Mauro Bologni - Madeleine de Maupin Save me, Theodore.
Hard times. A young and innocent girl is forced to escape. For this, she appears as a young officer Teodoro.
Unfortunately, Catherine Spaak was not at all convincing in the role of a man. Even with her sword in her arms and uniform, her fragility was evident. And this despite the fact that it was very expressive in those years, especially in costume historical interiors.
However, a small appearance in the final of Ottavia Piccolo puts a lot in its place. A few minutes of screen time and her character becomes clear and interesting. Her story is much more interesting, because from the heavyness of Spaak accumulates fatigue.
And due to this circumstance, the events of the tape lost their sharpness. How can her friend ignore this? How can it be so that one of the men guessed at once, and the second - so, it seems, to the end and did not believe in everything? And the other officers, the soldiers, did not notice?
Answers to these questions in the tape were not offered. Not even hints were voiced. . .
We never know the people around us.
What does this all lead to? Captain Alcibiades (Robert Ossein) sleeps with his comrade Theodoro. And guessing all the Chevalier Albert (Thomas Millian) peeks at them.
In the end, all this leads us to a very vulgar and ambiguous comedy of positions. The work of Theophile Gauthier in this presentation turns out to be a kind of historical paraphrase “Only girls in jazz.” After all, if you look at the narrative from the perspective of Alcibiades, he sincerely fell in love with Theodoro. It was in Theodoro, not in Mademoiselle de Maupin.
Bologna is escalating. He seems to be shooting a classic film adaptation of Gaultier, and at the same time makes a very controversial story on the topic of relations between men. There will be no academicism here. Well, the fact that the finale takes place in a brothel only emphasizes the eccentricity of the work. This ‘free’ look at genre historical adventure romance reveals a true rejection of templates. As if Bologna had seen Angelique the Marquis of Angels and decided to shoot something more spicy.
7 out of 10
