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Balzac

2000, Movie, NR, 210 mins

Balzac: Review

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A European mini-series so engrossing and evocative of its 19th-century setting that its protracted running time flies by. Ever since childhood, Honore de Balzac (Depardieu) has tried to distinguish himself in the eyes of his stern mother, Charlotte Laure (Jeanne Moreau). But Charlotte measures success in monetary terms and consistantly withholds her approval. Forever living beyond his means, the impassioned Balzac throws himself into writing and love affairs with equal zeal. Sponsored by the aging Madame De Berry (Virna Lisi), he specializes in controversial non-fiction and even ventures into publishing, but never demonstrates a good head for business. Balzac finds his first best-seller in a spicy, ghostwritten autobiography of notorious courtesan Laure D'Abrantes (Katja Riemann), and later writes the novels on which his profound legasy rests, including Le Pere Goriot and Cousin Bette. As his renown spreads around the world, Balzac receives touching fan letters from Eve Hanska (Fanny Ardant), an unhappily married Russian woman. When he recklessly leaves France to pursue Eve in Moscow, Madame De Berry dies of a broken heart. After her husband finally passes away, Eve weds her patient cavalier. But despite her Balzac's critical acclaim and friendships with such celebrities as Victor Hugo, the penny-pinching Charlotte never embraces her son, who resembles the husband she detested. Balzac, the literary giant, remains an unloved boy at heart, and Charlotte's grudging admission of her maternal shortcomings comes too late, on Balzac's deathbed. Although the teleplay oversimplifies Balzac's psychological struggles, Gerard Depardieu's prodigious performance vividly evokes this larger-than-life man of letters. leave a comment --Robert Pardi
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Balzac's Shorter Fictions: Genesis and Genre
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