In the casting of “The Three Musketeers: Milady” in which he plays Athos, Vincent Cassel has more than 70 films to his credit. Find out what is the worst part of the career of the Caesarized actor.
On the poster for The Three Musketeers: Milady by Martin Bourboulon in which he plays the musketeer Athos, Vincent Cassel has more than 30 years of career under his belt.
Having attended circus school and the Actor’s Institute in New York before joining Jean-Louis Barrault’s troupe in Paris, the son of Jean-Pierre Cassel has appeared in more than 70 films and series to date.
Among these numerous works, one of them obtains a rating of 1.3 stars out of 5. It is the worst film of the French actor’s career. What movie is it about?
With 1364 ratings including 321 reviews, Sa Majesté Minor by Jean-Jacques Annaud, French director winner of an Oscar and several Césars, obtains a rating of 1.3 out of 5. It is the lowest rated film in the filmography by Vincent Cassel and Jean-Jacques Annaud (but not that of José Garcia since it is People Jet Set 2 which obtains the rating of 0.9!).
Released in theaters in October 2007, His Majesty Minor takes place in a distant time, before Homer, on an imaginary island lost in the Aegean Sea. Minor, half-man, half-pig, orphan and mute, spends peaceful days. During an escapade, he meets the God Pan – aka Satyr, who introduces him to the unforeseen events of paganism.
Perched on an olive branch to spy on Clytia, the daughter of the Patriarch promised to the poet Karkos, Minor has a bad fall and kills himself. But the latter comes back to life and regains his speech. The astounded villagers discover that Minor is gifted with an astonishing sense of eloquence. On the advice of the soothsayer, Minor is crowned king.
Studiocanal José Garcia and Vincent Cassel
José Garcia plays the role of Minor while Vincent Cassel plays the satyr. Mélanie Bernier, Claude Brasseur, Rufus and Sergio Peris-Mencheta are also in the cast of this fable.
Biggest box office failure for Jean-Jacques Annaud
Last screenplay written by Gérard Brach, faithful accomplice of Jean-Jacques Annaud, the film with a budget of 26 million euros only managed to attract 139,521 spectators in French cinemas. It is one of the French filmmaker’s biggest failures at the box office.
Out of 321 spectator reviews, 139 gave it a 0 star rating… The film is described by AlloCiné internet users as “worst movie in history“, of “porn movie for pigs“, of “audacious bet which descends into the grotesque and the vulgar“, of “complete failure“or even”vile turnip“.
During the promotion of His Majesty Minor, Jean-Jacques Annaud told us that he himself was surprised that Vincent Cassel agrees to play the satyr in his film.
Studiocanal
Vincent Cassel
“Vincent has considerable strength. And when we tell him that he is going to mate with a tree, it makes him howl with laughter, he loves it! Actors look for improbable roles, which they will never do again, only they could never imagine…
Vincent could never have imagined that one day he would be asked to camp a half-man, half-goat being whose companion was a female tree.
Vincent could never have imagined, while attending Circus School or listening to his dad, that one day he would be asked to portray a half-man, half-goat being with a female tree as his companion!
I believe that in our professions, we are looking for that. So he accepts right away, because of that. Because it’s so astonishing and explosive, that’s the pleasure of this job.”
If the vast majority of Internet users wonder what Vincent Cassel came to do in this farce, others like ronny1 note that the actor “seems to have had fun like crazy” and that he is one of the rare actors in the film who manages to amuse the audience.
Guillaume Gaffiot / Bestimage
The film crew at Her Majesty’s AVP Minor in 2007
“It’s my headbutt from Zidane”
Last July, Vincent Cassel returned to his role at the microphone of Jérôme Lachasse for a behind-the-scenes article on Sa Majesté Minor on the BFM website. The actor then declares:
“It’s my Zidane headbutt. Zidane wanted to show that he was like everyone else, that his mother was more important than being world champion. At some point, we need normalcy.
I have been honored for decades abroad. I had the feeling of being on another planet, outside of reality. By making Minor, maybe deep down I was looking for failure“.
Vincent Cassel had just shared the poster for the thriller Dérapage with Clive Owen and Jennifer Aniston, to opposite Viggo Mortensen and Naomi Watts in The Promise of the Shadow by David Cronenberg and to play François Toulour in the film by Steven Soderbergh Ocean’s 13 in which he starred opposite George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon.
His return to French cinema was therefore resounding… But this film did not prevent the actor from subsequently landing major roles since Cassel followed up with the diptych Mesrine by Jean-François Richet for which he won the César for Best Actor in 2009.