I rarely come out of a movie theater that excited. Actually, I had a hell of a good time. I didn't know someone would have the ability, in 2001, to make a movie SO terrible it is hilarious from start to finish.
The main problem with Vercingétorix (Druids) is that EVERYTHING is a problem within it: there honestly isn't one thing to save. From acting to music, from set designs to costumes, from editing to focus, nothing here doesn't drown in a "n'importe quoi". As it is impossible here to talk about everything, let's concentrate on what matters: direction. And that may be the worse. Director Dorfmann shows a unique talent for not knowing what he's doing. You can feel he doesn't know what to do with his actors, his camera, his story. Dialogue scenes are boring (but you don't believe in the characters for a second anyway); action scenes have no strength, with battles without choreography nor fights and extras who stop running too soon... Shot in Bulgaria, you sometimes wonder if the 2 crews (french and Bulgarian) understood each other. Still, that would only explain the technical problems, not the entire mess.
The most embarrassing in the end is to see that the entire movie theater is laughing out loud while watching this chaotic nonsense and, then, to discover that this actually cost money (80M Francs) and may be shown overseas as a "piece of french cinema".... No, this has nothing to see with filmmaking, and it definitely is a piece of anything but cinema.
The main problem with Vercingétorix (Druids) is that EVERYTHING is a problem within it: there honestly isn't one thing to save. From acting to music, from set designs to costumes, from editing to focus, nothing here doesn't drown in a "n'importe quoi". As it is impossible here to talk about everything, let's concentrate on what matters: direction. And that may be the worse. Director Dorfmann shows a unique talent for not knowing what he's doing. You can feel he doesn't know what to do with his actors, his camera, his story. Dialogue scenes are boring (but you don't believe in the characters for a second anyway); action scenes have no strength, with battles without choreography nor fights and extras who stop running too soon... Shot in Bulgaria, you sometimes wonder if the 2 crews (french and Bulgarian) understood each other. Still, that would only explain the technical problems, not the entire mess.
The most embarrassing in the end is to see that the entire movie theater is laughing out loud while watching this chaotic nonsense and, then, to discover that this actually cost money (80M Francs) and may be shown overseas as a "piece of french cinema".... No, this has nothing to see with filmmaking, and it definitely is a piece of anything but cinema.