Casts & Crew
Also Directed by Edouard Niermans
Premier de Cordee begins as Zian, a young man who has traveled from his birthplace in the Alps to Paris, returns to his family home just as his father, a mountain guide, dies after being struck by lightning. Zian has chosen to carry on in his father's work, although he's very much aware of the dangers involved. Along with the death of his father, he's also been confronted with the sad fate of his best friend, who went into the mountains to rescue Ruspoli, the rich client stranded by the death of Zian's father. When the young man returned, it was discovered he had lost his toes to frostbite. However, Zian is determined to become a guide, and he soon wins the attentions of Ruspoli's daughter, Bianca, even though her socially prominent family is not happy that she's become involved with a poverty-stricken mountaineer. A climbing accident leaves Zian with a chronic case of vertigo that threatens his new career, but with Bianca's help he sets his sights on conquering Mount Blanc.
After many years of rambling across Europe the aging Giacomo Casanova is impoverished. He wants to return to the Republic of Venice but he doesn't dare going there directly because he was a fugitive when he left. While he tries to find a way to get a pardon he meets a young lady named Marcelina. The more he shows his affection, the more ostentatiously she rejects him. Even so he doesn't give up on her because her lover Lorenzo has grave gaming debts. In return for the required money Lorenzo tells Casanova about a looming secret rendezvous with Marcelina. Moreover he lets Casanova take his place. Undercover of the night Casanova finally seduces her. Lorenzo later feels his honor was besmirched and demands satisfaction. Casanova kills him in a duel and then goes home to Venice.
Marie Madeleine Dreux, Marquise of Brinvilliers, was executed in 1676 for poisoning. Manipulated by her lover and having kept the aftereffects of her childhood, she does not hesitate to poison her father and two brothers to recover their inheritance.
Cannes Film Festival 1980
