Female rereading of “Three Musketeers” filmed in May 2023 largely between La Couvertoirade, Lac du Salagou and Villeneuve-lès-Maguelone, “All for one” by Houda Benyamina, in theaters on January 22, is a B-series of swashbuckling pop which is very reminiscent of the Italian western in its parodic side.
A female version of The Three Musketeers, basically, why not? Houda Benyamina as director, the same one who with Divines, her social chronicle as brutal as it is energetic, Caméra d'or at Cannes 2016, three Césars in 2017, had dazzled and divided, why not also?…. But why?
“At the start, in 2019, it was the people at Haut et court who thought of female musketeers but what convinced me was the idea of my screenwriters Juliette Sales and Fabien Suarez to make Artagnan a Morisco”explains the director we met recently during a preview in Montpellier. The Moriscos are Muslims from Spain who were forcibly converted to the Catholic faith in the 16th century and who, faced with the radicalization of the Inquisition, found refuge in France before being expelled under Louis XIII. “Unconsciously, this resonated with the fear that we do not admit today of the risk that Muslims could run today if a form of dictatorship were to impose its views in France…”recognizes Houda Benyamina who, however, does not want to go further in this area. Hers, on the ground, the one that motivated her to rush headlong into this adventure, is not dried up by fear but irrigated by pleasure.
A childish pleasure
“I grew up with swashbuckling films, kung fu films, westerns… I really wanted to make my own fighting film! And then, the musketeers are a bit like our French samurai, it gave me the opportunity to talk about honor, loyalty, courage… and above all, friendship. I truly believe that if anything can change the world, it's friendship.”insists the filmmaker who, to write her film with her screenwriters, proceeded in the same way as Alexandre Dumas: she read Les Mémoires de Mr d'Artagnan by Gatien Courtilz de Sandras… then did something else!
So, Aramitz, Arthos and Portau are three mustachioed and bearded musketeers in search of the Queen of France who has fled to Spain. They must find her before the fifty mercenaries sent after her by this deceitful Richelieu, but they have no idea which direction to take. Along the way, they meet Sara, a Morisco prisoner who promises them her help in exchange for her freedom. Having done so, the intrepid young woman does not take long to discover the subterfuge: the three brave men are in truth three women in men's costumes (a crime punishable by death in 17th century France). So be it, or rather be it: from now on, Sara will be called d'Artagnan.
-Feminist and popular
“I wanted to be part of the tradition of quality popular cinema with which I grew up and which, I find, has been a little lost”confides Houda Benyamina. “HASToday, we either make big shows or arthouse films, but not too many adventure comedies where we can laugh as well as think.”
In fact, All for one wants to reconcile anti-establishment and inclusive feminist discourse with the desire for lively and popular entertainment. It has on its side the commitment of its perfectly chosen cast with Oulaya Amamara en d'Artgnan (“she is the rebellious one”, deciphers Houda Benyamina, her sister in real life), Daphné Patakia as Aramitz (“the visionary”), Déborah Lukumuena en Portau (“the boss”) and Athos (“to anger”).
In natural settings
It also has its natural settings mainly unearthed in the region: La Couvertoirade, Lac du Salagou and Villeneuve-lès-Maguelone in the lead… “Our budget was 8 million euros, four times less than that of a section of the last Three musketeers!”, explains the director. “We turned our constraints into artistic choices: no more castles, long live natural settings in Île-de-France and especially in Occitanie! No need to go to the other side of the world to find something grandiose.”
Besides the setting here rocky, there green, elsewhere Mediterranean, the relaxed plot, built on a series of archetypal ordeals (they face violence, aggression, masculinity, desire, etc.), evokes ancient myths in from which European westerns also drew a lot of inspiration. So much so that the pleasure that All for one seems to us to be of the same order as that which we had watching the parody westerns of Terence Hill and Bud Spencer. Of course, it's a little light, a little heavy; Okay, it's cobbled together, crazy, but who knows why, the energy, the style, the good humor, the offbeat aspect, the gags as huge as the messages, without saying slaps…, we move on to the end a good little time.
