Wednesday Double Feature – Seven Years War
It may have been a bit of a stretch, but for this week’s film selection, I watched films someway connected with the Seven Years War.
The film that inspired this selection, Christian-Jaque, parody of swashbuckling films, Fanfan la Tulipe, was a film I wanted to watch with its remake, but regrettably, the new one was only available in PAL format so I had to move on.
Fanfan La Tulipe tells the story of the title character Fanfan (Gérard Philipe) a charming rake who joins the French army to after being caught making out with a farmer’s daughter. A fortune teller, Adeline (, Gina Lollobrigida), tells him if he joins he may marry a princess. After that a happenstance makes it seem that this prophecy may come true.
This film was okay but not much more. What passed as a story was pretty much a way to hold together all of Christian-Jaque’s action scenes. It kind of works but again… just.
My next film is Stanly Kubrick’s classic, Barry Lyndon. A film that as a good devout Kubrick fan I’m embarrassed to say I’ve never seen until now. (Clips at the video store don’t count)
Based on the Thackery novel, The Luck of Barry Lyndon, tells the story of Redmond Barry (Ryan O’Neal), a young Irishman, who is thrown out of his household, goes to war, deserts, gets forced into going to war again by the other side, deserts again, gambles, marries into money, wastes the money, get crippled in a duel and thrown out of England… you know… Usual stuff.
“Like” isn’t the right word for this film. It’s beautiful and deservedly known for its amazing cinematography and amazing lighting by candlelight. It’s also one of the few period pieces that accurately shows the past as the alien world it is. I will definitely watch it again.
On the downside Kubrick’s usual coldness is magnified by the borderline sociopathy of the protagonist. This makes it difficult to watch… Definitely worth the effort though.
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