Product Details

• Actors: Jeanne Balibar, Bulle Ogier, Guillaume Depardieu, Michel Piccoli, Anne Cantineau
• Format: PAL, Adult, Import, Subtitled
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 2 (Read more about DVD formats.)
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Run Time: 132 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0018IPNPA
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #358,359 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

You will need a REGION FREE DVD PLAYER to watch this movie****Region 2 - Pal**Import***LANGUAGES: French*Optional English Subtitles**Running Time: 132 min** Jacques Rivette's masterful film tells the tale of an ill-fated love affair between a Parisian socialite and a Napoleonic war hero. Their story unfolds amidst the extravagant balls of restoration-era Paris where the handsome General Armand de Montriveau (Guillaume Depardieu) encounters the beautiful, coquettish but married Antoinette de Langeais (Jeanne Balibar). Vowing that she will be his lover, Montriveau pursues the alluring Antoinette who in turn orchestrates a calculating game of seduction but repeatedly rebuffs his advances. Humiliated, Montriveau seeks revenge just as Antoinette's passion for him awakens, and a perverse romantic power struggle ensues. Once again adapting Balzac the source of his acclaimed 'La Belle Noiseuse' Rivette's subtle and superbly acted drama is a riveting exploration of the intricacies of love and desire....***French Director Jacques Rivette has already shown he is a master in directing movies in historical settings, as in Jeanne la pucelle or Suzanne Simonin. But in this one he actually surpassed himself. One of Rivette's best movies!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars THE DUCHESS OF LANGEAIS, July 31, 2008

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Bulle Ogier in Don't Touch the Axe Aka Ne Touchez Pas a La Hache DVD Import Region 2 Pal French Audio with English Subtitles (DVD)

Honoré de Balzac's novel LA DUCHESSE DU LANGEAIS has been transformed by screenwriter Pascal Bonitzer for the screen as NE TOUCHEZ PAS A LA HACHE and the result is a mixture of proscenium stage pictures, and scenes separated by written dialogue that merely lets the viewer know such unnecessary details such as that fact that time has passed, and well over two hours of an uninvolving courtship between a sensualist and a coquette. While it is a pleasure to remember the times of Balzac and his way with lusty themes, watching this film version can be tedious - at best.

Fans of director Jacques Rivette will find much to enjoy in this adaptation: the pacing of the film feels important to his concept of the development of the story - the stifling boredom of the evenings of balls in Paris and the isolation of the soldiers' lives, deprived of the companionship of lovely ladies. He has cast Jeanne Balibar as the title character Antoinette de Langeais , a married lady of means with a penchant for flirting and coquettish behavior with important men, and Guillaume Depardieu as General Armand de Montriveau, a war hero who lost his leg and returns to Paris vulnerable for love, namely in the instant attraction to Antoinette. The tale is one of a game of the General's passionate love and the duchess' toying with his advances until a climax is reached which changes the approach of each character with rather disastrous consequences for both.

As a period piece the film works well: the costumes and settings are splendid and the scenes in the endless ballrooms are full of grace and lovely music. But the flow of the encounters between Antoinette and Armand are an interminable series of momentary repetitious encounters with a sound track that seems bent on capturing the opening and closing of doors and the loud pacing of the crippled general as he enters and leaves the naughty lady's chamber. There is little to draw us into caring for the characters and after the first hour and a half of the film the courtship begs our indulgence. In French with English subtitles. Definitely recommended for fans of Jacques Rivette's films or Balzac's stories, but a 'long song' for casual viewers. Grady Harp, July 08

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Metatheatre, May 14, 2008

By 

Doug Anderson (Miami Beach, Florida United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Bulle Ogier in Don't Touch the Axe Aka Ne Touchez Pas a La Hache DVD Import Region 2 Pal French Audio with English Subtitles (DVD)

I saw this film in a fairly intellectual locale (an on-campus theatre at Univ of Miami, FL). As a fan of both the French New Wave and of some of Rivette's previous works (The Nun, La Belle Noiseuse, Secret Defense, Va Savoir), my expectations were in the right place and I thoroughly enjoyed this Restoration-era "love" story (which is really a film about how individuals craft fictions about their own lives and the lives of others). But many of the others in the crowd (many of which were professors) were visibly bored. This is to be expected as Rivette is a filmaker who directs as if there is no real hurry to get anywhere. He intentionally plays with viewer expectations & prefers excruciating exposition to cut-to-the-chase action. His intention is to allow the viewer to inhabit the narrative and interrogate it (just as his protagonists interrogate each other and their own narratives). So, all of Rivette's works work as complex psychological studies but also as meditations on narrative itself. This kind of thing is not for all tastes, expecially not for those who need a bit of action. The action or conflict here is in the interaction between the two protagonists who for various reasons, perhaps only to be guessed at by viewers, prefer to treat life as a seduction/contest of wills/piece of living theatre and action/submission/consummation as the death of seduction/contest/imagination/art.