Lucien Rubempré's "lost illusion", the romantic and anthological character in Honoré Balzac's "The Human Comedy", has been adapted for cinema under Xavier Giannoli's camera. Critics of Masque & la Plume generally praised the spectacular and wildly successful adaptation of the great 19th century novelist.

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Adaptation of Honoré de Balzac's great learning novel, with Benjamin Voisin as Rubempré; Cécile de France, Vincent Lacoste, Xavier Dolan who serves as writer Raoul Nathan and also voices; Salomé Dewaels who plays the actress and Mrs. Rubempré; Jeanne Balibar, Gérard Depardieu as illiterate and crooked editors, André Marcon, Louis-Do de Lencquesaing and Jean-François Stévenin a slap in the face in cinema, both in the corrupt and evil imagery of the second part of the novel entitled "A great province of men in Paris ", and where Xavier Giannoli had set his sights.

We see our hero, the young poet Lucien who prefers to add to the name and particle of his mother, Madame de Rubempré, leave Angoulême to make a name for himself in the capital, opting for journalism and finding a press sold full of fake news where articles are paid for in cash and in where we let the little monkey point to a book to be praised or displayed.

There's even a pretty funny satire to "Mask & Feather" for those with keen ears. Here, money governs the press, political ideas, cultural tastes, and even love.

For Charlotte Lipinska, this is "a spectacular film Illusioni perdute streaming, which honestly has a mouth!"
"It's a film that keeps moving, with a very fluid, very rich narrative. We follow the story very easily and it flows.

It is like a rather fierce mirror of our contemporary era reflecting the tyranny of information, the insidious power of rumors, bankers buying newspapers and, above all, today when public opinion is being negotiated, into merchandise.

All the actors are absolutely amazing. Spicy aftershock . It's very well written. The use of voiceovers really brings something up.

The only little thing holding me back in my enthusiasm is that Xavier Giannoli is doubling the wink a little too much for our contemporary time, which, oddly enough, takes me away from the last emotion".

According to Michel Ciment, "Xavier Giannoli signed his best film and won the bet for the highly successful Balzac adaptation"
"The sound goes perfectly with the visuals, absolutely incredible. But I'm worried about this great adaptation of Balzac's book. Most good books don't necessarily make great films. We are dealing with a very successful adaptation of one of Balzac's Works.

I love this whirlpool; the childish side of heaven today; this romantic pleasure; of the reconstruction period".

Jean-Marc Lalanne laments "an adaptation more boring than Balzac, unaffected and devoid of emotional depth"
“If this film is very well made and reflects real skills in the performing arts, then a very subtle art direction, I'm less enthusiastic.

But as Rubempré put it very well: "to write a book, you must have something to say, but also something to be silent about." And this film is no secret. There is a work of signage, absolute visibility of all intentions, including in the play of actors who suppress all possible feelings and which, I, embarrass me ...

I feel dissatisfied, without emotional depth because the film is built on a rhythm that is anything but Balzacian and sometimes boring. It's very feuilletonesque, very degressive. His use of criticism of the press is well supported and tends to resonate with a certain Poujadism which consists in discrediting journalistic work as repulsive".

Nicolas Schaller lauds the "romantic euphoria of the character imbued with Xavier Giannoli's personal journey"
"At first glance, it left me with a somewhat sour feeling of ferocity, and when I saw it again, what surprised me was that, in the end, the film found universal power in expressing the director's feelings. Through Rubempré, Xavier Giannoli speaks volumes about himself. She was a journalist before becoming a director and here she echoes her own journey with the hatred she experiences that the film exploits so much and, at the same time, this search for beauty.

He turned out to be a better polemicist than a poet. He has the intelligence of the players.

It has a very solid form of classicism, a romantic solidity that makes one think of "Amadeus" by Miloš Forman".

Film
Hear all the criticisms exchanged about this film on the set of Masque et la Plume.