MovieChat Forums > La fille de d'Artagnan (1994) Discussion > Anyone knows why Freda has been fired?

Anyone knows why Freda has been fired?

posted 17 years ago by Imhereandthatsall
7 replies | jump to latest

Why?

[–] toursiveu 16 years ago

Riccardo Freda was fired because of Sophie Marceau. The then 85 year-old director wanted to shoot the whole picture in only 4 weeks. The producers of the film did not agree but it was Sophie Marceau herself who said she refused to play under his direction and asked for him to be fired.

Freda was replaced by his old friend Bertrand Tavernier (who was his assistant on the "Coplan" movies in the '60s). At that time Freda was already very old and it was stipulated in his contracts that there had to be a substitute director in case he'd die. Freda had chosen Tavernier himself.

In La Fille de D'Artagnan, Tavernier pays tribute to Freda's Agi Murad, il Diavolo Blanco.

[–] coral-scala 15 years ago

Exactly!!!
Because of the tantrums of a slutty starlet!!!
Not even Mel Gibson's foolish attempt to turn her into a respectful actress by financing the expensive "Anna Karenina" worked!!!

[–] weschingsdieder 14 years ago

It's really very sad that Freda was sacked for such banal reasons, especially since he hadn't shot a film for so long and didn't get to direct another. I've become very infatuated with his films lately and the idea of a late Freda costume epic from the 90ies seems very exciting to me. Freda was one of the masters of the genre and his costume and historical epics were the reason why he was admired so much by Tavernier. It'll be interesting to watch this film though - to see the references he made to Freda's films.

[–] megatosspot 14 years ago

If he was past it, he was past it.

[–] ofumalow 13 years ago

Yeesh, given her long-term personal and professional involvement with the fairly nutty Andrzej Zulawski, you'd think she'd be pretty flexible in terms of dealing with directors...

[–] Blueghost 11 years ago

It stands to reason. The film has exceptionally high production values, but it looks like a rushed job. Note the lack of coverage in the action sequences. I thought this was a style choice, but, assuming the previous response is true, then it appears that the fights and action scenes used hand held shots to cut down on cost in both time and money.

Wow.

[–] digitopolis 10 years ago

It's understandable why the actress refused to work with him. According to many actors who worked with him, he had a tendency to be a tyrant to show how much of a 'boss' he was (such as bringing large ferocious dogs to the set).

I'm kind of spitefully glad he got fired. Not because of his aggressiveness but because of his apparent lack of integrity. Now don't get me wrong, I think he had tremendous talent (The Horrible Dr Hichcock and The Ghost are some of the best Italian gothics ever made) and I do like his films. I understand why he left the productions of I Vampiri and Caltiki but what he did to Tragic Ceremony was inexcusable. Even if he was working with an inexperienced crew, there was great potential in the ideas and really all he needed to do was make few changes to the script or supervise the editing to make the film somewhat passable (rather than throw a tantrum and leave halfway). I could be wrong though and maybe poor little Freda was justified in leaving.