Review: Versailles (2008)

Directed by: Pierre Schöller | 113 minutes | drama | Actors: Guillaume Depardieu, Max Baissette de Malglaive, Judith Chemla, Aure Atika, Patrick Descamps, Brigitte Sy, Franck Bruneau, Philippe Dupagne, Matteo Giovannetti, Blandine Lenoir, Alain Libolt

“Versailles” is Guillaume Depardieu’s last film (1971-2008). The role of anti-citizen Damien suits him best: Depardieu was already in prison as a teenager, loved life on the fringes and also missed a leg. He plays well in the bare-realistic “Versailles”, a sympathetic, not quite sentimental parent-child drama by Pierre Schöller (“Zéro defaut”). Although there is no star in this film – vagrants are as irresponsible as they are kind-hearted in “Versailles,” Depardieu draws much of the attention with his expressive face and presence. “Versailles” is moderately worked out in terms of characters and plot developments, but there is something in return; nice contrasts and analogies dominate the course of the film. At the beginning we see Nina and Enzo chewing a chicken carcass in the garden of the lavish castle and later, when Damien has taken care of the boy, Enzo takes a fake lake egg from the tourist-infested building to take the sick Damien to the hospital. to have it brought.

For those who go too far: Damien Enzo previously told an anecdote about a lackey who was always with the king – even when he was sleeping. Director and screenwriter Schöller immediately draws sympathy on Nina; although it quickly disappears from view, that is a good choice, given the film’s completion. He cultivates a lot of compassion for vagrants at all; Schöller gets into their skin mainly by showing their simple life actions and group feeling and not their separate characters.

Drifters are good as a category, Schöller seems to be saying. But that does not necessarily mean that the world is bad out there, he shows again through Damien’s father Jean-Jacques, a hard-hearted but ultimately human man who subtly clashes with his son – making it clear that things are not so black. white is in life. Then it is noticeable that the relatively unknown cast has something to offer, although it remains meager what the actors are presented with in terms of text and context; the other way around, the focus on the little Enzo – given the limited acting ability of Max Baissette de Malglaive – turns out not to be so successful; It is also a pity that key character Damien does not appear in the closing sequence of the film. The proverbial tear that eventually came could have lasted longer and perhaps settled in the heart of the viewer.