Isabelle Eberhardt (film)

Last updated

Isabelle Eberhardt
Isabelle Eberhardt film.jpeg
French theatrical film poster
Directed by Ian Pringle [1]
Written by Stephen Sewell
Produced byDaniel Scharf
Jean Petit
Isabelle Fauvel
Starring Mathilda May
Peter O'Toole
CinematographyManual Teran [2]
Music by Paul Schütze
Production
companies
Les Films Aramis
Seon Films
Flach Films
Distributed byPalace Entertainment
Release date
  • 1991 (1991)
Running time
113 minutes [3]
CountriesAustralia
France
Language English
Box office$14,323 (Australia)

Isabelle Eberhardt is a 1991 Australian-French biographical drama film directed by Ian Pringle. The film follows the adult life of Isabelle Eberhardt and was filmed in Algiers, Paris and Geneva. It stars Mathilda May as Eberhardt and Peter O'Toole as Hubert Lyautey. It received financial backing from the Film Finance Corporation Australia and was nominated for three awards at the 1991 Australian Film Institute Awards.

Contents

Isabelle Eberhardt was screened at the 1991 Melbourne International Film Festival and was also released in cinemas in Australia, though did not have a home media release. The film received generally negative reviews.

Plot

Isabelle Eberhardt (Mathilda May) travels from North Africa to be with her father, who is dying in Geneva. Shortly after Eberhardt euthanises him, the wife of Marquis de Mores summons her to Paris. de Mores has disappeared in North Africa, and his wife wished to hire Eberhardt to track him down, as she is familiar with the region. Eberhardt arrives in Algiers, where she approaches newspaper publisher Victor Barrucand (Claude Villers). He is interested in her writing for his newspaper, though advises her to abandon the search for de Mores on the grounds it is hopeless. The French authorities are threatened by her search efforts and confront her about them. Despite that she has already come to the conclusion that de Mores is dead, the French garrison forbid her from traveling further from Algiers. Eberhardt falls in love with Slimene (Tchéky Karyo), a French Foreign Legion soldier, who arranges for her to travel out in secret.

Eberhardt is captured by a French patrol after witnessing them execute an Arab prisoner. A French military officer, Comte (Richard Moire), imprisons and abuses her. Eberhardt befriends an Arab prisoner named Sayed, who is later executed. Slimene reveals that Comte executed Sayed in the hopes of provoking a war. Eberhardt writes to Barrucand telling him everything; her story is printed as front-page news. Shortly thereafter Eberhardt is viciously attacked and wounded by an Arab swordsman. Eberhardt believes that Comte is responsible for the attack. At the conclusion of the sentencing of her attacker to life imprisonment, the French authorities deport Eberhardt. She moves to Marseille, where she is accompanied by Slimene the following year. The two get married, which allows Eberhardt to return to Algiers.

Eberhardt recommences working as a journalist for Barrucand. Her marriage begins to break down as Slimene does not want her to travel away from him. After reaching the outpost at Aïn Séfra, Eberhardt meets a French officer, General Hubert Lyautey (Peter O'Toole). Despite their differences, the two respect each other and soon become friends. Lyautey requests that Eberhardt travel to Morocco to ask a marabout for permission to pursue a bandit into his territory. Eberhardt is conflicted about working for the French, but agrees to do it. After arriving in Morocco, however, she finds the marabout unwilling to make time to see her, and she becomes sick with malaria while waiting. Eberhardt is taken to a military hospital back in Aïn Séfra. Slimene visits her, and Eberhardt asks him to take her with him. Slimene takes her back to his small hut, and returns in the heavy rain to get medicine for her. While he is out he realises Eberhardt will be in danger from the growing amount of water, but he does not make it back to the hut in time to save her. Inside her hut, Eberhardt realises she is in danger when it is too late and declares she wants to live an instant before a wall of water demolishes the house, killing her. Eberhardt reads the final paragraph from her short story "The Breath of Night" in a voice over, as images of the desert and water appear on screen.

