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The Duchess of Langeais (2008)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted: 61
Fresh: 41
Rotten:20
Average Rating: 6.4/10
Consensus: At times plodding and dialogue heavy, The Duchess of Langeais is nevertheless an intriguing and rewarding dissection of class and gender relations.
Theatrical Release:Feb 22, 2008 Limited
Synopsis: Jacques Rivette (VA SAVOIR) directs this masterful adaptation of Honoré de Balzac's novel about a game of hearts between General Armand de Montriveau (Guillaume Depardieu), a protégé of Bonaparte... Jacques Rivette (VA SAVOIR) directs this masterful adaptation of Honoré de Balzac's novel about a game of hearts between General Armand de Montriveau (Guillaume Depardieu), a protégé of Bonaparte in Restoration-era France, and Antoinette (Jeanne Balibar), the married but flirtatious Duchess of Langeais. They meet at a ball where Armand--intense, morose, and lacking the embroidered manner of the aristocracy--is currently en vogue following a military campaign. The two become frequent companions. But it is unclear whether the Duchess wants a lover or a lapdog, leading to romantic frustrations for Armand who cannot live, like his compatriots, with Parisian society's unspoken and tacitly accepted hypocrisies. As a sentimental war rages between them--with Antoinette stoking the fires of passion and Armand unexpectedly turning the tables on his lover--the film raises provocative questions about the true sources of desire. Taking place in parlors that echo with chatter and creaking floorboards, THE DUCHESS OF LANGEAIS offers a restrained and realistic evocation of the 1820s. Composed of graceful widescreen compositions that decline to comment on the action, and interspersed excerpts from the novel that take the viewer out of it, the film's emotional reserve matches its story and heightens its fraught romance. In his role as a man tortured by his obsession, and all too willing to wound himself in its pursuit, Depardieu is mesmerizing. Though clocking in at over two hours, Rivette's film is an engrossing slow burn that crackles to a climax that is as inevitable as it is devastating. [More]
Starring: Jeanne Balibar, Guillaume Depardieu, Bulle Ogier, Michel Piccoli
Starring: Jeanne Balibar, Guillaume Depardieu, Bulle Ogier, Michel Piccoli, Barbet Schroeder, Anne Cantineau, Marc Barbe, Thomas Durand, Nicolas Bouchaud
Director: Jacques Rivette
Director: Jacques Rivette
Screenwriter: Pascal Bonitzer, Christine Laurent
Producer: Pierre Grise Productions
Composer: Pierre Allio
Studio: IFC Films
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Reviews for The Duchess of Langeais
It's charged with nuance yet ultimately an exercise in compressed literary adaptation.
Visually arresting period drama finds the core of the emotional life of its characters in the debate between the duchess and the general about love. Balzac fans will delight.
Balibar's sly mouth tightens with mean glee as she plays all the Duchesses' games, and Depardieu's brooding, battered face ceaselessly signals the General's suppressed, sexualized violence.
Maybe even Rivette himself is a little too delicate for this ferocious, intensely focused pair. But he's fascinated by them, and ultimately, he loves them.
Of course, it would also help if we could understand what's supposed to be so alluring about the title character, Antoinette de Langeais.
The everyday moviegoer will find it as impenetrable as its heroine. But if you vibrate to nuances of style, if you enjoy tension gathering strength beneath terrible restraint, if you admire great acting, then you will.
The director guides the viewer through a sly consideration of near-sociopathic not-quite-lovers, one of whom finds refuge in religion, the other in romantic obsession.
If you like multi-arced episodes of Masterpiece (formerly Masterpiece Theatre), the pacing might work in this padded film. As it was, experiencing this in real time was akin to watching two snails race on a muddy track.
Even though it's nearly 2 1/2 hours, unfolds in flashback and derives from Balzac, then, The Duchess of Langeais is among Rivette's more succinct and approachable works.
The Duchess of Langeais is a stately costume drama of wrenching passions expressed in courtly phrases.
Jacques Rivette’s Duchess of Langeais seems to me a nearly impeccable work of art -- beautiful, true, profound.
It is the ultimate in movie as pane of glass, completely un-self-conscious of its own movieness but simply an intensely focused examination of human behavior on a narrative armature.
Based on a Balzac story, Rivette's Duchess manages to be both old-fashioned in its settings and circumstances, and coolly modern in its view of thwarted passion and despair.
The movie's satisfactions are subtle, but they run deep, and there are many.
Latest News for The Duchess of Langeais
February 21, 2008:
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December 14, 2007:
Trailer & Poster review ![]()
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