No. 52 (2022) LOST ILLUSIONS July 4th.

 

Film No. 52 (2022)  July. 4th.  10.00 AM   PALACE,  Kino Collins St. Melb. City,  Victoria.

 

"You enlighten people about art, the world." (Luciene naively describes to Lousteau his view of the role of newspapers in Paris society).

Sweeping tales on screen of love, lust, loss and the path to a more resilient life dominated Picture Houses for two decades (60's & 70's). They were events. A night out that began with a newsreel, the film, an interval then the film's final stanza. LOST ILLUSIONS is one such epic drama  which would have fitted the mould for those times. Thankfully this French concoction is in the present. It's a mini masterpiece. All be it intact with a slightly annoying story teller (voice over) to take us by the hand for 150 minutes.  

Lucien Chardon (Benjamin Voisin) is a young man, printer by trade, living in small town Angoulerne in south/west, post revolution, France. He has the doe-eyed look of a young man who is destined to be noticed. He writes poetry for his lover Madame Louise (Cecile de France), a woman already married into entitlement. The impossibility of their love ever being consummated comes to the fore when they elope, separately, to Paris. Lucien's station in life soon leaves him marooned, penniless, loveless in a city in no mood to wait. A chance meeting with a brash Lousteau (Vincent Lacoste) and a career in journalism beyond his humble dreams awaits him.  

There is a scene which captures the immaculateness with which LOST ILLUSIONS was made. Lucien crosses a busy Paris street. It's important to remember that this scene is being shot on 2021. The 20 second scene captures a busy Paris street, an extremely busy high street, with horses, carriages, buggies, wagons and people flowing along in numbers that are mind-boggling. This is serious, well tuned film-making by a production company dedicated to capturing a time and place.

Lucien gains fame as a writer. His newspaper does deals with agents and theatres to gain favourable press, so that plays, musicals and/or melodramas will get a following. Lucien reviews in a way that reflects the quality of the deal (shareholders included) rather than the excellence of performance. He finds true love in Coralie (Salome Dewaels), a player in a musical he writes favourably about. Then, as with most dramas of this epic nature, young ambitious people edging beyond their station; those mean and nasty enough to take them down do just that.

If you find the retelling of a sweeping Shakespearean tragedy unenticing, well go see the film for its production and costume design. Riton Dupire-Clement and Pierre-Jean Larroque may just inspire a new generation of cinema artists in these fields. If you simply have not been getting your fill of epic dramas in these times of cinematic naturalism then don't miss LOST ILLUSIONS. 7 gongs at the most recent Cesar (French Oscars) awards attests to the admiration it has attracted.  10GUMS.