Rent Scarlet and Black (1993)

Interesting Moral Tale Set Post-Napoleonic Era - Scarlet and Black review by CV

I’m afraid I haven’t read the book but from what I gather from other commentaries on the book I wonder whether or not the character of Julien Sorel has been properly projected in the film. It seemed to me watching the film that Sorel is passively and impulsively victim of his situations and escapades whereas I believe the book is about his decided ambition to attain to high class society from humble beginnings. It is quite late on in the film that we are told he has been a hypocrite all along which the film has not convincingly shown us. This is probably the problem of making a film about the main character of a novel where much of his thinking is discussed in the narrative and which the camera cannot accurately or reliably convey. Nevertheless the film is enjoyable, with location settings and pithy dialogue, particularly the counsel from the clerics who try to steer Sorel on the straight and narrow.