The Lady and the Duke

Starring:Jean-Claude Dreyfus, Lucy Russell, Alain Libolt, Charlotte VÃ©ry, Rosette, LÃ©onard Cobiant, FranÃ§ois Marthouret, Caroline Morin, HÃ©lÃ©na Dubiel, Laurent Le Doyen, Georges BenoÃ®t (II), Serge Wolfsperger, Daniel Tarrare, Marie RiviÃ¨re, Michel Demierre, Serge Renko, Christian Ameri, Eric Viellard, FranÃ§ois-Marie Banier, Henry Ambert
Director: Eric Rohmer
Studio: Sony Pictures
Product Type: DVD

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Seeing a film by the great Eric Rohmer was once notoriously likened to "watching paint dry"; in the haunting The Lady and the Duke, it's as if paint has come to life. To re-create France in the 1790s, Rohmer staged his intimate scenes against blue screens where his digital footage would be blended with backgrounds from Romantic paintings and eerily pure perspective drawings of 18th-century streets, rooflines, and landscapes. This cost-effective technique pays rich dividends, creating a Masterpiece Theatre-type world of such quaintness, it seems impervious to the bloody Reign of Terror crowding in ever more insistently from just offscreen. That's a rough analogue for the precariously privileged existence of our sympathetic main characters: Grace Elliott (Lucy Russell), a Scotswoman relocated to France, and Philippe, duc d'Orléans (Jean-Claude Dreyfus), her close friend and former lover, who's also King Louis XVI's cousin. As in so many Rohmer works, much of the film consists of conversations marking milestones in this pair's now-platonic, yet still intellectually passionate, relationship. But this time the issues truly are life-and-death. --Richard T. Jameson

Customer Reviews:

Rohmer's take on the French Revolution.......2007-01-01

Rohmer returns to his historical dramas in this movie dealing with the real story of Grace Elliot, an Englishwoman (and fervent royalist) who stayed in France during the apex of the French Revolution. One always suspected that Rohmer was a conservative, but who knew he was such a red-blooded reactionary?. If you can put aside Rohmer's unabashed defense of the monarchy (and that is not an easy thing to do, given that, for instance, the French lower classes are portrayed here as hideous louts), this is actually an elegant, intelligent and polished movie. Lacking the money for a big cinematic recreation of 18th century France, Rohmer has instead the actors play against obvious painted cardboards. It is a blatantly artificial conceit, but it somehow works. And newcomer Lucy Russell succeeds in making sympathetic a character that shouldn't be.

The Reign of Terror Had Never Been So Dull.......2006-05-13

Theres little need to give a synopsis of the story, as that has already been done in almost every other review shown here. I don't know why the director chose to use painted cityscapes, rather than actually make the movie on location. The artificial backdrop in front of which the characters parade make the movie seem dull and lifeless and I found myself watching the film with a certain amount of detachment, not really feeling involved wih the people or their lives. If you want to watch an exciting film about the French Revolution, buy A Tale of Two Cities instead.

A Gorgeous film about a terrifying time.......2005-10-05

I loved this film and I highly recommend this beautiful work.

Murder, violence and destruction of all that has been and existed for centuries is taking place. One can watch this film and feel as if one is actually there with the heroine. There are scenes of great courage displayed by Grace Elliot as her world disintegrates in the violence of a revolution that has lost its way and has degraded into murder and a reign of terror that was surely instructive to another cadre of revolutionaries in 1917 and culminating in the purges of a self proclaimed "man of steel" in the twentieth century.

I would acknowledge that is a challenging watch for fans of the fast-paced films that employ gritty realism. It is not a film that would appeal to the action film crowd. "Like watching paint drying" would be an understandable complaint if one expected the Governor of California to roar onto the stage.

This film is not fast paced and its realism is in the faces and body language of the actors -- not in the use of camera angles and close ups. This is a movie where the emotions of the heroine and the other characters build suspense or convey grief, despair or fear. It is a very different form of cinematic expression than say, "Saving Private Ryan" or "The Passion of Christ".

The acting was superb. Indeed, the aristocrats are highly aloof but that was their way and it is not usual for us moderns to encounter this type of aloofness even in the face of catastrophe. To perceive the range of emotions and expressions manifest in this work one should also listen to the tone of voice and watch the gestures of the lower classes -- including the voices of women who are given voice in this work -- the revolutionary militiamen and their officers and political representatives. There are powerful emotions revealed in these faces and the body language is expressive of so much of the feelings being expressed by the characters.

Some criticism is made of the outdoor scenery but I would suggest that the scenery gave one an impression of a world that was both serene and surreal. Revolutionary violence was intruding upon the landscape of a dying rococo world of Fragonard that will give way to the severe and clear neo-classical of David. The revolution is spreading outward upon the old world with the effect of dark ink from a squid into clear water. The interior scenes give one a chance to see the furnishing and appointments of the aristocracy at home in Paris. The revolution was an intrusion upon their privileged lives and their heretofore inviolate dwellings too. The Lady and the Duke conveys this sense of intrusion and violation in a very powerful way.

