Fictional, But Very Good, Portrayals

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     Jean Martin as Col. Matheiu (Marcel Bigeard).  This is from Pontecorvo's outstanding movie "The Battle of Algiers".   The reader may recall that I have mentioned Bigeard, who I have corresponded with, several times in this blog.  Jean Martin also played a Legionaire in that other excellent movie about French Algeria,

                        

The Day of the Jackal

     Jean Sorel as Lt. Col. Jean Marie Bastien Thiry.  He is almost as handsome as the man he is portraying!






Patrice Chereau as the Marquis de Montcalm.  (I don't have enough room here for his full name).  Last of the Mohicans, 1992.





Marat, Danton, and Robespierre, that lovable man, enjoy a moment together.  This still from Napoleon by Abel Gance, which I saw in 1982, sums up the revolution for me.  These are the very faces of the fire and ice that change a society from one of sickness to one of death.  Antonin Artaud, Alexandre Koubitsky, and Edmund van Daele bring the dead to life for our edification.





The death of Marat, and not a moment too soon.  Antonin Artaud, Napoleon. 1927, d. Abel Gance.
Artaud rates an entire essay just to himself.





Of course, I have to make an appearance.  Apotheosis, and the Sorrow of the Sun!





    And here is Jean Martin again as the slow witted but perfect fighter Legionnaire Victor Kowalski. (Wolenski for some reason in the movie). In the movie he is shown being blackjacked and kidnapped in Rome.  In the book, he is lured back to France by the Action Service with a ruse involving his daughter.  When he gets to the apartment where she is supposed to be, the doors on each side of him and in front fly open and the government men attack him with pickaxe handles.  Described as slow thinking in many ways, the one thing he did perfectly was fight.  He charges forward and permanently cripples two of the SDECE operatives, one with his .45, but he is finally beaten unconscious.  It is through him that the code name "chacal" is revealed before he dies from torture.  Last but not least, in a spectacular bit of casting:




Un visage formidable.





     Adrien Cayla Legrand hits it out of the park with his portrayal of the brilliant but difficult occupant of the Elysee Palace.



Au revoir, mes enfants!


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