HEROIC DUST

Solid factual background, lacklustre style, regimented portraiture: for the story of the last stand of the Chouans, diehard Royalists, a few years after the French Revolution. Through Louis Auguste and Alexandrine, close playmates, growing up in the Terror, seeing their little parish persecuted, their beloved priest exiled, the impossible attempt to restore the monarchy is told, for Louis Auguste at seventeen, joins the Chouans, goes on secret and hazardous missions, meets Alexandrine again and falls in love with her and fights to the finish with the Chouans when they are defeated. There's authentic research in this tale of the last outpost of the crown in Normandie and Brittany, there's sturdiness and a good intent -- but there's little animation.