Tous les matins du monde, All the Mornings of the World, tells the story of Marin Marais' rise from obscurity to his exalted position as court composer for Louis XIV, the Sun King. The movie strays considerably from the facts for dramatic purposes, and perhaps pays far too much attention to Marais' love life, but, nevertheless, remains a fairly engaging film. The sequences that depict Marais' tenure with his teacher, Monsieur de Sainte Colombe, are fascinating, and provide a glimpse of the kind of strained and competitive relationship that probably existed between the two men. In a later scene, Marais is shown conducting an orchestra. It is a visually arresting tableaux, and provides an accurate depiction of the actual size and composition of the chamber orchestras employed at Versailles.

It is readily apparent that Alain Corneau, the film's director, has paid a great deal of attention to the film's lighting and staging; many of the images are visually arresting and some interior scenes are reminiscent of the paintings of Vermeer. But needless to say, it is the musical score that brings the movie to life. Jordi Savall, the film's musical director has included music by Sainte Colombe, as well as that of Lully and Couperin. Tous les matins du monde won numerous awards and garnered considerable international critical acclaim upon its release in 1991. The film stars Guillaume and Gérard Depardieu, as the young and elderly Marais, respectively, and Jean-Pierre Marielle as the Monsieur de Sainte Colombe. Ann Brochet and Caroline Sihol round out the cast as Sainte Colombe's daughters.

Tous les matins du monde. Video Clip (60 sec. QT movie, 9.13MB)




CREDITS - Photos: Luc Roux/Studio Magazine - R. Melloul/Sygma - AUVIDIS; Photo of Jordi Savall: Toni Catany/AUVIDIS; Marin Marais attributed to André Bouys, c. 1704, Musée de l'Opéra, Paris; Louis XIV, King of France by Hyacinthe Rigaud, c. 1701, Louvre, Paris; Three Muses by Eustache LeSeur, c. 1652/55, Louvre, Paris; Basse viole et cahier de musique attributed to Jean-Baptiste Oudry, c. 1753/55, Louvre, Paris.