Beaumarchais

National Review, Dec 8, 1997 by John Simon

Uncomprehending reviews may have harmed Beaumarchais, Edouard Molino's charming film about the adventures of the creator of Figaro, which he co-wrote with Jean-Claude Brisville, leaning on an unfinished manuscript by the great Sacha Guitry. I have no idea exactly who contributed what, or how much of it is factual (a good deal is) and how much invented, but I assure you this is a thinking man's swashbuckler, a funlover's history lesson, and everybody's civilized entertainment.

Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais (1732 - 99) started out as a watchmaker and eventually became music-master to Louis XV's children. He married into wealth but, widowed, lost the fortune; made money again through various speculations, and landed in jail several times. The movie follows him through amorous escapades, his famous lawsuits, and his career in the secret service. He supported the Americans in their war of liberation out of his own pocket, and was a friend to Ben Franklin (whom the movie portrays too grossly); he also fought for the financial rights of authors, published a definitive edition of Voltaire's works (on which, as on the Americans, he lost money), and just barely managed to survive the Terror, even though his brevet of nobility was purchased, and the very name "Beaumarchais" was a fabrication.

Not all of this is in the movie, but many things are: the love life, the intrigues, and the play-writing Beaumarchais practiced in his spare time, The Barber of Seville and Figaro's Marriage proving masterpieces. What is outstanding is the light, trenchantly witty, literate dialogue, much of it, alas, lost in the subtitles. The gifted Fabrice Luchini would be an even finer Beaumarchais if he could curb that quizzical smirk of his, and it would help if Sandrine Kiberlain, the leading lady, were more attractive.

But Michel Serrault, in the cameo role of Louis XV, is nothing short of sublime, and any number of famous or less-well-known others are not far behind. Especially fascinating is Claire Nebout as the Chevalier d'Eon, an adventurer who may well have been an adventuress. Most engaging, too, is Manuel Blanc, as the hero's friend and factotum. What matters about Beaumarchais is the wit, the intelligence, the imagination suffusing every frame; of how many movies today can you affirm that?