Starring: Jacques Gamblin, Laetitia Casta, Natacha Lindinger, Bernard Le Coq
Distributor: Vendetta Films
Runtime: 105 mins. Reviewed in Dec 2019
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This subtitled French Film is about a rural postman by the name of Joseph Ferdinand Chavel who built a life-sized palace in the French countryside for his daughter and his wife – a project which took him over three decades to complete. It is a true story of a man obsessed with a dream, and utterly resolved to fulfil it, and it is brought to the screen by its Director, Nils Tavernier, in dramatic, semi-biographical style.
Ferdinand Cheval did his postman rounds in the latter part of the nineteenth century in the village of Hauterives in France, south of the city of Lyon. He traversed many towns on his 35km route by foot, and was widely known as the town’s quietly-spoken, ”facteur Cheval”.
One day in 1879, Cheval comes across an unusual stone that fascinates him by its bizarre and picturesque shape. It triggers a dream. He decides to build a fairytale castle in his garden, using the stones he finds on his rounds, first collecting them and storing them in his pockets, and then using a wheel-barrow to carry them home. In the heart of his garden, he imagines and builds an uninhabitable palace, “Palais Ideal”, which is populated by real and mythological creatures drawn from the richness and inventiveness of his fantasies.
Cheval’s life was characterised by profound tragedy. His first wife died of cold and hunger, and he was subsequently judged incapable of looking after his son. He married again and resolved to make sure that Alice, the infant child of his second wife, Philomene – the love of his life – had something to remember him and to be inspired by. He delivered them his “Ideal Palace”. He also lost his son.The Palace that Cheval built was classified as an Historical Monument by the French Minister for Cultural Affairs, Andre Malraux. Cheval’s work was declared a cultural landmark and was officially protected, and it was much admired by Pablo Picasso.
For 33 years, Cheval picked up stones that he collected on his rounds. He worked at night by the light of his oil lamp, and built a lasting edifice that stirs the imagination of everyone who views it. Cheval wanted to prove “what willpower can achieve”. His structure sported figures of classical antiquity as well as ostriches, elephants, geese and flamingoes, and he died a year after it was completed. He had not quite completed it when Philomene passed away, having previously lost his daughter to the same disease.
The Ideal Palace is a mixture of different styles of “naive architecture” and shows the influence of Christianity and Hinduism. The role of Cheval is taken brilliantly by Jacques Gamblin, and the Palace still stands. The film’s Director, Nils Tavernier has dedicated the film to his long time love, and mother of his daughter, Lise. Cheval himself became the uncrowned hero of the surrealistic movement, and has constructed one of the world’s best examples of “naive architecture”.
This is a movie for those who are lovers of great works of architecture and fine art, but it also offers compelling human drama. Cheval was a man of quiet passion who loved his family deeply, but found difficulty in expressing it. The photography in the film is exceptional, and it uses aerial footage of the Palace with Cheval seeming to float underneath the stars above it. Jacques Gamblin brings gravitas and presence to the role of Cheval, and Laetitia Casta is charming and beguiling as Philomene, his beloved wife. Shots of the Palace as it stands today lend impressive realism to the story that the film tells.
This is an inspiring story, movingly directed by Nils Tavernier, and particularly well acted by Jacques Gamblin. It has an incredible tale to tell about a poorly educated man (“a poor peasant” as Cheval describes himself) who produced a surrealistic art-form that still arouses wonder today. This is a film of quality that is a compellingly beautiful movie to experience.
Peter W. Sheehan is Associate of the Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting
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