A well-known actor writes, directs and stars in a lavish historical production. No, it’s not about Bradley Cooper. Others have done it before him and among them is the French filmmaker Bernard Giraudeau whose film ‘Les caprices d’un fleuve‘, made in 1996, represents an ambitious undertaking with quite spectacular results.
French cinema has quite a rich tradition of confronting the colonial past. The 90s were probably a period of maximum interest for these themes, if we think for example of Régis Wargnier’s ‘Indochine’. ‘Les caprices d’un fleuve‘ explores the more distant past of French colonial adventures, setting its story in the years immediately before and after the French Revolution. The main hero is a French nobleman, Jean-François de La Plaine, who is exiled by Louis XVI due to his involvement in a duel and sent to the post of governor of the French territories in West Africa. His African exile resembles at first Ovid’s exile almost two millennia earlier (weather excluded). He adapts with difficulty to the local morals and is disgusted by the slave trade, practiced both by the ships to the Americas but also by the Arabs coming from the desert, with the complicity of the local tribal chiefs. He exchanges desperate letters with his lover left in France but also finds a local mistress, a gorgeous half-breed. His life begins to change when he receives from a tribal chief a gift that he cannot refuse due to the local customs – a 12-year-old slave girl, whom he names Amélie. Gradually, Jean-François begins to be caught by the fascination of Africa, and at the same time to fall in love with the girl he educates and who grows into a woman. Meanwhile, in France, revolution breaks out. The triumph of the Enlightenment ideas that he had supported means the loss of the privileges of nobility and the position of governorship. What will happen to the relationship between Jean-François and Amélie?
The narrative starts off rather slowly, but viewers who survive the first half hour will witness an increasingly interesting plot, both romantically and historically. The approach is not without its problems, and there will be enough viewers who will feel uncomfortable with the love story between the refined and powerful French nobleman and the teenage African slave. We can also see this connection as a symbol of the asymmetrical relationship between settlers and locals (‘civilized’ and ‘savages’). Screenwriter Bernard Giraudeau tries to avoid paternalism and preconceived judgments and gives the actor Bernard Giraudeau the opportunity to create a complex and not without contradictions role. Director Bernard Giraudeauu relies a lot on the excellent cinematography created by Jean-Marie Dreujou, who manages to convey to the viewers something of the fascination of the African landscape, but also the heat, dust, sweat that constantly surround the heroes. The film’s cast is very well chosen, with several well-known actors appearing in cameo roles. Technically, it is a very well made film. Intellectually, it asks some interesting historical questions without guiding its viewers towards one answer or another. For me, the problem with ‘Les caprices d’un fleuve‘ is on the emotional side. The romantic story and historical melodrama are intense, but the film failed to engage me. Maybe it’s my fault, maybe the story is too far back in time, or maybe the author’s self-imposed detachment to avoid reopening old historical wounds comes at a price.