Customer Reviews

Duchess of Langeais (La Duchesse de Langeais) French with English Subtitles, Region 1

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A crumbling cloister perched high on a cliff on the Spanish coast, a wounded and rather pathetic general attempting to see a particular nun in the order living therein, who shun the outside world. This might seem an unusual beginning for a film by Jacques Rivette, who has more often traversed a fantasy-land of sorts in modern Paris, but those familiar with the byways of his filmography will remember several period films over the course of his long career, most notably the early The Nun [VHS] which in many ways foreshadows this late film. An adaptation of a story by Rivette's favorite writer, Balzac, this story of thwarted love and societal repression also at various points recalls the director's obsession with theater, with performance as a daily part of life, and an ambiguous relationship with Catholicism.

After a short introductory scene where we find that the general's object of longing has indeed joined the convent, a curtain closes as if to suggest that the principals are indeed play-acting, and opens again on a scene 5 years earlier in the drawing rooms of Napoleanic Paris. The eventual nun is Antoinette, the Duchess of Langeais (Jeanne Balibar), and it is she who begins the cat-and-mouse game that occupies most of the film, spying the limping Marquis de Montriveau (Guillaume Depardieu) at a party and immediately commanding him to call upon her. He does so and from then on a tug of war between the obvious passions, and the duties and strictures of the formal and unforgiving society around them takes over both of their lives with ultimately tragic consequences.

The unattainable or impossible love affair has been a major theme in many of Rivette's works, most obviously L'AMOUR FOU, Wuthering Heights ( Hurlevent ), and The Story of Marie and Julien. DUCHESS is cooler, more detached, and has an aura of inevitability or fatalism about it, and it lacks the carnality of those earlier films also, being almost entirely a talky mood-piece - though there is one extraordinary "kidnapping" scene which brings briefly to mind the conspiracy-world of many earlier works. And yet Rivette's always remarkable and thoughtful mise-en-scene, his slow camera movements punctuated by title cards (often at unpredictable points) does develop an aura of suspense and growing fascination. Will Montriveau's eventual finding of his lost Antoinette ultimately result in happiness? In death? In scandal? The film is too honest and stripped of inessentials to allow us an easy guess - its only foreshadowing lies in whatever we bring to it of our own knowledge of human nature.

As usual in Rivette's late work the period detail is exceptional, William Lubtchansky's camera-work is as fine as ever, and the acting is committed. It's nice to see Bulle Ogier again, still beautiful and mysterious in her late 60s, now playing a supporting role (the wise and imperious aunt) but still dominating the screen in her couple of scenes. The production design (by Emmanuel de Chauvigny, who has worked with the director for years) is also wonderful - one of the things I love so much about Rivette is that he pays so much attention to texture, to the look and feel of doors and wallpaper, lamps and tables. Only David Lynch comes to mind as a contemporary director so consistently committed to these kinds of details and the "feel" of objects.

Overall this doesn't feel quite like major Rivette to me, but like his previous MARIE AND JULIEN I thought about it for days afterward, and I like it more the more I reflect on it; even "minor" Rivette is still of more interest than 95% of what's out there to me. No US DVD release as far as I know but this Canadian disc is also R1 and is perfectly fine.

I dare you to sit through this movie without perspiring or wiggling around in your seat. And yet nothing overtly sexual happens. It's a no-win situation: can't live with her/him, can't live without her/him. It's a sexual power play, also. These two people are fatally drawn to one another, toy with each other like cat-and-mouse, then throw each other away and continue to hunger for one another. By the end, you feel sorry for both of them, and are also relieved to be rid of them and their angst. Still, it's a tour de force, with unbelievable, measured acting and directing, magnificent visuals - interiors, clothing, nature - a story of two strong-willed individuals whose only tragedy is that they are madly, uncomfortably, in love. In fact, many people resist the very partners they were meant to be with because they fear the commitment, the intimacy, the sacrifice, and finally, the loss. So they end up marrying milquetoasts and mushrooms instead of the powerful, passionate loves of their lives. Yes, I know I'm going on a bit, but it's a hard film to get out of your system. Guess one shouldn't even try.

Rivette is one of the New Wave bad boys, still working at a fairly advanced age and producing masterpieces, of which this certainly is one, right up there with the best French cinema has produced, ever. Yes, he had a lot of help in this one from Balzac and his actors are absolutely first-rate and perfectly cast -- Jeanne Balibar as the Duchess and Guillaume Depardieu as the General. Balzac, ever the cynic, does not do happy endings so don't expect one here. But I certainly didn't guess how this incredibly sad story of miscommunication, misunderstanding, and absolute lack of synchronicity (which includes a broken clock) between two people in love, in every relevant respect, would end. Is fate at fault here, Balzac asks -- colossal bad luck and bad timing? Is it society and it's rigid standards and expectations? Is it religion, which is equally rigid? People stuck in mindsets not of their making, not free to be happy? All of the above? Could this story happy happen today? You bet. Unforgettable movie -- which reminds me I need to get the book, in French.

I just happened to catch this film on a movie channel. I'm ordering a copy of it now. Guillaume Depardieu was perfectly cast. Both characters were, in fact you can imagine them together as a couple off-screen as well. One thing I could say, from this film as well as from a certain personal experience of my own...if you can't forgive you will often regret. It's true that we have realizations, growth and changes during such earth-shaking relationships and allowing for some mistakes, as long is it's really love,is really best. "Too hot not to burn out fast" is a pity.

After reading last summer's glowing 5- and 4-star Amazon reviews of this film, I feel like a cretan, a philistine, a total yahoo for not caring for this movie.

If you like Balzac, from whose novel the screenplay was adapted, and have made your way through Pere Goriot and Cousin Bette (his best known novels in the US) without skimming paragraphs or pages or even entire chapters, then maybe you'll like La Duchesse. (The movie even makes use of novelistic "meanwhile" and "later that same day" and "weeks later" explanatory devices to separate the scenes).

Otherwise, be prepared to be bored by the incessant mind games of two unsympathetic characters (la duchesse and le marquis) who are portrayed by two colorless actors (Balibar and Depardieu).

A couple supporting actors are well cast and the interiors of the various mansions in which most of the (non)action occurs are gorgeous.

This is one the worst french movie I saw in my life
My kids in elementary school are doing better acting job compare to the actors of this "movie"
Movie is extremely boring and acting is awful, horrid !!
Jacques Rivette is a good director generally talking but I don't know what happened in this one (maybe senior moment) but don'y pay a cent for this piece of junk
I'm very sad because I paid a lot for this M...
And by the way I'm French and I didn't have any language issue
It's just a very bad thing