Le Colonel Chabert

Shown: 26 March 2001

France 1994
111 minutes
Directed by Yves Angelo
Leading players - Gérard Depardieu, Fanny Ardant, Fabrice Luchini

Synopsis

The film is set during the Napoleonic era in France. Colonel Chabert (Gérard Depardieu), one of Napoleon's heroes, severely wounded during the battle of Eylau in 1807, is mistakenly thrown into a mass grave. Presumed dead for about a decade spent in poverty and semi-lucidity, Chabert, in an attempt to leave his ghost behind, decides to return to Paris to reclaim his life and confront his 'widow' (Fanny Ardant). She is now re-married to Count Ferraud (André Dussolier) who unscrupulously uses Chabert's fortune to finance his political aspirations. Chabert hires a lawyer, Derville (Fabrice Luchini), to prove his identity and claim his fortune and honour back.

A critic once wrote: Yves Angelo's movie may not quite reach the heights set by Cyrano De Bergerac but it still counts as another thundering episode of costumed Gallic cinema. The film was adapted from Honoré de Balzac's classic novel. It is interesting to know that in 1999 Gérard Depardieu acted in a television production called "Balzac" in which he became Balzac himself.

The producer of the drama says of Depardieu that: He is exceptional! He can act any role. He absorbs a character and lets the character come out with his sensitivity. Yves Angelo was nominated Best New Director of a Feature Film at the 1995 César Awards.