Saint-Exupéry – Die Geschichte vor dem kleinen Prinzen (Saint-Exupéry, Saint-Ex)
France/Belgium 2024

Opening 29 May 2025

Directed by: Pablo Agüero
Writing credits: Pablo Agüero
Principal actors: Louis Garrel, Vincent Cassel, Diane Kruger, Benoît Magimel, Gabin Malherbe

The Little Prince (Le petit prince) is a beloved novella that has enthralled readers of all ages since its 1943 publication in the United States in English and French. Its author and illustrator was French aristocrat and aviator, Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger, vicomte de Saint-Exupéry. In the early 1920s he took private pilot lessons, then flew for the Air Force. By 1926 Saint-Exupéry was one of the pilots pioneering international airmail routes between Europe, Africa, and South America. Which is the point at which the Saint-Exupéry biopic takes off.

Aéropostale’s mail delivery is at the forefront in Argentina, 1930. Soaring side-by-side, Henri Guillaumet (Vincent Cassel) and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (Louis Garrel) are searching for new routes so the company can deliver post faster than its nemeses, trains. A huge challenge considering the aircraft; with minimal instrumentation the aircraft are stubbornly sedate when challenged to go above 4,000 meters. Precisely why Saint-Ex finds himself in a fishy position requiring Henri’s herculean effort to set him free. The ground crew, particularly Noëlle Guillaumet’s (Diane Kruger) radio operators, are versatile, adaptable and quick-thinkers that find clever solutions to unimaginable ordeals. Of the type Henri experiences in the Andes, that then guides Saint-Ex in choosing between his friend or the mail.

Argentine-French director Pablo Agüero’s film flies barely above ground level with his underwhelming screenplay. The protagonists are larger-than-life: the daring French aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry who in down time authored novels, short stories, poetry, and an award-winning memoir, Wind, Sand and Stars, and Henri Guillaumet, the legendary Father of French Aviation. Agüero perplexingly focuses on only a fraction of that, while barely scratching their aeronautical obstacles or Antoine’s younger brother François. Production values are a bumpy ride: Claire Mathon cinematography, Nicolás Longinotti and Christophe Pinel editing, Arnaud Roth production design.

After the Vichy Regime fell and France was liberated, Le petit prince was published posthumously in France in 1946, selling over 14-million copies. Subsequently, it is considered one of the best-selling books in history. Saint-Exupéry – Die Geschichte vor dem kleinen Prinzen is a paltry tribute to a legendary star. (Marinell Haegelin)