Savoy syndrome I may be an insensitive beast, but the film left me completely indifferent. Why? It's very simple.
I'm not even going to cling to the historical component. Not because it doesn’t exist, but because it doesn’t make sense and doesn’t play a role. In fact, if this film had been moved from turn-of-the-century Savoy to France, Denmark or Russia, nothing would have changed. Maybe it would have changed for the better. And there would have been “Dangerous Liaisons”, “Royal Novel” or even a story like Peter took Catherine away from Menshikov. And nothing, everyone lived quite themselves long and almost happily. So the names and titles in this film are absolutely irrelevant – the era here is exceptionally beautiful costumes for the sake of, and what I think was distorted. In any case, the feeling of the 17th century never arose. Come on, I promised not to cling.
As for the plot. Well, for starters, the genre of what I saw can be called anything but "adventure" and "military." Wars for 5 minutes of a smoky bridge, and out of adventures ... er... and not them. There is a solodrama about how a cruel rag king took his wife from a rag-husband. Actually, this plot is exhausted and all, absolutely all plot moves are predictable and unoriginal.
There were many options for the development of relations in the existing husband-wife-king triangle, but the most boring and destructive was chosen. After an hour I realized that none of the characters does not cause sympathy - for the very reason that the path chosen by ALL characters was, roughly speaking, the easiest.
The Duke (at the time Victor Amedei II was not the king of Sardinia, he was the Duke of Savoy) is shown as a dull rag, usually such characters are called much more rudely and directly. He's not a politician, he's not a ruler - he just sometimes puts on a wig and almost never gives orders. In the final, he looks just pathetic, and it is not quite clear why this would be.
Husband rag... Yeah. It is not the Marquis de Peyrac or the Duke of Gorloys, who fought in similar situations. And it is not entirely clear what his importance to the kingdom is, what he does at all, and why there is so much noise around him. In general, he is sad and dull beyond all measure.
Jeanne, Glavheroine, Countess and just a beauty, deciding “if you are so, then here you are” made to regret that she did not burn, although they tried. She is a beautiful girl who really started it all. Pity her? You could have if she had chosen a different path. But as her husband is not de Peyrac, she is not Angelica. Sorry. That would be more interesting. Yes, and if this Jeanne was smarter, it would be possible to twist ropes from the duke, but no – offended by the whole world, she decided to behave so that everyone hated her. A brilliant solution.
To regard this film as a psychological drama, as a faithful wife turned out to be a faithful mistress, also does not work due to, as I noted, the categorically destructive approach of all the characters and the duke’s “ragism”. It was he who proved to be the main rag in the film. The state is in crisis, and he's locked himself in the palace for months and sulking at the world. In stupidity and meanness, only the glorious Achilles of the Iliad can compare with this, who was so upset with his comrades that he did not get a maiden in the division of the spoils, that he calmly watched as the Trojans smashed the Greek camp. The situation is similar here.
Thus, we are not looking at a psychological duel of strong personalities, around which, in theory, the plot should revolve, but at a dull family scandal with breaking dishes. There's no love in the movie. There are no strong personalities in the film. There is no such thing as a beautiful story.
The actors. For the complete absence of other personalities, we can only talk about Dalton and Golino. I want to say right away that I don’t have the slightest complaints about both of them, both are more than on top, and if it wasn’t for them, this film wouldn’t deserve to be considered at all.
Timothy Dalton is very good (well, where is he bad?), outwardly very expressive, Byronically demonic - and completely does not fit his character. Alas. I can't believe that gorgeous Dalton, this James Bond, this Earl of Rochester, is going to be such a rag. Plays perfectly, not his fault, which is that the Duke does not cause any sympathy.
Valeria Golino is much more appropriate. A very beautiful woman who played a naive fool who was reborn as an absolute bitch - yes, she made this movie. Just for her sake, for her excellent game (I didn’t expect it at all, I didn’t believe in it!) I will bet.
5 out of 10