This movie was supposed to be a French gladiator, it was especially expensive for its actor and its director

Unfortunately, it happens that a filmmaker’s career is intrinsically linked to the damaged fate of one of his works, jeopardizing the trajectory of his filmography, or in any case being delayed forever. The often unfair observation is that there was no, or very little, possible redemption. But the small world of cinema is ruthless.

There are not enough reasons to try to explain this state of affairs. a serious disagreement between the producer and the director before the launch; shooting under very high voltage; The budget exploded to the point where the entire company was at risk; A war of egos; catastrophic test predictions; Critical and public reception killers who sink works into the box office abyss, never to be found again… Vercingétorix, released in 2001, tragically ticks almost every box.

French Gladiator

It had to be nothing less than a French gladiator. At its helm: Jacques Dorfman, who notably before signing his first feature directorial debut was the very beautiful Palanquin of Tears in 1988, a credited and respected producer of forty films. He was notably behind Jean-Pierre Melville’s Army of Shadows and The Red Circle; Not so insignificant movies.

More than twenty years after the release of Vercingétorix, the memory is still very painful for him. “They say we’re building armor, but I’ve never succeeded. Of course, when you’re doing public work, you can’t complain about people’s opinions. But still, it’s wrong.” said the filmmaker in the interesting issue of So Film, published in June 2021.

“I made mistakes in the direction, the costumes and the wigs. I should have made it simpler. For me, the movie was not a blockbuster. Only Americans know, ‘It was just a French movie, crafty and ambitious.’ he continued.

A French-Canadian co-production that was very difficult to finance, Vercingétorix accumulated almost every possible drawback. Its main actor, who was supposed to be Guillaume Depardieu, the victim of a motorcycle accident, was unable to get on board.

Filmed in Bulgaria for cost reasons and also because some of its scenery resembled Auvergne, things get tense there for once. The Bulgarian government wanted to co-produce the film and therefore have a say in it, which was out of the question.

The production team discovers one fine morning that fifteen control cars have completely disappeared, along with all their technical equipment… the reason? Local technicians would not be paid… 80% of the team was Bulgarian; The rest were French and Canadian.

“It wasn’t out of control, it was a holiday on ice!”

“We were running late, it just so happened that we were shooting for twenty-four hours.” Dorfman said. The filmmaker also has the pain of losing his father when he starts shooting. Unable to cope with his grief, we understand, he took refuge in alcohol. While Klaus Maria Brandauer, who plays Cesar, refuses to leave the caravan because she is angry with the director, Dorfman also has to deal with Christoph Lambert.

In retrospect, the actor is all the more bitter because the film largely contributed to the destruction of his career: “It didn’t get out of hand, it was a holiday on ice. At 8 o’clock in the morning and at 3 p.m. when the director arrives, already well-attacked, he is down, drunk as a cow in the middle of extras and shouts “Finish the shooting”.!, becomes unmanageable” He was confused.

The fight between the two will be long. “We planned to continue together. I was to do a triptych on the great heroes of French history. After Vercingetorix, La Fayette and Charles de Gaulle. And Christophe was there . . .” Dorfman remembered.

“Jacques’s mistake was that he wanted to do everything: producer, screenwriter, director. After a while, it overwhelmed him, he no longer had the necessary perspective” said co-producer of the film Patrick Sandrin. Critics of the press will strike. “Beg of the Century” is published by Télérama; “Film of Nameless Void” claims Le Nouvel Observateur among other delightful and select works.

Etienne Lerbret, the film’s press officer at the time, said: “He was destroyed. Even organizing interviews became difficult. Many journalists did not want to meet the director.” A wound that remains raw, respectively. Jacques Dorfman, now 79 years old, hasn’t returned anything since.