EXCLUSIVE
THE THREE MUSKETEERS: MILADY Martin Bourboulon on his two-part, swashbuckling epic.
You wait decades for a French-language version of Alexandre Dumas’ sprawling classic The Three Musketeers, and along comes director Martin Bourboulon to deliver his lavish two-part adaptation in the space of just eight months. This spring saw the release of the rollicking D’Artagnan, in which the handsome youngster (François Civil, right) travels to Paris in 1627 to enlist in the King’s Guard, where he teams up with swordsmen Athos (Vincent Cassel), Porthos (Pio Marmaï) and Aramis (Romain Duris) as the country teeters on the brink of civil war. This December sees the arrival of the second instalment, Milady, where Eva Green, hitherto playing a supporting character in the story, takes centre stage as a treacherous spy in the pay of Cardinal Richelieu.
D’Artagnan proved a resounding success at the French box office, attracting some 3.3 million ticket sales, which makes it the third highestgrossing domestic release so far in 2023. ‘It showed that in France and abroad we could continue to make great spectacle films for the cinema,’ explains Bourboulon (Eiffel), during a break from post-production on Milady.
What, though, inspired him to take on the challenge of adapting such a well-known novel? ‘Like other works by Dumas, there’s a timeless quality to The Three Musketeers,’ is his answer.
‘In France it’s been 60 years since the book has been adapted for cinema. We thought it was a good time to offer audiences a great historical fresco, with strong values such as loyalty, fraternity, a sense of honour and community, whilst at the same time trying to make the story both very epic and intimate by delving into the ma
