Colonel Chabert

COLONEL CHABERT is a tedious "man who came back" story; starring Gerard Depardieu, it inevitably recalls THE RETURN OF MARTIN GUERRE and suffers greatly by comparison.

In 1817, there arrives in Paris a shabby, mysterious man (Depardieu) who claims to be Colonel Chabert, a war hero believed to have been killed a decade previously in the Napoleonic battle of Eylau. He employs a lawyer, Derville (Fabrice Luchini), who is also counsel to Chabert's wife, haughty Countess Ferraud (Fanny Ardant), now re-married. Her social standing, along with the lofty political aspirations of her new husband (Andre Dussollier), is jeopardized by Chabert's reappearance, which threat...