Jérôme Perreau héros des barricades: A messy, charming trip back to 17th century Paris

Is this for you?

If you like old French history and don't mind a movie that feels like it was filmed inside a very expensive, drafty library, you might like this. If you need your pacing tight and your action to actually, you know, happen, skip it. It’s for the patient viewer who likes watching people in fancy wigs talk themselves into corners.

Honestly, I’m not sure why I sat through the whole thing, but there’s a certain weird magic to how Jérôme Perreau carries himself. He’s the classic hero of the streets, and watching him try to navigate the snooty court of the King is like watching a stray cat try to join a formal dinner party. It’s awkward, but you can’t look away.

The whole conspiracy against Mazarin felt a little bit like the plots you see in Les Misérables, but with more silk and fewer street urchins. The stakes are supposedly huge, but everyone talks so quietly that I had to turn my volume up just to figure out who was stabbing who in the back.

There is this one scene where they are arguing in a hallway that feels like it lasts for a literal week. I’m pretty sure one of the extras in the background was just trying to remember where he left his lunch. The camera just stares at them, unblinking, while they trade lines like they’re reading from a legal contract.

Some of the performances are fine, but others feel like they are competing to see who can be the most serious. It reminded me a bit of the stuffy tension in Le bonheur, but without the emotional payoff. It’s all very stiff and very French, which I guess is the point, but it still felt like the movie was holding its breath the entire time.

Then there’s the reveal to Anne of Austria. It’s supposed to be this huge, gut-wrenching turn, but it happens so fast that I almost missed it because I was busy looking at a weirdly shaped chair in the corner of the frame. Sometimes the background furniture is more interesting than the script.

I think the movie would have been better if it just embraced the chaos of the barricades instead of trying to be a royal drama. Every time they head back to the court, the energy just drops off a cliff. It makes you miss the dirt and the noise of the opening scenes.

It’s not a masterpiece, and it’s definitely not for everyone. But if you have a rainy afternoon and a soft spot for historical melodrama that takes itself way too seriously, well, here you go. Just don't blame me if you find yourself daydreaming about what the catering looked like on set. 🥐