''Saint-Ex'' is a 1996 British

television film A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie, telefilm, telemovie or TV film/movie, is a film with a running time similar to a feature film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a Terrestr ...

, which was released as an episode of the

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...

TV series '' Bookmark'', after its premiere at the

London Film Festival The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival held in London, England, in collaboration with the British Film Institute. Founded in 1957, the festival runs for two weeks every October. In 2016, the British Film Institute, BFI estim ...

.Elley, Derek
"Review: ‘Saint-Ex’."
''Variety'', 24 November 1996. Retrieved: 17 December 2015. The story documents the life of French author-

aviator An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators because they a ...

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger, vicomte de Saint-Exupéry (29 June 1900 – 31 July 1944), known simply as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (, , ), was a French writer, poet, journalist and aviator. Born in Lyon to an French nobility, aristocratic ...

in the form of a "tone poem".Brennan, Sandra
"Overview: 'Saint-Ex'."
''The New York Times''. Retrieved: 17 December 2015. The film was directed by

Anand Tucker Anand Tucker (born 24 June 1963) is a film director and producer based in London. He began his career directing factual television programming and adverts. He co-owns the production company Seven Stories. Personal life Tucker was born in Thail ...

and stars

Bruno Ganz Bruno Ganz (; 22 March 1941 – 16 February 2019) was a Swiss actor whose career in German stage, television and film productions spanned nearly 60 years. He was known for his collaborations with the directors Werner Herzog, Éric Rohmer, Franc ...

Miranda Richardson Miranda Jane Richardson (born 3 March 1958) is an English actress who has worked in film, television and theatre. After graduating from the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Richardson began her career in 1979 and made her West End theatre, West ...

and Janet McTeer. The screenplay was by

Frank Cottrell Boyce Frank Cottrell-Boyce (born 23 September 1959)"COTTRELL-BOYCE, Frank", ''Who's Who 2010'', A & C Black, 2010; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2009 ; online edn, Nov 200 Retrieved 2010-05-16. is a British people, British screenwriter, ...

, while the writer's sons, Aidan and Joseph, portrayed the Saint-Exupéry brothers, François and Antoine, as children.

Plot

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (Bruno Ganz), growing up in an aristocratic French family, chooses to become a pilot. To the dismay of his family, young Antoine leaves to take a job flying

airmail Airmail (or air mail) is a mail transport service branded and sold on the basis of at least one leg of its journey being by air. Airmail items typically arrive more quickly than surface mail, and usually cost more to send. Airmail may be th ...

overseas. Antoine marries beautiful Consuelo (Miranda Richardson), and they set up house in

Casablanca Casablanca (, ) is the largest city in Morocco and the country's economic and business centre. Located on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Chaouia (Morocco), Chaouia plain in the central-western part of Morocco, the city has a populatio ...

. The constant strain on their marriage from his dangerous flights results in Consuelo leaving and going to Paris. Antoine goes after her, they reconcile, but he refuses to give up flying even when he is almost killed when he crashes in an attempt to break the Paris-Saigon air record. By the late 1930s, Antoine becomes a successful airmail pilot flying in Europe, Africa and South America. During this period, he became a writer, with his most famous work being ''

The Little Prince ''The Little Prince'' (, ) is a novella written and illustrated by French writer and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It was first published in English and French in the United States by Reynal & Hitchcock in April 1943 and was published po ...

''. At the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Antoine joins the

French Air Force The French Air and Space Force (, , ) is the air force, air and space force of the French Armed Forces. Formed in 1909 as the ("Aeronautical Service"), a service arm of the French Army, it became an independent military branch in 1934 as the Fr ...

