A young provincial aspiring poet. A marquise patron married to a much older man. A grocer's editor who can't read or write. An unscrupulous journalist at a time when freedom of the press was confused with lack of ethics.
The homonymous film adaptation of one of the most celebrated novels by Honoré de Balzac (Illusions Perdues, 1837), an integral part of the writer's comédie humaine, invites us to witness the decline of Lucien de Rubempré, played by the young actor, Benjamin Voisin, who I already knew from SUMMER 85 (François Ozon, 2020), so it didn't surprise me that he managed to take such a long and intense story upon his shoulders.
In LOST ILLUSIONS (Xavier Giannoli, 2021), Lucien de Rubempré (Voisin) dreams of becoming a recognized poet, arriving in Paris eager to make his literary talents known. However, the illusion is quickly replaced by the temptation to indulge in the easy life of a sensationalist journalist.
Throughout the film, the dialogue with the present is evident and we can easily see that the director intends to bring to the 21st century a veiled critique of the journalism that is practiced today, superficial and not very rigorous, as well as a society dominated by greed and absence of moral values. As the book says, "both the political law and the moral law were disowned by everyone; opinions belied by conduct and conduct by opinions".
As for Julien, even involved in the nastiness of Parisian society, still has a certain naivety, which leads him to be entangled in a web of Machiavellian plans that manipulate his destiny as if he were a puppet.
The homonymous film adaptation of one of the most celebrated novels by Honoré de Balzac (Illusions Perdues, 1837), an integral part of the writer's comédie humaine, invites us to witness the decline of Lucien de Rubempré, played by the young actor, Benjamin Voisin, who I already knew from SUMMER 85 (François Ozon, 2020), so it didn't surprise me that he managed to take such a long and intense story upon his shoulders.
In LOST ILLUSIONS (Xavier Giannoli, 2021), Lucien de Rubempré (Voisin) dreams of becoming a recognized poet, arriving in Paris eager to make his literary talents known. However, the illusion is quickly replaced by the temptation to indulge in the easy life of a sensationalist journalist.
Throughout the film, the dialogue with the present is evident and we can easily see that the director intends to bring to the 21st century a veiled critique of the journalism that is practiced today, superficial and not very rigorous, as well as a society dominated by greed and absence of moral values. As the book says, "both the political law and the moral law were disowned by everyone; opinions belied by conduct and conduct by opinions".
As for Julien, even involved in the nastiness of Parisian society, still has a certain naivety, which leads him to be entangled in a web of Machiavellian plans that manipulate his destiny as if he were a puppet.