'Grenadiers of Love' is a Spanish film starring the Brazilian leading-man Raul Roulien, who (at this point) was young and handsome, but an untalented actor with no onscreen chemistry. Roulien had a brief attempt at a Hollywood career that went nowhere; it's not surprising that his movie career in Spain didn't get very far either.
I'm tempted to refer to 'Grenadiers of Love' as 'The French Lieutenant's Señorita', because the structure of this film - not its plotline, but its structure - remarkably prefigures the structure of John Fowles's 'The French Lieutenant's Woman' ... not just because both stories involve a French lieutenant, but because in both cases a period military drama is contrasted with modern-day protagonists.
Since Roulien's Brazilian accent would sound foreign to Spanish film audiences, he is appropriately cast here as a foreigner: namely, a Viennese(!) composer named Karl, who has a successful career writing popular songs in a modern vein. For some reason, his friends(?) want him to tinker with this successful formula and turn his hand to writing old-fashioned operetta instead. Searching for inspiration, Karl journeys to the Tyrol (apparently hoping to study Tyrolean operetta) where he arrives at the castle of Baron von Keller (Andrés de Segurola) and the Baron's daughter Maria (Conchita Montenegro, quite pretty but not remotely Tyrolean). Giving Karl a tour of the castle, Maria shows him an old painting of Napoleon's troops invading Austria.
Next thing we know, there's a sudden flashback to the days of the Napoleonic wars ... with the same actors in different roles. Roulien, who played the Viennese composer, is now playing a French lieutenant. Montenegro, who played the baron's daughter Maria, is now playing one of Maria's ancestors: an Austrian noblewoman unwillingly betrothed to a cruel aristocrat (Valentin Parera). The lieutenant must rescue the fraulein from her fiance even while he's invading her homeland.
SPOILERS COMING NOW. It's never quite clear what's happening here: have the modern Karl and Maria somehow travelled back in time, to become 'pre-incarnated' as these other people? Or is Karl having a daydream? Or something else altogether? After the lieutenant swashbuckles his way into the lady's heart, we are whisked forward to ... not the present, but beyond it and into the near future. Inspired by his glimpse into the past, Karl has written a brilliant symphony which has been performed to great acclaim, and he and Maria are now betrothed. Happy ending all round.
'Grenadiers of Love' features some very beautiful outdoor photography, although I never for an instant believed that these Iberian locations were anywhere in the Tyrol. Also, none of these actors are convincingly French or Austrian. But there is an exciting rescue scene at the climax, well-paced and well-edited. And the production values are impressive. I'll rate this movie 6 out of 10.
I'm tempted to refer to 'Grenadiers of Love' as 'The French Lieutenant's Señorita', because the structure of this film - not its plotline, but its structure - remarkably prefigures the structure of John Fowles's 'The French Lieutenant's Woman' ... not just because both stories involve a French lieutenant, but because in both cases a period military drama is contrasted with modern-day protagonists.
Since Roulien's Brazilian accent would sound foreign to Spanish film audiences, he is appropriately cast here as a foreigner: namely, a Viennese(!) composer named Karl, who has a successful career writing popular songs in a modern vein. For some reason, his friends(?) want him to tinker with this successful formula and turn his hand to writing old-fashioned operetta instead. Searching for inspiration, Karl journeys to the Tyrol (apparently hoping to study Tyrolean operetta) where he arrives at the castle of Baron von Keller (Andrés de Segurola) and the Baron's daughter Maria (Conchita Montenegro, quite pretty but not remotely Tyrolean). Giving Karl a tour of the castle, Maria shows him an old painting of Napoleon's troops invading Austria.
Next thing we know, there's a sudden flashback to the days of the Napoleonic wars ... with the same actors in different roles. Roulien, who played the Viennese composer, is now playing a French lieutenant. Montenegro, who played the baron's daughter Maria, is now playing one of Maria's ancestors: an Austrian noblewoman unwillingly betrothed to a cruel aristocrat (Valentin Parera). The lieutenant must rescue the fraulein from her fiance even while he's invading her homeland.
SPOILERS COMING NOW. It's never quite clear what's happening here: have the modern Karl and Maria somehow travelled back in time, to become 'pre-incarnated' as these other people? Or is Karl having a daydream? Or something else altogether? After the lieutenant swashbuckles his way into the lady's heart, we are whisked forward to ... not the present, but beyond it and into the near future. Inspired by his glimpse into the past, Karl has written a brilliant symphony which has been performed to great acclaim, and he and Maria are now betrothed. Happy ending all round.
'Grenadiers of Love' features some very beautiful outdoor photography, although I never for an instant believed that these Iberian locations were anywhere in the Tyrol. Also, none of these actors are convincingly French or Austrian. But there is an exciting rescue scene at the climax, well-paced and well-edited. And the production values are impressive. I'll rate this movie 6 out of 10.
