Savage State – L’état Sauvage Movie Storyline. The American Civil War breaks out – A family of French colonists, settled in Missouri, decides to go back to France. Edmond, Madeleine, and their three daughters have to cross the whole country to reach New-York. They are led by the mysterious and dangerous mercenary, Victor.
The time is 1863 and French settler Edmond (Bruno Todeschini) is living a genteel upper-class life in Missouri with his wife, Madeline (Constance Dollé) and their three daughters: the headstrong Esther (Alice Isaaz), the sickly Abigaelle (Maryne Bertieaux), and Justine (Déborah François), who has dedicated her life to helping to care for Abigaelle.
The Civil War is raging and while it’s the official policy of Napoleon III that French settlers in America take a neutral position on the conflict, the arrival of the Union Army in town makes that increasingly difficult. When a local dance goes violently wrong after Esther refuses to dance with a thuggish Union soldier, Edmond decides that enough is enough and that he and the family, along with their emancipated maid Layla (Armelle Abibou), are going to take the next boat back to France.
To aid them on this arduous journey, Edmond hires Victor (Kevin Janssens), a laconic Man with No Name-type he has employed in the past, to lead the way. As we see in the opening scene, Victor’s previous job for Edmond, of brokering a deal trading diamonds for French perfume, went badly after Victor tried to pull a scam.
Many died, including that of Abigaelle’s fiance. But the person he was scamming, Bettie (Kate Moran), is not willing to let things lie and, backed by her gang of burlap-masked sidemen, is now in hot pursuit of him. There also may have been a romance between them in the past, and when Bettie gets an inkling that Victor and Esther might be an item, she’s further enraged.
Film Review for Savage State
It could be argued that “Savage State” ultimately seems worse than it really is only because the opening scenes of this French-Canadian-produced period drama are so deceptively promising. But, really, writer-director David Perrault (“Our Heroes Died Tonight”) has no one to blame but himself.
Despite any good will (or at least simple curiosity) he might generate during his intriguingly offbeat first-act set-up, he actively encourages his visually splendid but dramatically fuzzy film to gradually devolve into a gonzo mashup of gothic melodrama, Wild West survival story, and voodoo-flavored supernaturalism, with a side order of slasher-movie tropes and a sprinkling of kinky sex insinuations.
“Savage State” begins by noting that, as early as 1861, Emperor Napoleon III warned “French settlers on the new continent” to maintain “strict neutrality” during the American Civil War. But by December 1863, Edmond (Bruno Todeschini) — paterfamilias of a well-to-do French family situated in St. Charles County, Mo. — recognizes that there’s no way to avoid involvement with the North-South conflict. His worst fears are confirmed when rowdies from an advance party of Union soldiers disrupt a fancy ball with recklessly playful gunfire that has deadly serious results.
So Edmond, his wife Madeline (Constance Dollé), their three beautiful daughters (Alice Isaaz, Déborah François and Maryne Bertieaux), and their Black servant Layla (Armelle Abidou) set out to find a ship that will carry them off to the relative safety of France. (Layla, by the way, is emphatically identified as hired help, not a slave like the human property owned by neighbors pointedly described as “those barbarians.”)
For reasons never made entirely clear, this game plan requires a cross-country trek through the wilds of the American West, with womenfolk required to walk most of the way while the family is guided by Victor Ludd (Kevin Janssens), an enigmatic hired gun with a facial scar that suggests a violent past and a brooding manner that suggests constipation.
Esther (Isaaz), the youngest and least inhibited of Edmond’s daughters, is romantically attracted to Victor, in large part because of his man-of-mystery vibe. (“Do I have the right to ask about your scar?’ “It is the past. I prefer to look ahead.”) Unfortunately, Victor also is an object of desire for Bettie (Kate Moran), a sultry bandit queen who’s pursuing the travelers because, apparently, she wants Victor and some diamonds Edmond may be carrying. Even more unfortunately, Bettie is accompanied in her pursuit by a group of tough customers decked out in the sort of masks one normally associates with violent thrillers about home invaders.
Like so many other things in “Savage State,” a painfully protracted and glacially paced movie with little regard for such niceties as logic and continuity, the exact nature of the relationship between Bettie and the masked men is ill-defined and arbitrarily mutable. In one scene, one of the guys brusquely bats her aside when she tries to stop him from firing at Victor. In another scene, however, Bettie seems to be whipping the masked men into a worshipful frenzy like some high priestess. Well, either that, or she’s setting herself up as the guest of honor for a more bacchanalian gathering. Either interpretation could be valid.
Meanwhile, Layla sporadically evinces extensive knowledge and possible mastery of the occult arts. All of which proves to be very handy when, late in the movie, a heretofore sympathetic character inexplicably turns treacherous, and a score must be settled. Some viewers might be discomforted by the very idea that the only Black woman in this 19th-century scenario is, of course, a voodoo queen. But to be truly offended would require taking “Savage State” much more seriously than it deserves.
Savage State – L’état Sauvage (2021)
Directed by: David Perrault
Starring: Alice Isaaz, Kevin Janssens, Déborah François, Bruno Todeschini, Constance Dollé, Armelle Abibou, Maryne Bertieaux, Kate Moran, Pierre-Yves Cardinal, Grégoire Colin
Screenplay by: David Perrault
Production Design by: Florian Sanson
Cinematography by: Christophe Duchange
Film Editing by: Maxime Pozzi-Garcia
Costume Design by: Véronique Gely
Art Direction by: Sylvain Dion
Music by: Sébastien Perrault
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Samuel Goldwyn Films
Release Date: January 29, 2021
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