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Le radeau de la Méduse

6.3 130 mins Drama   History   1998
Gémaci   Utopia Productions  
Director(s): Iradj Azimi

Iranian Iradj Azimi directed this French historical drama re-creating events depicted in the famous 1819 painting The Raft of the Medusa by Jean Louis Andre Theodore Gericault (1791-1824). The ill-fated voyage of the frigate Medusa begins when it departs Rochefort for Senegal in 1816. After striking a sandbar off the African coast, 150 civilians row safely to shore, but Captain Chaumareys (Jean Yanne) orders 140 soldiers and sailors onto a raft (minus supplies) and has it cut loose. Only 14 survive from the 140, creating a scandal back in France. Gericault (Laurent Terzieff) later talks to three of the survivors while researching his painting. Work on this film began in 1987, but sets destroyed by Hurricane Hugo caused delays, so the film was not completed until 1990. However, it then remained undistributed until an incident in which writer-director Azimi slashed his wrists in front of French Ministry of Culture officials.

Casts of Le radeau de la Méduse

Jean Yanne

as Chaumareys

Daniel Mesguich

as Coudein

Claude Jade

as Reine Schmaltz

Philippe Laudenbach

as Julien Schmaltz

Alain Macé

as Coudein

Rufus

as Harmonica

Victor Garrivier

as Richefort

Michel Baumann

as Maître d'équipage

Laurent Terzieff

as Théodore Géricault

Jean Desailly

as La Tullaye

Marie Matheron

as la cantinière aveugle

Laurence Hamelin

as la cantinière

Stephanie Lanoux

as Mlle Schmaltz

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