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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Powerful Recreation of the Middle Ages, January 31, 2003
Beatrice awaits her father and brothers return from war. The family fortune has dwindled but Beatrice looks after the castle and its surrounding farmlands the best she can. These early scenes have a beauty and magic to them and Julie Delpy's etheral beauty seems perfectly at home in this setting. Her world is charmed with wonder and she looks destined to live the romantic life of princess. It seems all that is missing is a father to restore the castle to its former glory. The longer he is gone the more Beatrice idealises this man she never knew. When word reaches her that he is on his way back she is ecstatic. Meanwhile we see what kind of man he is. From the first glimpse Tavernier gives us of him we know he is not what Beatrice imagines him to be. As they welcome the father and his band of soldiers into the castle and feed him someone asks to hear of his exploits...a silence fills the room. Reluctantly he begins to tell a tale quite different than the one the listeners expected to hear. We soon realize a more disillusioned man never walked the earth than this man. He paces the halls of the castle like an animal hungry for prey. Nothing is sacred to him, nothing safe from him. Religion nor family hold any sway over him, he takes what he wants & the biggest prize in the castle is Beatrice. This homecoming begins to feel like a state of seige. It is not long before the prize is forcibly claimed. Beatrice pleads with the priest for protection but he will do nothing that might offend the Lord of the castle. In fact its Beatrice who is blamed for her fathers actions. Her only ally proves to be a female witch and witchcraft in this film seems to be the one activity available for women to feel powerful and it proves to be quite seductive to helpless Beatrice. Tavernier seems to be saying that once a man loses faith his capacity for destruction is limitless. The father defies every natural law and in so doing seems to beg for someone to destroy him once and for all. And finally someone does. In other films Tavernier has dealt with family dysfunction in a profound way (The Clockmaker) but this goes well beyond mere dysfunction. There is something compelling about this recreation of the middle ages as it seems to capture the essence and contradictions of the time--and even offer a very modern way of explaining why such forces co-existed.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
chivalry is dead, March 14, 2005
This review is from: Passion of Beatrice [VHS] (VHS Tape)
Bertrand Tavernier's indictment of knighthood and chivalry gone sour-- is a must-see to anyone who thinks the 12th century was a time of saintly knights on a quest to make the world safe for Christianity.
To Tavernier, it was an un-romanticized time of incest, murder and mad obsession.
Not for the faint of heart, "The Passion of Beatrice" is none-the-less, a film of brazen originality not easily dismissed.
Where is the Criterion version of this masterpiece?
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
It's not all Prince Charmings and Happily Ever Afters, July 26, 2001
By A Customer
This movie disturbed me but was still unbelievably compelling to watch as the three main characters, the father, the son, and the daughter wage an internal war upon each other. The father and son return after an humiliating experience at war only to find that the battle continues with each other at home. The son is constantly berated by the father for his shortcomings. The father forces the daughter to express the same emotions of compassion and love she shows to her brother to him. What ends up happening is a fierce battle of strength versus intelligence. A disturbing, compelling, and haunting movie. Be warned, it's not for all tastes.
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