Product Details

• Region: All Regions
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00099ZY2Q
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #269,465 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Stunning Sophie, March 23, 2006

By 

Bowen Kerrihard "Bo Kerrihard" (South Bend, Indiana) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Marquise [Import] (DVD)

I first saw Sophie Marceau in the Kevin Kline "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and was struck by her beauty (if not by her acting, as most of the dialogue Shakespeare vouchsafed her was either deleted in the movie or delivered in inaudible murmurs). But her beauty led me to search out other movies she has made (she has made A LOT of them) and I am still agog at her beauty. Two French films prove that Marceau is not just a pretty face: the light-hearted "Revenge of the Musketeers" and "Marquise." The lady is a fine actress, and in "Marquise" shows that she is an acceptable dancer as well.

The plot summary herewith does the movie justice. It starts as a rather bawdy comedy, turns serious and ends in pathos. (I'm not willing to call it tragedy, it doesn't rise to that level, but I do find the denoument touchingly pathetic and deftly forecast.)

Marceau is backed by an excellent cast and the sets and photography, both gritty and grand, are convincingly done. The movie makes King Louis almost human, on a commode or in a pool.

I have made no effort to ascertain if there was a REAL Marquise but I know the king and Moliere and Racine and Lully were real and I told a friend of mine that the film SMELLS as if it were based on a kernel of truth.

The DVD I bought from Amazon is apparently the Chinese edition as most of the text is in oriental characters but enough English is inserted to permit me to navigate through the steps necessary to view the movie and, equally important, access English subtitles for all the French dialogue. The only drawback to the subtitles is that they tend to distract my eye from the stunning Ms. Marceau.

Bo Kerrihard

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A life caught between comedy and tragedy in 1660's France, September 30, 2007

By 

KerrLines ""Movies,Music,Theatre"" (Baltimore,MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Marquise [Import] (DVD)

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

The world of 1660's French Theatre and the prevailing reign of King Louis X1V are magnificently and stunningly recreated in MARQUISE, a sumptuous retelling of events in the life of one young beauty whose rise from from anonymity and poverty to be the queen of the stage results in the truest of tragedies.
The cutthroat and competitive world of French Theatre was dominated by three towering figures,Moliere,Jean Racine and Peter Corneille.The music world was controlled almost exclusively by the famed Jean-Baptiste Lully.All of these men were at the beck and call of The Sun King,Louis Quatorze.It is into this world of rivalries and thespians comes a beautiful,yet quite poor Marquise,whose beauty and exquisite and alluring dancing abilities have been exploited by her parents in order that they all might survive.Marquise is discovered by the great comic author,Jean-Baptiste Poquelin,known worldwide as Moliere, and in a hastily elaborated farce to avoid arrest,Marquise is married off to Moliere's friend and France's favourite "fat comic" Gros-Rene.Marquise is brought into Moliere's company to be used as a "filler" between acts of Moliere's plays.She wows the audience,as Marquise always has,but her true desire has been to act.She is given a chance,but positively freezes on stage.Moliere is commissioned to speedily pen a play in two days for the King's birthday.He uses Marquise solely as a dancer this time.Marquise captivates the King who is stunned and flushed when she does a cartwheel in front of him exposing her lack of underpants.This comic gesture sets the stage for Marquise' rise to fame.Rival author,Jean Racine,primarily a writer of tragedies has also had his eye on Marquise,as a lover and also as an aspiring actress to advance his works in the King's eyes.Marquise gets what she is looking for in Racine, and fame becomes hers through her portrayal of Andromaque,the widow of Hector,in Racine's tragedy ANDROMAQUE.Fame,for all though,comes at a most costly and dangerous price,and the rest of this incredible film concerns itself with the lust and betrayal that is both comic and tragic at the same time in real life for Marquise,Racine,Moliere,Gros-Rene and Lully.
The sets,the costumes,the cinematography,acting and screenplay are all first rate.The soundtrack,though,under the direction of Jordi Savall,is truly a work of genius in interpretation of the era.(The soundtrack can only be puchesed through Amazon France as of now,but it is so worth it!)
What makes this Vera Belmont directed period film is the amount of well researched history that will leave you wanting to learn more about this most interesting and colourful era of life and the stage under the whim of King Louis.
The film is in French with English subtitles.There is also a "dubbed" German version available.
Great companion films to MARQUISE would be ALL THE MORNINGS OF THE WORLD,STAGE BEAUTY and 2007's MOLIERE (see my review at Amazon).

5.0 out of 5 stars My favorite Sophie Marceau film, April 1, 2008

By 

Bill (Aurora, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Marquise [Import] (DVD)

I first noticed Sophie in Braveheart, and since that time I have been able to import nearly 1/3 of her films. This is by far my favorite, not only because she portrays the character effortlessly, but also because the story is readily accessible to a wide audience, there is humor, sex, intrigue, and tragedy all in one film, and Sophie plays the entire range with grace and wit, not to mention her unbelievable beauty. I have shown this to friends who can't stand subtitles or foreign films, yet they have also enjoyed it. The costumes, sets, and cinematography are also excellent, easily evoking the period, and the other cast members are top-notch in their portrayals.