Themes

Writing in Australian Film 19781994, Raymond Younis attributed many themes to the film, saying it encompassed "the search for identity and the creative constitution of the self; the nature and role of the writer in a tumultuous world where values are compromised or surrendered; the issue of complicity in dishonourable political and military processes and in the brutality of colonisation; the paradox of tribal conflict among the indigenous people; the need for love and companionship; and the desire for oblivion under a sky which seems to be indifferent to the fate of such restless and tormented wanderers." [2]

Writing in her 1999 book Feminism and Documentary, Diane Waldman said the film referred "only schematically to the complicated religious and political climate" in North Africa at the time, and no explanation was given for the Arabic reaction to Eberhardt's Arab persona. Waldman noted that costuming and make-up for the film highlighted Eberhart's femininity, showing her in profile so that her breasts appear beneath her robes and portraying her as wearing lipstick and eye make-up in the desert, something that Eberhardt would not have done. [4]

Production

Isabelle Eberhardt was a joint French and Australian project. The Film Finance Corporation Australia invested $1.9 million towards the film's production. [5] It was shot on 35mm film and filmed in Algiers, Paris and Geneva. [2] Ian Pringle said he read about the life of Isabelle Eberhardt about ten years prior to filming, and was fascinated and intrigued by her. Pringle said for him production was both exciting and sad. Exciting because he was finally telling her story, though sad because as filming progressed he realised no film about her life would do her justice. [6] Salacious sex scenes which "read like erotic fiction" in the script were shot but not used in the final cut of the film. [7]

Music

Paul Schütze was commissioned to compose the music for the film. Tracks were recorded in 1990. Schütz released the tracks on 1 January 1994 on an album entitled Isabelle Eberhardt: The Oblivion Seeker . Schütz stated he worked with three styles of music for the album: "Romantic European style melodic pieces for the world Isabelle leaves but which never really releases its grip upon her, stylised pieces with a strong Arab flavour which link her to her beloved desert, and pieces in which the two elements conflict to mirror the heart of her dilemma." The album included several pieces of music which were not actually featured in the film. [8]

William Tilland from AllMusic gave the album four out of five stars, saying the "music slips back and forth between European romanticism and a restrained ethnic exoticism which includes touches of synthesized Middle Eastern oud and modal scales. Several pieces combine the two elements in an ambivalent, unresolved fashion, suggesting the tension that exists in the life and mind of the film's principal character", concluding the album is "a rich and majestic piece of work." [9]

Release

The film was shown at the Melbourne International Film Festival in 1991 and the Verona Film Festival in 1992. [10] It grossed $14,323 at the box-office in Australia. [11] Australian Film 1978–1994, published in 1996, stated the film had not yet been given a home media release. [2]

Critical reception

Josh Ralske from AllMovie gave the film 1½ out of 5 stars, saying it was "a flawed docudrama" though due to Eberhardt being such a fascinating character the film was still interesting. He concluded "unfortunately, the film is not quite good enough to recommend to those who aren't familiar with Isabelle Eberhardt's life and work, and those who are familiar with her are likely to be disappointed." [12] Fabienne Pascaud from Télérama gave a scathing review, advising fans of Eberhardt to avoid the film, saying it was flat and silly and filled with ridiculous and unbelievable scenes. [13]

Younis called the film a "hodgepodge", saying it lurched from "one sub-plot to another, while the really interesting material is submerged for significant periods". He praised the film's cinematography and art direction, though concluded the film "undercuts the figure who most represented the creative individual. Somewhere in this meandering film there is a fascinating story about a fascinating person that deserves to be told in more coherent and cogent terms." [2]

Accolades

Isabelle Eberhardt received three nominations at the 1991 Australian Film Institute Awards. [14]

YearEventAwardNomineeResult
1991 Australian Film Institute Awards Best Sound in a Feature Film Bernard Aubouy, Dean Gawen, Roger Savage [15] Nominated
Production Design Feature Bryce Perrin, Geoffrey Larcher [16] Nominated
Best Achievement in Costume Design Mic Cheminal [17] Nominated

