As we know, d’Artagnan shed blood. What is less well known is that this blood was sometimes that of peasants… This was the case in 1670 in Vivarais, in Ardèche, during a revolt that bloodied the region against a backdrop of popular anger against the increase in taxes. Pitting thousands of peasants against the royal army led by d’Artagnan, this revolt is at the heart of the documentary D’Artagnan and the Blood of the Rebelsdirected by Jérôme Cassou (A secret joy, Aside).
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From a collaboration with the family of Pierre Ribon, Ardèche historian who wrote the book D’Artagnan in Ardèche After a long period of archival work, this documentary will be screened all summer in the open air at the sites of the revolt in Ardèche (next screening on Friday August 2 in the courtyard of the public school in Joyeuse), and broadcast on September 15 at 9 p.m. on the Lyon Capitale channel.
While film adaptations of the Gascon musketeer often show him as an absolute hero, Point welcomes director Jérôme Cassou and historian Pierre Ribon to explore d’Artagnan’s “shadow zone”.
Point : How did this documentary come about?
Pierre Ribon: It was born from the book I wrote in 2001, D’Artagnan in Ardèche. I was interested in the Vivarais revolt, also called the Roure revolt, led by Ardèche peasants and crushed by D’Artagnan under the king’s orders. What is interesting about this revolt is that André Ribon, one of the peasants who ended up hanged, is my ancestor. There is, in a way, the very small story – that of our family – in the story of the revolt, itself interwoven with that of d’Artagnan. In our family discussions, we found that this “story within the story” deserved an adaptation.
Jerome Cassou: It all starts with the very human encounter with Pierre Ribon and his family. There are themes that really touched me: both this idea of the small family story that is part of the history of France and the whole dimension of regional transmission, of commitment to the history of the region through testimonies and traces that we leave for our descendants. In a documentary film, we certainly embody people, but we also give them a voice; it is in this spirit that Pierre and his four children are integrated into the narrative device.
How did you become interested in this part of d’Artagnan’s story?
P. R. : Since my early childhood, I have been interested in genealogy and local history because my father and uncle talk to me about it a lot. The trigger is when they tell me about the existence and death by hanging of our ancestor. I then decide to investigate it when I have the time, which then leads me to discover the revolt, its leader Antoine du Roure and the role that d’Artagnan played in it. READ ALSO Who will win the duel at d’Artagnan’s castle?
Coming from a rather artistic background, how did the transition to the world of historical documentaries take place?
J. C. : I think that d’Artagnan was a determining factor in my choice. I saw him as the driving force of the film. He is a fundamentally romantic character, who was able to make the connection – necessary for the public to be interested – between documentary and staging. And then I found myself faced with the colossal abyss of French history, which is not at all my specialty. So I did my job as a director, almost as a journalist, and I went to the source of the information to above all respect history.
P. R. : I must say that when my son Denis contacted Jérôme Cassou to make the documentary, I was surprised by what he proposed. I was expecting a swashbuckling film that would adapt my book full of action, violence, blood, death, and I ended up with a documentary that reproduces the second part of my book, more sensitive, softer. With his magic, artistic fingers, he transformed this somewhat sordid story into a plea for the people of Ardèche. So much so that some spectators cry at the end of the screenings in Ardèche!
With its drawings of historical figures, its dramatized readings, its choreographies, this documentary is indeed a fusion of art and history…
J. C. : In fact, I can’t imagine a film, whatever it is, without emotion. And, for me, emotion comes through art, which gives this extra soul to historical knowledge. There are, of course, the interventions of this reader, Émilia Giudicelli, who embodies Pierre’s text in a theatrical way. At the beginning, she is a dancer, as we can see clearly with this final dance, totally improvised, which sums up the film. I absolutely wanted women to be present in the documentary, because we tend to think that conflicts are only carried by men.
Antoine du Roure stands out as the “main character” of the documentary. Is he the perfect antithesis of d’Artagnan, the man of the people against the man of the king?
P. R. : I don’t think Antoine du Roure is the antithesis of d’Artagnan. One is a good guy who, as a good royalist, believed until the end that the king would save his rebels; the other was simply sent there by the king, that’s all. Besides, the Ardèche people are proud of both of them, seen as heroes who honored, served and crossed the Ardèche.
J. C. : Antoine du Roure, it is difficult not to see him as a popular figure. He is a good guy, a small local lord who plunges to the side of the people and puts himself at great risk by becoming the leader of the rebellion. He is kind all the time, a little naive, and meets a tragic end: we can only become attached to him. Next to him, d’Artagnan is presented in his nuances, as the exceptional captain that he was, but also as the “Darth Vader” of the king, who has an almost filial relationship with him. So I used cinematographic stratagems to play on this antagonism, without falling into Manichaeism. Heroes, to love them, you have to hate them.
READ ALSO “The Three Musketeers”: action, panache and luxury castingIs there an element of fiction in the historical documentary genre?
J. C. : For me, the documentary does not necessarily only concern the domain of preconceived ideas, objective realism, and costume reconstruction. It can absolutely use fictional elements, paradoxes… From the first scene, we see Emilia, who is dressed in period clothing for the rest of the documentary, jogging in modern clothes. It is a call to anachronisms, to poetry, to staging.
Do you have any anecdotes about the making of the documentary?
J. C. : The most charming was the day we filmed in Lavilledieu, the scene of the revolt. An archaeologist showed us the famous field where the last and bloody battle took place, this cataclysm between the royal armies and the peasants. I said to myself that it was wonderful, that we would be able to walk in the field… And, when we were about to pass the wall that protected the field, we were thrown out by the peasant who owned the land, from whom we had not asked permission. He did not want to know what we were doing; for him, we were invaders, foreigners who had come to trample his land. We were d’Artagnan.
P. R. : Not long ago, a reader called me to congratulate me on having put the Yellow Vests in the spotlight. He saw a proximity, a link between the Ardèche revolt of the time and the recent Yellow Vest movement. That surprised me a lot. But he never wanted to tell me his name, for fear of being killed by the police.
More broadly, what were the reactions in Ardèche?
P. R. : The people of Ardèche are happy that this documentary is raising awareness of this event and therefore of the past suffering. They are very proud that we have pleaded for their cause. But what surprised us about some of the screenings was the attitude of people before and after watching. Most of them do not know the Ribon family, some do not necessarily have a connection with Ardèche and therefore enter a little reluctantly. An hour later, they come out all smiles, happy, even moved, because d’Artagnan is magical. They discover that the character really existed, that he was not all nice, and that reaches a much wider audience than just the people of Ardèche.
J. C. : That was my idea, by the way: I didn’t want to confine the film to an Ardèche story that would only be appreciated by Ardèche residents. That’s where this whole poetic and fictional dimension comes from, which can appeal to all audiences by conveying a dynamic of the people.
Finally, do we like d’Artagnan or not?
P. R. : When people leave the show, their opinion of d’Artagnan changes. They say they didn’t suspect he had these flaws. But, personally, it didn’t change anything. For me, d’Artagnan is a hero, he was a hell of a guy who was practically the king’s alter ego. And then d’Artagnan’s dark side still mirrors a passage in the book that is not really highlighted: when some rebels invaded cities, robbed the bourgeoisie, raped the women… They had fun disemboweling the inhabitants, putting their intestines around their necks and partying all night with them. It was hot on both sides.