It is certainly not a film to appeal to the sensibilities of the worlds dwindling numbers of social revolutionary radicals. I doubt this film has too many fans at Communist Party USA headquarters. By the same token, one needn't be a Royalist to empathize with the heroine. To employ ones' Empathy is what is key to the enjoyment of this film. Set aside politics and tune into listening and hearing the characters as they come to life in their era.

It is a film that would appeal to students of history and culture from the unique perspective of the last gasping remnants of the ancient regime. Students of the French language might also find value in this film because the language is crisp and clear

A Bit of Background Helps.......2005-03-03

After viewing this film, my initial impression was that Rhomer & Company failed to quite hit the mark. Rhomer and CGI effects just seemed like too incongruous a combo and the acting, particularly from Lucy Russell, appeared to be wooden and contrived to a great extent. The little figures of actors moving around in front of the CGI sets indeed do like choppily handled puppets. If I was to have written a review after just seeing the DVD, I would have assigned it 3 or, at most, five stars.

Then I thought about Hippolyte Taine. He is a largely forgotten early 20th C historian who wrote a huge chronicle on French History, with a large section devoted to the French Revolution and its causes. The more I compared my mental notes of Taine's depiction of Ancienne Regime France with Rhomer's vision, the more sense the movie made to me. In fact, I now consider The Lady and the Duke (the title sounds silly in English, like a movie about Audrey Hepburn and John Wayne) a work of genius. All my initial objections were no doubt the result of misinterpreting Rhomer's intent.

Yes, the actors, and Mme Elliot (Russell), in particular, appear stilted and overly formal in many scenes. Yet this is precisely the way the aristocracy behaved in that era. It is one of the factors that Taine points out as leading to their downfall. Mannerism and ritual had become a way of life and further alienated them from "the common people." Every word, every movement of every waking hour spent in society was predicated on a strict code of conduct that descended directly from the King and Queen down to the Court, and then onto the rest of the aristocracy. To veer from any of these set standards was to invite ostracism from the caste. Whenever the duke calls upon his former lover, the Scottish born, but Royally connected Mme Elliot, these rituals are carefully maintained. Rhomer does an excellent job of balancing the banal, formal dance these characters must charade through, with the genuine human emotion simmering beneath the surface. The tragedy of the situation is that, like the little figures lurching in front of the painted backdrops of 18th C Paris, these two are puppets as well. He, the Duc D'Orleans (Dreyfus), though cousin to the King, is trying his best to keep in step with the new generation of revolutionaries. She (Mme Elliot) is a Royalist to the core. They are victims of political machinations and of fate. Both are playing with fire, and in the end, both are fatally burned by it.

I wouldn't say it's absolutely necessary to read a history of the French Revolution, in order to enjoy this film, but it certainly doesn't hurt to have some background in order to see where Rhomer is going here. It's a very insightful look into an era that was properly described as "The Reign of Terror." Also keep an ear open for some rather playful literary references tossed in here and there, as in when the Duc refers derisively to Laclos (author of "Dangerous Liasons," which in some ways mirrors the affair between the two lead characters). This is a very artful, in many ways subtle film and I can, after grappling with it for a bit, recommend it highly.

BEK

Revolution Come to Life.......2004-11-29

This is a superb movie that grips from the beginning. Based on fact, it deals with revolutionary France so that the viewer feels, "You are there". The clever ruses used then to get around guards, laws, inspections etc. are fascinating. Highly recommended for those interested in this era.

L'Anglaise et le Duc (Original French Version)

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L'Anglaise et le Duc (Original French Version)

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ASIN: B0002M8QRU

Product Description

(Original French Version) Sous la Revolution, la vie perilleuse de Grace Elliott, une belle Anglaise royaliste resident en France, et ses relations, a la fois tendres et orageuses, avec le duc d'Orleans, cousin de Louis XVI, acquis au idees revolutionnaires. Elle le persuade de l'aider a sauver un proscrit, mais ne parvient pas a dissuader de voter la mort du roi. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ An episodic look at Grace Elliott (1760-1823) and Philippe, the Duke of Orleans, during the French Revolution. In 1790, they are friends, no longer lovers. He suggests she leave France, she warns him to quit the Revolution. In 1792, she must escape Paris on foot. Less than a month later, she returns on an errand of mercy and shows great courage saving the governor of Tuileries. The Duke in turn steps in to protect Grace. In early 1793, she demands a promise from the Duke that he vote to spare Louis's life; he does not, and Grace is furious. In April, he warns her of a search; she is arrested and brought before the committee. Orleans, too, is suspect. The guillotine awaits.

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Rohmer's take on the French Revolution
The Reign of Terror Had Never Been So Dull
A Gorgeous film about a terrifying time
A Bit of Background Helps
Revolution Come to Life

The Lady and the Duke [Region 2]
Starring: Jean-Claude Dreyfus , Lucy Russell , Alain Libolt , Charlotte Véry , and Rosette
Director: Eric Rohmer
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video