It was the best of times, it was
the worst of times. The best because Louis XIV, the Sun King, was
on the throne and France was at the height of her golden age,
when her art, literature and architecture were the envy of
Europe. The worst of times because beneath the glittering surface
of the court lay abject poverty, held in check by the ruthless
power of a tyrannical King.
By 1660, the age of chivalry is
more a glorious memory than a reality in France, and its most
famous champions, Aramis, Athos and Porthos, the three
musketeers, have long since retired from public life. Only their
leader, d’Artagnan, remains loyal to the tyrant king, bound
to him by some mysterious and inexplicable allegiance.
This is the starting point for
The Man in the Iron Mask, not so much freely adapted from as
inspired by the famous 19th-century novel by Alexandre Dumas, and
written for the screen by Randall Wallace, who wrote the
multi-Oscar-winning Braveheart for Mel Gibson and here makes his
directorial debut.
"The
trend in movies today is to have one star and a supporting
cast. I thought this could be one of the last great occasions
to put an all-star group of people together" Russell Smith
"The trend in movies
today," says fellow producer Russell Smith, "is to have
one star and a supporting cast. What attracted me to this is the
fact that it had an ensemble cast of actors. I thought this could
be one of the last great occasions to put an all-star group of
people together."
What drew the stellar cast -
Leonardo DiCaprio, who plays both Louis XIV and also the
mysterious masked man of the title; Jeremy Irons (Aramis), John
Malkovich (Athos), Gérard Depardieu (Porthos, who else?) and
Gabriel Byrne (d’Artagnan), plus Nikita star Anne Parillaud
as the Queen and Judith Godrèche (Ridicule) in her first
English-language movie - was Wallace’s irresistible
enthusiasm.
Of course, it also helped that
Malkovich had always wanted to work with Depardieu: with those
two in place, the others proved easier to attract. "Gérard
and John definitely were the magnets," admits Smith.
Malkovich - who first read the script in November 1996 - found
himself overwhelmed by Wallace’s commitment to the project.
"The thing that really attracted me was that Randall was so
passionate about it," says the actor, "and I knew he
was going to get a great cast."
"I don't particularly
believe in reincarnation, but I do believe that we relate to
different ages, and I have a particular feeling for romantic
times - times when people believed that you could put your
life at risk for your honour" Randall
Wallace
Nor did the fact that this was
Wallace’s directorial debut deter him. "I had a better
time on this than I’ve had in a long time," he enthused
at the end of the 14-week shoot, which took in some of
France’s finest castles and country houses. "Randall
has a lot of passion and enthusiasm for this project, which makes
up for anything that you do or don’t get because somebody is
a first-time director. He’s very gentle and has a lot of
humanity."
For his part, the writer/director
explains his overwhelming belief in the project by referring to
his affinity for the period in which it is set and the values it
embodies. "I’ve always liked the classic writers,"
says Wallace, who studied religion at university, has a black
belt in karate and had published five novels before he burst into
the movie business with Braveheart in 1995.
"I don't particularly
believe in reincarnation, but I do believe that we relate to
different ages, and I have a particular feeling for romantic
times - times when people believed that you could put your life
at risk for your honour and that you had a responsibility towards
other people; when what you did made a difference and you were
accountable for it. That attitude seems to belong to a past age,
and I have always liked the writers who embrace big romantic
themes: writers like Dickens, Dumas, Pushkin, Tolstoy..."
"It’s
not the first time we’ve seen the three musketeers, but
it’s the first time that we have seen them slightly
older. This film takes a much more poignant view of
them" Gabriel
Byrne
But, in the period in which The
Man in the Iron Mask is set, codes of honour are beginning to be
usurped by the pragmatism and cynicism of the first totalitarian
state of the modern age. Aramis, Athos and Porthos have retired
to the country. But, like a 17th-century Wild Bunch, they are
drawn back into action to defend the things they still believe
in, even if it means sacrificing their lives to do so.
As a result, says Wallace, the
film is "about men who had once been in an age of glory - of
their own personal glory - and had been famous. But they are past
their best days and have lost the feeling that they had when they
were young - the feeling that they could change the world. Now
they are forced to recapture a sense of the same excitement and
the same passion for honour that they once had."
"It’s not the first
time we’ve seen the Three Musketeers," notes Gabriel
Byrne, "but it’s the first time that we have seen them
slightly older. This film takes a much more poignant view of
them. The dreams they had for themselves and for the monarchy are
beginning to disintegrate."
The touchstone for the events
which unfold in The Man in the Iron Mask happened some 22 years
earlier, on a night in 1638, when Queen Anne of Austria gave
birth to the long-awaited heir to the French throne - but also,
secretly, to a second child, who was subsequently spirited out of
Paris and incarcerated in a fortress off the coast of Brittany.
"I thought it was a
thundering good tale" Jeremy Irons
By 1660, the young king has
established an iron rule, with the court and the nobility more or
less alone in living the Golden Age while the people of France
starve. Louis’ lust for military glory has also earned him
powerful enemies among the Jesuits.
Finally, when Athos’ son, Raoul (Peter Sarsgaard), falls foul of the King - who lusts after his fiancee, Christine (Judith Godrèche) - and is sent to his death on the battlefield, Athos vows vengeance, enlisting Aramis and Porthos to fight once more alongside him. Only d’Artagnan remains loyal to the King - an allegiance which apparently drives a wedge between the old partnership. Athos’ plan is replace the King with his banished twin, who has been hidden from the world behind an iron mask, so close is his resemblance to Louis XIV.
The film was shot in the summer
of 1997 entirely in France, with studio work done at Arpajon,
outside Paris, where The City of Lost Children was filmed.
Chateaus were reconstructed or dressed down, hundreds of
authentic 17th-century costumes assembled for the major fête
scene (shot at Vaux-le-Vicomte, a magnificent estate built by the
same team that later created Versailles), with the medieval
quarter of Le Mans standing in for the old streets of Paris,
which have long since disappeared.
"I
thought there were not a lot of movies like this. It’s
about valour and passion and honour, as opposed to this
machismo thing that’s going on right now with
films" Leonardo
DiCaprio
The Man in the Iron Mask is, it
must be said, a historical fact, his existence testified to by a
record discovered when the Bastille was stormed in 1789.
"Prisoner number 64389000," it said, "the Man in
the Iron Mask." No amount of historical research has been
able to reveal his identity, although the supposition made by
Alexandre Dumas in his famous novel - that he was a royal twin
removed from Paris to prevent factional infighting over the
succession to Louis XIII - is apparently not the front-runner
among theories these days.
