Tous les matins du monde – All the Mornings of the World (1991)

Directed by: Alain Corneau | 115 minutes | drama, music, biography | Actors: Jean-Pierre Marielle, Gérard Depardieu, Anne Brochet, Guillaume Depardieu, Carole Richert, Michel Bouquet, Jean-Claude Dreyfus, Yves Gasc, Jean-Marie Poirier, Myriam Boyer, Violaine Lacroix, Nadège Teron, Caroline Sihol, Yves Lambrecht, Philippe Duclos, Yves Gourvil

What is the essence of a musician? What is the highest he can achieve? What should he strive for? These are the themes of ‘Tous les matins du monde’, a character study of two men who live for music, but think very differently about how they use their talents.

What is shown in the film is, largely for voice-overs, put together by the old Marin Marais (Gérard Depardieu). The great gambist is in his twilight years and during a concert reports on the life of his master and teacher, Jean de Sainte-Colombe (Jean-Pierre Marielle). Through one long flashback (which again includes time jumps…) Marais explains the difference between the choices Sainte-Colombe and himself have made in their lives.

After the death of his wife (played by Caroline Sihol), Sainte-Colombe withdrew to the countryside. He blames himself in his shed on his estate to his beautiful playing on the viola da gamba and loses himself in lengthy conversations with his wife, who appears to him as a kind of ghost. The Sainte-Colombe, despite numerous promptings by the court, is only released from its isolation by the arrival of Marais.

The young Marais is played by Guillaume Depardieu, Gérard’s son, which gives the role an authentic touch, although the two don’t even resemble each other that much in terms of facial features. The young Depardieu comes across as a bit stiff in his debut, but he does have the same physically impressive attitude that his father also has. Marais, son of a shoemaker, who caused a furore as a chorister until he got his beard in his throat, wants nothing more than to shine. For him, music is not so much an end in itself, as it is for the Sainte-Colombe, but a means of getting ahead in the world. He doesn’t seem to care too much that for a position at court he has to sacrifice a lot of what is dear to him. Only when he is old does Marais regret what he has let in his life and how much he has offended and hurt people. This makes him the mirror image of Sainte-Colombe, for whom music is a means to feel contact with his deceased wife and who acts precisely from the love for her and his two daughters.

The film is a very successful drama about two famous French musicians from the time of the Sun King. Their life story is heavily romanticized and is certainly not intended as a real biography, if only because little is known about the lives of the main characters. The existing historical persons are placed in a fictitious framework of special musical gifts and how you can deal with those talents. Marielle is fantastic as Sainte-Colombe and also father Depardieu, who is relatively little in the picture, plays as you would expect from an actor of his caliber. And Anne Brochet puts all her passion into the role of Madeleine, the daughter who is desperately in love with Marais.

What you have to give the French: they know how to make a costume drama. The seventeenth century is beautifully brought to life, not only through the sumptuous costumes and sets, but also by portraying the picturesque landscape as beautifully as possible. Yves Angelo was responsible for the camera work, who won one of seven deserved Césars for the film. The beautiful viola music (mostly compositions by the Sainte-Colombe and Marais itself) is played by the Spaniard Jordi Savall and is often enchanting to listen to.

‘Tous les matins du monde’ does require some good seating: the tempo is slow and there is relatively little dialogue. The actors rely on gestures, body language and facial expression to bring the emotions into the limelight, underlined by the often melancholy tones of the gamba. Those who have the patience to allow themselves to be engulfed will find the film a joy to watch.