Paris, 1827. Alexandre Dumas is 25 years old and proudly walks the Grands Boulevards. When he is mocked for his skin color, the young author retorts straight away: “My father was a mulatto, my grandfather was a negro and my great-grandfather was a monkey. My family begins where yours ends, Sir. »
Tasty, the anecdote is like this animated series which brings to life half a century of artistic revolution, that of the Romantics. A veritable army, according to its director, Amélie Harrault, and her co-writers, Céline Ronté and Valérie Loiseleux, all three inspired by Victor Hugo: “We crush lyres in our hands, unfortunately unoccupied, in the absence of swords! We sing, as we would fight! “, he wrote some time before making Notre-Dame de Paris a monument of poetry.
Fiery voice-over by Cécile de France
In four 52-minute episodes, the authors summarize Hernani’s battles and the political struggles that shaped this movement. In tune with their era, crossed by countless insurrectional upheavals (1830, 1848 and 1871), the romantics wanted to tear down the walls of classicism. Carried by the fiery voice-over of Cécile de France, the text brings out all the intimate and artistic impulses of Balzac and Delacroix, Sand and Musset.
Providing clever script transitions, The Army of Romantics uses the recipe developed for The Adventurers of Modern Artseries also produced in 2015 by Amélie Harrault. A feat of animation mixing scenes from everyday life, distorted paintings and illustrations coming to life, this documentary sometimes suffers from a slightly repetitive form, fortunately blurred by the brilliance of visual discoveries. Amélie Harrault, César winner in 2014 for her short film on Kiki de Montparnasse, then finds her verve to put into images The Fantastic Symphonythrough which Berlioz reveals his soul.
