The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan ★★★★
The Three Musketeers: Milady ★★★½
IF YOU’RE one of those boring people who constantly claims ‘they don’t make movies like they used to’, check out the latest film version of Alexandre Dumas’ The Three Musketeers.
Director Martin Bourboulon actually splits the epic adventure across two films which were released in cinemas within a couple of months of each other.
The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan expertly combines action, adventure, comedy and romance with perfect casting and beautiful set designs and costuming.
François Civil plays the young D’Artagnan, whom we meet on his way from Gascony to Paris to join the Musketeers of the Guard.
In one of the most famous set-ups of adventure stories, the brash upstart manages to offend all three of the greatest musketeers during separate incidents and challenges each one to a duel.
Vincent Cassel as Athos, Romain Duris as Aramis and Pio Marmaï as Porthos all turn up to the first location to discover they will all be fighting the same man one after the other.
The trio take the young man under their wing and all become involved in the complex conflict and battle of wills between their monarch, King Louis XIII, and the treacherous Cardinal Richelieu.
Three excellent female roles – Eva Green as the evil Milady de Winter, Lyna Khoudri as DÁrtagnan’s lover Constance Bonacieux and Vicky Krieps as Anne of Austria – round out the wonderful cast of characters.
There are enough duels, horse chases, political intrigue and heaving bosoms to satisfy all lovers of classic cinema.
The second film, The Three Musketeers: Milady, was filmed at the same time and consequently retains the same entire cast.
As the title suggests it focuses more on Eva Green’s character and her hitherto not revealed relationship with one of the Musketeers, adding a human story to the ongoing political intrigue.
It doesn’t quite have the spectacle of the first film but mostly carries successfully through with a terrifically staged and told story.
Watched at the cinema.