about his professional talents. Luchini becomes Derville. It's worth seeing the movie just to watch him act.

We saw this movie on the small screen. (Actually on--gasp--VHS.). It worked very well. Colonel Chabert has a so-so IMDb rating of 7.0. It's better than that. Find it and watch it.