Fort Saganne

Although it is included as part of Lionsgate's Catherine Deneuve: 5-Film Collection, Alain Corneau's Fort Saganne (1984) is really a Gérard Depardieu film from collar to cuffs – with Mme. Deneuve making a comely cameo appearance only after the 100 minute mark. A lavish, expensive adaptation of the award-winning 1980 novel by Algeria-born French writer Louis Gardel (who receives a dialogue credit alongside Corneau and Henri de Turenne), Fort Saganne follows the adventures of Charles Saganne (a disarmingly athletic Depardieu, then in his mid thirties) from his impoverished childhood in Ariège to a celebrated career as an officer during France's problematic colonization of the Sahara in the early years of Twentieth Century. As befitting a tale of the Belle Époque, Fort Saganne is a sumptuous, stately and sprawling but minutely realized epic, as interested in the intricacies of human desire and loneliness as it is in recreating a shameful chapter of French international history, in which imperialism marched side by side with genocide and ethnic cleansing. In the title role, Depardieu (poised between Danton [1983] and Jean de Florette [1985]) brings a burly sensitivity to Charles Saganne, a commoner so molded by class prejudice that his only recourse is to bend to its will, to climb the ladder, to play the game while attempting to preserve his essential humanity. "We go through this country like the sword through the fire," Charles writes to his younger brother Lucien (Florent Pagny, who played D'Artagnan to Depardieu's Athos in the 2004 French telefilm Milady) early on in his tour of duty, hinting at the kiln-like trial by fire that is to be Fort Saganne. Catherine Deneuve's "avec la participation de..." billing augurs little better than a bit part but she has some wonderful scenes with Depardieu, as an iconoclastic writer who insults the by-now decorated Charles Saganne in print as a come-on to join her in her cluttered Paris boudoir. Although she is introduced dressed to the nines (and the neck) in period costume, Deneuve plays her first big scene nude (discreetly), discovered by Saganne as she lies prone and asleep (or feigning it) on an overstuffed red mattress that looks for all the world like a giant pair of lips – just one of the film's mad myriad of startling images. By this time in her early 40s, the actress had just played her first older woman role in Tony Scott's The Hunger (1983) but looks seems younger here and alive, and her acting is elastic, spontaneous and vivid. Cast opposite one another for the third time, Deneuve and Depardieu have fun with their few scenes, aided immeasurably by veteran production/costume designer Veniero Colasanti (whose last film this was), composer Philippe Sarde and director of photography Bruno Nuytten (who had shot Bertrand Blier's Going Places [1974] with Depardieu a decade earlier as well as the American prison drama Brubaker [1980]). While it would be unfair to brand Fort Saganne a chick flick, it is nonetheless an intriguing hybrid of the standard foreign legion-style adventure and the sort of doomed-romance hand-wringer that brings a tear to the eye and a flutter to the heart in its final frames. The late Philippe Noiret enjoys a supporting role as Saganne's vainglorious commander and look for an impossibly young Sophie Marceau as a daughter of affluence who sets her sights on the dashing but (to her family's acquisitive eyes) unworthy Saganne. The keepcase copy for Lionsgate's Region 1 Catherine Deneuve 5-Film Collection cites an incorrect running time for Fort Saganne of 108 minutes – the actual running time is 180, or just three hours! The only film in this package that merits a disc of its own, the widescreen (2.35:1) transfer of Fort Saganne is extremely pleasing, with sharp colors (all those crisp military uniforms) and lifelike fleshtones (sunburned and otherwise), plus a satisfying depth to the blacks in dimly-lit or night scenes. The soundtrack is Dolby 2.0 only and understandably limited but adequately robust. The original French language track is supplemented by removable English subtitles. Lionsgate has encoded the long film with 21 chapter stops. As with the other films in this collection, Fort Saganne comes with no extras. For more information about Fort Saganne, visit Lionsgate. To order Fort Saganne (This is only available as part of theCatherine Deneuve 5-Film Collection), go to TCM Shopping. by Richard Harland Smith