Thursday, 21 March 2024

Couleurs de l'incendie


Based on the real-life story of the wealthy Péricourt banking family from 1927 through the early 1930s, The Colours of Fire is essentially a protracted baroque revenge drama. The banker's daughter now in charge of the estate first has to deal with her young son crippling himself by throwing himself out of a window in the middle of the funeral, and then with her unscrupulous uncle and financial advisor wheedling her out of the whole of her entire inheritance. This leads to her developing an elaborate plan to bring down all who have wronged her, and it's pretty easy to guess that this is exactly what she will accomplish by the end. There are other factors in the background, such as a self-centered opera singer on whom her son is fixated, the looming rise of the Nazis across the border and the omnipresent class system, but it is primarily about greedy men getting their just desserts, and relates this fairly effectively and stylishly.

6/10

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