A splendid piece of baroquery, boosted by the indomitable presence of Gérard Depardieu who is joined here by his son Guillaume. This was the film which was intended to launch young Depardieu's career but he subsequently fell foul of the law on drug-related offences. Dad's footsteps are mighty big ones to follow, but Guillaume does well playing his father as a younger man in the film's flash-back sequences. We're in Amadeus country here, with Depardieu as the foppish genius Marin Marais who delights the 17th-century Royal Court of France with his virtuoso viol playing. (A viol, incidentally, is a stringed instrument resembling a 'cello which was all but obsolete before its revival in the Sixties. ) Meanwhile, his mentor M de Sainte Colombe (Jean-Pierre Marielle) is an agoraphobic who eschews the glory of public recognition. So here is the hub of the film: a master/pupil scenario - a reluctant symbiosis which unfolds into tragedy but offers ultimate consolation.


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