Who makes the history? How, when and where are made the great decisions that decide the fate of countries, nations, individuals? These questions, which historians and philosophers have asked and debated fiercely for centuries, are elegantly answered in ‘Le souper‘, Édouard Molinaro‘s 1992 film, a faithful screening of a play that enjoyed a great success in France. The film tells, in real time, about a meeting that presumably took place at midnight on July 7, 1815 between two great French dignitaries, a meeting that would decide the path to be taken by the history of France in the first half of the 19th century, after the final defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo. And because we are in France, and the characters belonged to the upper social and political class, the meeting happened around a copious and refined dinner.
Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord and Joseph Fouché were two of the highest dignitaries of the Napoleonic regime, two friends and also political opponents. Talleyrand had been, and will continue to be, the foreign minister and one of the greatest diplomats in history. Fouché had established the first political police force in history under Napoleon, extending its powers from fighting crime and maintaining order to large-scale surveillance of all those who could potentially jeopardize the stability of the rulers of the day. The two discuss in the less than two hours the dinner will last, not only the transition process but also who will be the future leader of France and the political system that will be adopted. Both are political survivors, opportunists and morally corrupt, but they are also endowed with brilliant minds and a certain sense of duty to France, provided, of course, that their roles and positions are maintained in any regime and with any king on the throne. It is uncertain if such a meeting really took place. If we are to believe what we see on screen, the fate of France depended more on the past of the two great manipulators and the power fights between them than on the wishes of the crowds that had gathered outside the palace where the meeting took place, whose protests and manifestations of rage are as as passing as the clouds that gather and the storm that breaks out on that sweltering night of July.
Those who are knowledgeable and passionate about the history of France at that time will enjoy watching this film. The dialogues are interesting and lively, but some details will escape the least initiated. The music of Vladimir Cosma is superb. The racy Claude Rich and the more plebeian Claude Brasseur are 99% of the time on screen and are well suited for the roles of Talleyrand and Fouché. In fact, they had played the same roles in the stage version. As a cinematic experience, however, ‘Le souper‘ doesn’t offer much. It is a good history lesson, a recapitulation for some, presented in the form of filmed theater, with a spiritual dialogue that touches on issues related to the role in history of great personalities, but the camera does not venture apart from the luxurious palace and what it can be seen from its windows. It is, of course, enough for many, but too little for many others.