Papillon (2017)

Directed by: Michael Noer | 133 minutes | crime, drama | Actors: Charlie Hunnam, Rami Malek, Tommy Flanagan, Eve Hewson, Roland Møller, Nina Senicar, Michael Socha, Christopher Fairbank, Yorick van Wageningen, Joel Basman, Fernanda Diniz, Ian Beattie, Brian Vernel, Nikola Kent

Henri Charrière was a French former Marine who had fallen into crime in Paris. Although he was a petty thief, jewel robbery and other “modest” crimes, in 1930 he was wrongly charged with the murder of nightclub owner – and a criminal friend – Roland Legrand, who on his deathbed went by the name ‘Papillon’. would have called to the police. At the time, several criminals used that nickname, meaning ‘butterfly’, but Charrière was the one who was arrested and eventually sentenced to lifelong hard labor and exiled along with hundreds of other inmates to Saint Laurent, a notorious prison on the French Guiana border. and Suriname. Charrière was imprisoned there for nine years, but eventually managed to escape. In 1969 he wrote the biography ‘Papillon’ about his adventures, a book of which many hundreds of thousands have been sold and which made the Frenchman immensely rich and famous in one fell swoop. There are strong rumors that the book is not entirely, but only partly, autobiographical and that Charrière also ‘borrowed’ the experiences of others to augment his own story. Anyway, ‘Papillon’ was made into a film in 1973 by director Franklin J. Schaffner, starring Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman at the peak of their fame. While critics found fault with the 151 minute epic – too long, too heavy-handed, too bombastic – ‘Papillon’ became a classic, starring McQueen in particular in one of the best roles of his career. plays.

You don’t have to remake a film with such iconic status. And yet that’s exactly what Danish director Michael Noer (known for the ‘Un prophète’ remake ‘R’ (2010) and the crime drama ‘Nordvest’ (2013) has done. An ambitious project that doesn’t turn out as iconic as the original. , and strictly speaking is of course completely superfluous, but certainly has the necessary entertainment value.Screenwriter Aaron Guzikowski based this new version of ‘Papillon’ not only on the books by Charrière (who wrote ‘Banco’ in addition to ‘Papillon’), but also on the script of the first film, written by Dalton Trumbo and Lorenzo Semple Jr. The role of Papillon – here portrayed as a safe-cracker – is now played by Charlie Hunnam, as we see him roaming the Parisian streets, cuddling up with an Eve Hewson (Bono’s daughter!) played lady of ill repute and ends up in trouble for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, Papillon is arrested and, after an unfair trial, sentenced to life snake in the Saint Laurent penal camp. That first means a hellish journey with hundreds of other convicts in a much too small space on a boat, where the pecking order is immediately determined and weaklings risk being killed in their sleep. Here, Papillon meets Louis Dega (Rami Malek), who has been convicted of fraud and forgery. Dega is small and weak but also very rich, so Papillon decides to make a deal with him: he is willing to protect Dega at all costs, if he makes his money available for their escape. But fleeing from the heavily guarded Saint Laurent, which is led with a heavy hand by head guard Barrot (‘our’ Yorick van Wageningen in his familiar role of bad guy), is not so easy. If you are caught en route to your freedom, either the guillotine or years of solitary confinement in solitary confinement. Despite this, the persistent Papillon continues to believe in it and, along with Dega and two other inmates (Roland Møller and Joel Bassman), concoct a plan to escape.

Although the story is ninety percent similar to that of Schaffner’s film, it is not fair to compare the two films. But you can’t escape it. While Noer’s ambitions are undeniable, his work is much more modest in scope, and certainly less pretentious and distinctive. Where Schaffner’s film emphasized the surprising and indestructible friendship between Papillon and Dega and the unbreakable will of a human being to be free, Noer’s version is more of a straightforward tale about two men who need each other to get out of the to escape prison. Hunnam and Malek are of a different caliber than McQueen and Hoffman, and while they look great here and carry out their roles with gusto, their acting is in stark contrast to that of their illustrious predecessors. This is certainly not due to their efforts, but simply to the fact that the ultimate narration of Charrière’s story was filmed forty-five years ago. Of course, that doesn’t mean that we should write off this new ‘Papillon’ in advance, because as said, this film is also worth watching in its own way. Hunnam, who had to go physically deep in the impressively long scene in the solitary cell, is particularly impressive. Malek could have given his Dega a little more ‘face’, but he looks very solid. Where in the 1973 version the dialogues were sparse, here is more spoken and more blood flows. The music is significantly less dominant, which is nice in this case and the film looks great thanks to Hagen Bogdanski’s cinematography. However, there is no real style of its own, as is true in all areas.

Despite the lack of a personal ‘face’ and the indisputable thought that this film really shouldn’t have been made and is therefore superfluous, Michael Noer delivers an entertaining escape drama with this remake of ‘Papillon’; easier to digest than the original, but thanks to excellent acting by Hunnam in particular and the compelling power of Charrière’s story, it’s still very enjoyable. Especially for anyone who hasn’t seen Schaffner’s 1973 version yet.