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Isabelle Adjani</span> French actress and singer (born 1955)

Isabelle Yasmine Adjani is a French actress and singer of Algerian and German descent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anne Waldman</span> American poet (born 1945)

Anne Waldman is an American poet. Since the 1960s, Waldman has been an active member of the Outriders Poetry Project experimental poetry community as a writer, performer, collaborator, professor, editor, scholar, and cultural/political activist. She has also been connected to the Beat Generation poets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hubert Lyautey</span> French general and colonial administrator (1854–1934)

Louis Hubert Gonzalve Lyautey was a French Army general and colonial administrator. After serving in Indochina and Madagascar, he became the first French Resident-General in Morocco from 1912 to 1925. Early in 1917 he served briefly as Minister of War. From 1921 he was a Marshal of France. He was dubbed the French empire builder, and in 1931 made the cover of Time. Lyautey was also the first one to use the term "hearts and minds" as part of his strategy to counter the Black Flags rebellion during the Tonkin campaign in 1885.

<i>The Piano Teacher</i> (film) 2001 film by Michael Haneke

The Piano Teacher is a 2001 erotic psychological drama film written and directed by Michael Haneke, based on the 1983 novel of the same name by Elfriede Jelinek. It tells the story of an unmarried piano teacher at a Vienna conservatory, living with her mother in a state of emotional and sexual disequilibrium, who enters into a sadomasochistic relationship with her student. A co-production between France and Austria, Haneke was given the opportunity to direct after previous attempts to adapt the novel by filmmakers Valie Export and Paulus Manker collapsed for financial reasons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Isabelle Eberhardt</span> Swiss explorer and writer

Isabelle Wilhelmine Marie Eberhardt was a Swiss explorer and author. As a teenager, Eberhardt, educated in Switzerland by her father, published short stories under a male pseudonym. She became interested in North Africa, and was considered a proficient writer on the subject despite learning about the region only through correspondence. After an invitation from photographer Louis David, Eberhardt moved to Algeria in May 1897. She dressed as a man and converted to Islam, eventually adopting the name Si Mahmoud Saadi. Eberhardt's unorthodox behaviour made her an outcast among European settlers in Algeria and the French administration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marquis de Morès</span> French duelist, frontier ranchman, railroad pioneer and politician

Marquis de Morès et de Montemaggiore was a French duelist, frontier ranchman in the Badlands of Dakota Territory during the final years of the American Old West era, a railroad pioneer in Vietnam, and antisemitic politician in his native France.

<i>Pépé le Moko</i> 1937 film

Pépé le Moko is a 1937 French film directed by Julien Duvivier starring Jean Gabin, based on a novel of the same name by Henri La Barthe and with sets by Jacques Krauss. An example of the 1930s French movement known as poetic realism, it recounts the trapping of a gangster on the run in Algiers, who believes that he is safe from arrest in the Casbah.

Richard Moir is an Australian former actor and editor. He is known for many Australian film roles and in the TV soap opera Prisoner as the original character of electrician Eddie Cook. He is also well known for playing "Dad" Tony Twist in the children's comedy Round the Twist.

Major-General Khaled Nezzar was an Algerian general and a member of the High Council of State of Algeria. He was born in the douar of Thlet, in Seriana in the Batna region. His father, Rahal Nezzar, was a former non-commissioned officer in the French army who had turned to farming after World War II. His mother died in 1941.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aïn Séfra</span> Municipality in Naâma, Algeria

Aïn Séfra is a municipality in Naâma Province, Algeria. It is the district seat of Aïn Séfra District and it has a population of 47,415, which gives it 11 seats in the PMA. Its postal code is 45200 and its municipal code is 4503. It is the second most populated municipality in the province after Mécheria.

Ian Pringle is an Australian film director, producer and screenwriter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edmonde Charles-Roux</span> French writer (1920–2016)

Edmonde Charles-Roux was a French writer.

