La Nuit de Varennes (1982)
Directed by Ettore Scola

Film Review

La Nuit de Varennes continues France's long-standing tradition of quality period drama into the 1980s and offers a compelling portrait of pre-revolutionary France.  This big budget Franco-Italian production was directed by notable Italian director, Ettore Scola, and features an all-star cast, with production values that most French film directors in the 1980s could only dream of.

Unusually, the film keeps its characters and its audience well away from the principal actors of this period of history and, instead, reflects actual historical events through the effect these have on lesser characters, from all strata of French society.   When the Kind and Queen do ultimately appear in the film, it is for one brief scene, in which we glimpse only their lower bodies through the banisters of a staircase - emphasising the unbridgeable gulf between the ordinary people and an increasingly remote monarchy.  (It is also a cruel in-joke which alludes to the tragically ignoble fate awaiting the royal couple on their return to Paris.)

For the most part, La Nuit de Varennes is concerned with the political and social issues of the day - particularly the role of the monarchy and the pressures that are propelling France towards bloody revolution.   Rather than offering a dry historical text, the film livens things up by using colourful characters to tell the story and including comic elements which (although shamelessly anachronistic in places) provide amusing links to our own time.  This allows the film to be relevant to a modern audience without losing its historical context or sense of authenticity.

Much of the film's dialogue take place in the confined space of a horse-drawn coach and involves some intelligent debate between two of the great thinkers of the time, Thomas Payne and Restif de la Bretonne.  Their less intellectually minded travelling companions (including one-time love-machine Casanova, who is looking much the worse for wear), offer more mundane reflections on the situation.  Not surprisingly, the landed gentry are mainly preoccupied with maintaining the status quo whilst the less privileged and more liberally minded side with the increasingly restless workers.  The film generally avoids taking sides and seems to give a balanced view of the time, although some of the later scenes (particularly the dressing of the mannikin with the royal garb) are clearly intended to direct the sympathies of the audience towards the ill-fated monarch (albeit with a touch of mocking irony).

This is a film which appeals at many levels and in many different ways.  Visually, the film is a cinematic treat, with well-chosen locations and meticulously constructed interior sets working together to create a convincing recreation of the period.  The cinematography works well with the narrative flow, contributing to the sense that France is heading inexorably towards a period of great upheaval.  This is most apparent towards the end of the film where the dramatic night scenes in the town of Varennes show clearly that change, when it comes, will be far from painless.

The dialogue is also of a high calibre, with some brilliant comic touches brightening up the serious political observations.  Neither comedy nor conventional drama, La Nuit de Varennes manages to offer an engaging and nearly authentic depiction of the period it is set in.  Bringing together three historical characters (Thomas Payne, Restif de la Bretonne and Casanova) is admittedly at least one contrivance too many but it allows the film to articulate viewpoints which would seem improbable if they came from the mouths of lesser mortals.

In many ways, this is a film which is rife with indulgences (most of which are easily overlooked whilst others - such as the occasional asides where historical facts are filled in - are mildly irritating).  Nowhere is this more apparent than in the casting, which includes some of the biggest names in European cinema (and the fact that the four lead actors come from four different countries has of course nothing to do with exploiting the film's marketing opportunities abroad…)

Jean-Louis Barrault gives a sterling performance as the writer, Restif de la Bretonne, a man of contradictory moral and political views who is ideally placed to lead us through the film.   German-born actress Hanna Schygula and American Harvey Keitel give convincing performances, as the queen's lady-in-waiting and Tom Payne respectively (although the latter suffers the ignomy of bad dubbing owing to his presumably somewhat less-than-perfect French).  Most impressive is Italian acting legend Marcello Mastroianni, giving a remarkable portrayal of an elderly Casanova, who by this stage is far more preoccupied with his incontinence and desire to hang onto his last few worldly possessions than scoring any more amorous conquests.

It may be stretching credulity to its limits to believe that Casanova ever ended up in a carriage with Tom Payne and Restif de la Bretonne, but the mere idea unleashes a cornucopia of possibilities as to what the three men would have said to one another if such an unlikely thing were to happen. It may not be historic fact, but it is a beautiful fantasy and makes a deliciously entertaining historical piece in which the authors clearly had no qualms about letting poetic licence run amok.

What makes La Nuit de Varennes such a noteworthy film is that (in spite of the very noticeable influence from its financial backers), it offers a refreshingly original variation on the historical film, without slackening on the production values which make this genre of film so enduringly popular.  It gives us what we want (lavish costumes, plenty of period detail, great acting) and, in addition offers us something else (an imaginative script, sophisticated comedy and a surreal ending).

Film Synopsis

June 1791.  When the controversial writer and printer Restif de la Bretonne sees Queen Marie-Antoinette's lady-in-waiting secretly leaving Paris one evening, he concludes that King Louis XVI and his family have already fled the capital.   Determined to satisfy his curiosity and witness the greatest historical event of his life, the writer sets off in pursuit.  En route, he meets an ageing courtier who turns out to be none other than the one-time master seducer, Casanova.   By a curious turn of events, the two men find themselves in the same horse-drawn coach as the queen's lady-in-waiting, along with the American philosopher and political agitator Thomas Paine.   As the coach makes its way towards the town of Metz, the travellers discover that they are following the same route as another coach carrying the royal family…