reiher@ucla-cs.UUCP (03/25/85)
I've always been something of a sucker for Foreign Legion
movies, and imperialistic adventure movies in general. I know
that this is an ideological weakness, but none the less. They
don't make these films any more, partially because, believe it or
not, most Hollywood moviemakers are liberals and don't approve of
imperialism. Of course, poor box office and the fact that you
might as well not bother releasing it outside of North America
and Europe also play their part. "Fort Saganne", a French film,
is something of an anomaly, then. It tries to hedge its bets by
taking on a mildly disapproving view of it all, but this attitude
doesn't really wash. "Fort Saganne" isn't quite a Foreign Legion
movie, since it deals with French Colonial troops rather than the
Legion, but most of the bag and baggage of the old sand dune spe-
cials is there: marauding Arabs, the desperate stand against the
hordes, "march or die", and so forth. "Fort Saganne" definitely
aspires to be an epic, both in scope and length (3 hours). It
doesn't quite make it, but it's pretty good fun throughout.
The story is set in the early 20th century, mostly in the
French Sahara colonies. Lieutenant Saganne (Gerard Depardieu), a
brilliant young officer of peasant background, begins to make a
name for himself in the more civilized areas of the colonies.
Phillipe Noiret, as the colonel who has near total authority over
the entire Sahara region, takes him along on a mission deep into
the desert, where they must persuade some bolting tribes to re-
turn to French territory. Eventually, though the leader of the
largest of the tribes is persuaded, a younger chieftain takes his
followers off into the deepest desert, and Saganne is detailed to
pursue him and convince him to return. This adventure, taking up
the first half of the film, is the most exciting and overall best
part of the film. It is also the most intellectually interest-
ing, for it is here that "Fort Saganne" makes a stab at saying
something about colonialism. It's not a very deep statement and
is unlikely to butter many parsnips with Arabs, but at least it's
an attempt. Here also we get to see Saganne maturing through his
contact with the desert and responsibility, which is the only
character development in the film which has any depth.
Saganne returns a hero and is bundled off to France to drum
up support for a campaign to destroy the hostile tribes south of
the colonies' border. Here we get a dreary subplot involving
Saganne's brother, who wishes to make a career-destroying mar-
riage. Saganne himself is rather in danger that way, as he and
the daughter of the aristocratic governor of the Sahara have be-
come infatuated with each other, a prospect which sits poorly
with the girl's parents. Saganne has an affair with a lady jour-
nalist (Catherine Deneuve) before returning to more Saharan
heroics. The film ends up in the fields of France during the
First World War, where the native colonial troops from North
Africa fight and die for the French. "Fort Saganne" gets much
less from this situation than one might expect, which makes me
doubt the sincerity of the lackadaisical anti-imperialism message
that it toyed with earlier. If the film can't get really angry
and self-righteous about this abuse of colonial power, I must
doubt the depths of the filmmakers' convictions.
Alain Corneau, the director, does a competent job, treading
rather heavily in the footsteps of David Lean's "Lawrence of Ara-
bia". The pace is never very rapid, but it's not too slow ei-
ther. Corneau does blow his big battle scene by building to a
climax too soon (he should have watched "Zulu" a few times before
staging it), he has trouble differentiating some of the support-
ing characters, and he doesn't tie things together too neatly.
In a few places, the film has a surprisingly hurried feel, espe-
cially considering the dawdling it does in some other places.
Corneau, Henri de Turenne, and Louis Gardel adapted a French into
the script, and a few novelistic touches, largely inappropriate,
remain. A more thorough pruning could easily have eliminated an
unnecessary half hour from "Fort Saganne", and it's a pity this
wasn't done.
The wide screen photography is quite lovely, though it also
owes something to "Lawrence of Arabia". Corneau and his cinema-
tographer, Bruno Nuytten, make good use of the wide screen format
to display the vast emptiness of the desert. Corneau and Nuytten
also pull a few good tricks for some of the action sequences.
Phillipe Sarde provided the score, which is centered around a
single lovely and surprisingly versatile melody.
Depardieu makes a very fine hero. Saganne isn't a part
that's particularly difficult to play, but it does require an
inner strength suggestive of true heroism, and Depardieu provides
that quite well. Noiret is fine, as usual, as the Colonel who
understands the desert and its people. His disappearance from
the latter half of the film leaves little for Depardieu to play
off of. Deneuve's part is brief and essentially dispensable.
Sophie Marceau is beautiful and convincing as the love of
Depardieu's life, but the effect she actually has on Saganne
isn't made too clear.
The program for Filmex described "Fort Saganne" as having
"wide commercial appeal", and that's as good a description of the
film as any. "Fort Saganne" is usually entertaining and occa-
sionally striking and even powerful (particularly in an amputa-
tion scene that is quite grisly without being explicit). I doubt
if it will do big business in Tunisia, say, or Morocco, but it
should do quite nicely in the US. Why, if everyone weren't talk-
ing in French, it might even be a Hollywood movie! Expect it out
within the next year. If you don't have terribly strong feelings
about colonialism, its romanticism and adventure will probably
entertain you. If you do have strong feelings, you can spend a
wonderful three hours thinking up sizzling flames to direct at
it. Either way, you should have some fun.
--
Peter Reiher
reiher@ucla-cs.arpa
{...ihnp4,ucbvax,sdcrdcf}!ucla-cs!reiher