Jacqueline Roumeguère-Eberhardt was a French anthropologist, research director at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and Africa specialist. She conducted pioneering research in Southern Africa, Central and Kenya, which led her to develop the project "Totemic Geography of Africa "(TGA). During her career, she has collected valuable fieldwork material which now constitute a substantial archive. She is the author of numerous scientific publications in French and English.

<i>Isabelle Eberhardt: The Oblivion Seeker</i> 1994 soundtrack album by Paul Schütze

Isabelle Eberhardt: The Oblivion Seeker is a soundtrack album by the ambient composer Paul Schütze, released in 1994 through SDV Tonträger. The music was composed for the 1991 Australian film Isabelle Eberhardt directed by Ian Pringle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Si Kaddour Benghabrit</span> Algerian imam and translator

Abdelkader Ben Ghabrit, commonly known as Si Kaddour Benghabrit was an Algerian religious leader, translator and interpreter who worked for the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was the first rector of the Great Mosque of Paris.

Lalla Zaynab was an Algerian Sufi Muslim spiritual leader. Regarded as a living saint by her followers, she fought a bitter battle over the succession of her father's barakah and Zawiya with her cousin Sa'id ibn Lakhdar which involved the French colonial administration. She would later build a friendship with Isabelle Eberhardt.

Wages of Virtue is a 1924 American silent drama film directed by Allan Dwan and written by Forrest Halsey and Percival Christopher Wren. The film stars Gloria Swanson, Ben Lyon, Norman Trevor, Ivan Linow, Armand Cortes, Adrienne D'Ambricourt, and Paul Panzer. The film was released on November 10, 1924, by Paramount Pictures. It was shot at the Astoria Studios in New York.


Cecily Joan Mackworth was a Welsh writer, journalist, poet and explorer.

The 19 martyrs of Algeria were a group of nineteen individuals slain in Algeria between 1994 and 1996 during the Algerian Civil War. They all were priests or professed religious belonging to religious congregations, including seven Trappist Cistercian monks; one was a bishop. Their nations of origin were France (15), French protectorate of Tunisia (1), Spain (2), and Belgium (1).

Rabhi Zohra, better known under her pseudonym Safia Ketou,, 15 November 1944 – Algiers, 29 January 1989) was an Algerian writer, poet and playwright, one of her country's most eminent writers in the period following Algerian independence from France and the first science fiction author in Algeria.

References

  1. Murray, Scott (December 1990). "Ian Pringle: In for the Long Haul". Cinema Papers . pp. 6–13.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Murray 1996, p. 342.
  3. Verhoeven 1999, p. 354.
  4. Waldman 1999, p. 292.
  5. Evans, Bob (18 October 1991). "Our Piece of the Action". The Australian Financial Review . p. 33.
  6. "Isabelle Eberhardt". Flach Film (in French). Archived from the original on 30 August 2016. Retrieved 11 October 2016.
  7. Waldman 1999, p. 306.
  8. "Isabelle Eberhardt: The Oblivion Seeker". Paul Schütze. Archived from the original on 24 February 2015. Retrieved 3 October 2016.
  9. Tilland, William. "Isabelle Eberhardt: The Oblivion Seeker". AllMusic . Archived from the original on 3 October 2016. Retrieved 3 October 2016.
  10. "Isabelle Eberhardt (1991)". Screen Australia . Archived from the original on 3 October 2016. Retrieved 29 October 2015.
  11. "Australian Films at the Australian Box Office" (PDF). Film Victoria . Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2015. Retrieved 29 October 2015.
  12. Ralske, Josh. "Isabelle Eberhardt (1990): Review". AllMovie . Archived from the original on 3 October 2016. Retrieved 29 October 2015.
  13. "Isabelle Eberhardt". Télérama . Archived from the original on 3 January 2017. Retrieved 3 January 2017.
  14. "1991 Winners & Nominees". AACTA Awards . Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 29 October 2015.
  15. French 2009, p. 180.
  16. French 2009, p. 169.
  17. French 2009, p. 158.

Bibliography