(''Armée de l'Air''), but after France is defeated, he joins the

Free French Air Force The Free French Air Forces (, FAFL) were the air arm of the Free French Forces in the Second World War, created by Charles de Gaulle in 1940. The designation ceased to exist in 1943 when the Free French Forces merged with General Giraud's force ...

in North Africa. In July 1944, while flying an

Lockheed P-38 Lightning The Lockheed P-38 Lightning is an American single-seat, twin piston-engined fighter aircraft that was used during World War II. Developed for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) by the Lockheed Corporation, the P-38 incorporated a distinc ...

on a reconnaissance mission over the Mediterranean, Antoine mysteriously disappears.

Cast

Consuelo de Saint-Exupéry Consuelo, comtesse de Saint-Exupéry (née Suncín de Sandoval; 10 April 1901 – 28 May 1979), was a Salvadoran and French writer and artist, and was married to the French aristocrat, writer and pioneering aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Ea ...

* Janet McTeer as Genevieve de Ville-Franche *

Ken Stott Kenneth Campbell Stott (born 19 October 1954) is a Scottish stage, television and film actor who won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in 1995 in the play ''Broken Glass (play), Broken Glass'' at Royal National Thea ...

as Prevost *

Katrin Cartlidge Katrin Juliet Cartlidge (15 May 1961 – 7 September 2002) was an English actress. She first appeared on screen as Lucy Collins in the Channel 4 soap opera ''Brookside (TV series), Brookside'' (1982–1983), before going on to win the 1997 ...

as Gabrielle de Saint-Exupéry *

Brid Brennan Brigid or Brigit ( , ; meaning 'exalted one'),Campbell, MikBehind the Name.See also Xavier Delamarre, ''brigantion / brigant-'', in ''Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise'' (Éditions Errance, 2003) pp. 87–88: "Le nom de la sainte irlandaise ''B ...

as Simone de Saint-Exupéry * Eleanor Bron as Marie de Saint-Exupéry * Karl Johnson as Didier Daurat *

Daniel Craig Daniel Wroughton Craig (born 2 March 1968) is an English actor. His accolades include two National Board of Review Awards, in addition to nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and three Golden Globe Awards. ...

as Guillaumet * Dominic Rowan as Aeropostal Clerk * Anna Calder-Marshall as Moisy * Joe Cottrell Boyce as Young Antoine * Aidan Cottrell Boyce as Francois * Nicholas Hewetson as French Pilot *

Alex Kingston Alexandra Elizabeth Kingston (born 11 March 1963) is an English actress. Active from the early 1980s, Kingston became noted for her television work in both Britain and the US in the 1990s, including her regular role as Elizabeth Corday, Dr. Eliz ...

as Chic Party Guest

Production

''Saint-Ex'' was filmed and distributed in the United Kingdom. The film was director

's feature film debut, and combines elements of biography, documentary and dramatic re-creation.Allon et al. 2001, p. 334. The use of period documentary interviews in

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white to produce a range of achromatic brightnesses of grey. It is also known as greyscale in technical settings. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, ...

is interspersed with live action and optical effects generated on film in colour.

Reception

''Saint-Ex'' was reviewed by Derek Elley for '' Variety'': "Reach falls short of ambition in 'Saint-Ex,' an intriguing attempt to create a cinematic tone-poem to legendary French flyer-cum-novelist Antoine de Saint-Exupéry that only rarely gets both wheels off the ground. Despite some striking visuals and an evident desire to take a fresh look at the biopic genre, the movie remains strangely uninvolving for much of the time and isn't helped by a miscast Bruno Ganz as the titular aviator. Theatrical prospects look fog-bound."

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Allon, Yoram, Del Cullen and Hannah Patterson. ''Contemporary British and Irish Film Directors: A Wallflower Critical Guide'' (Wallflower Critical Guides). London: Wallflower, 2001. .

External links

*
''Saint-ex''
at the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves filmmaking and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

* {{Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 1996 television films 1996 films British television films British aviation films British biographical films Biographical television films Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Films about shot-down aviators Films with screenplays by Frank Cottrell-Boyce Films directed by Anand Tucker Biographical films about writers 1990s English-language films 1990s British films