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Movies / On DVD / The Lady and the Duke
The Lady and the Duke

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The Lady and the Duke (2002)

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Reviews Counted: 69

Fresh: 49

Rotten:20

Average Rating: 6.6/10

Consensus: Visually stunning, The Lady and the Duke uses current technology to elegantly bring the past to life.

Rated: PG-13 [See Full Rating] for some violent images

Runtime: 2 hrs 5 mins

Genre: Dramas

Theatrical Release:May 10, 2002 Limited

Box Office: $124,812

Synopsis: This visually breathtaking film from New Wave director Eric Rohmer uses hand-painted sets that depict 18th-century Paris, the English lady's home, and the surrounding countryside with a vivid... This visually breathtaking film from New Wave director Eric Rohmer uses hand-painted sets that depict 18th-century Paris, the English lady's home, and the surrounding countryside with a vivid effect that looks like a realist oil painting brought to life. Set in the mid-1700s during the French Revolution, THE LADY AND THE DUKE tracks the profound friendship between Grace Elliot (Lucy Russell), an English woman who lives in Paris and insists on staying there throughout the war, and The Duke of Orleans (Jean-Claude Dreyfus), the cousin of Louis XVI and Grace's former lover. Russell (FOLLOWING) gives a superb performance as the headstrong, political, beautiful, and daring Grace Elliot, whose real-life memoirs inspired Rohmer to make the film. Dreyfus (DELICATESSEN) plays her perfect counterpart--powerful and unwavering, yet charming, caring, and honest. As each scene of the film magically bleeds into the next, the painterly backdrops make it difficult to discern 3-D objects such as chairs from the trompe l'oiel flat painted sets. Characters enter or exit with shocking life as the camera matches them to the color and texture of the painting. Majestic black horses that pull carriages over the "cobblestone" streets shimmer with velveteen realness. Meanwhile, tension brought on by the war adds strain to the friendship between the lady and the duke, and as the audience endures the fall of the Bastille, the September Massacres, and the finally, the king's execution, they are captivated, entertained, and historically nourished. This film screened in October 2001 as part of the 39th New York Film Festival, organized by the Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York City. [More]

Starring: Lucy Russell, Jean-Claude Dreyfus, Francois Marthouret, Leonard Cobiant

Starring: Lucy Russell, Jean-Claude Dreyfus, Francois Marthouret, Leonard Cobiant, Caroline Morin, Charlotte Véry, Alain Libolt, Marie Rivière

Director: Eric Rohmer

Director: Eric Rohmer
Screenwriter: Eric Rohmer
Producer: Françoise Etchegaray
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics

[See More Credits]

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Release:

Oct 1, 2002

No Details Exist
 
 

Reviews for The Lady and the Duke

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1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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N/R

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Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
04/07/09
Lisa Nesselson
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Sacramento News & Review | comment Comment
08/07/08
Mark Halverson
Sacramento News & Review

Though not one of Rohmer best films, it's worth seeing for the acting and the dialogue which magnify the glory of the French language. Amazingly, at 81, Rohmer continues to be productive; rejection of film by Cannes Festival stirred controversy in 2001

Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | comment Comment
02/14/07
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
12/30/06
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
N/R

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Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
02/09/06
Geoff Andrew
Time Out
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle | comment Comment
07/21/05
Houston Chronicle
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Who would have thought that in the year of Spider-Man and Attack of the Clones, the year's most innovative use of special effects would come in a film about the French Revolution?

Full Review Source: Looking Closer | comment Comment
01/15/05
Jeffrey Overstreet
Looking Closer

Rohmer's playful style is often good fun. And Russell is especially compelling. But honestly, it's fairly hard going.

Full Review Source: Film Threat | comment Comment
02/08/04
Rich Cline
Film Threat

At 135-minutes, this stream-of-facts lecture trembles into the trenches of monotony without the detraction of technology.

Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | comment Comment
12/22/03
Greg Muskewitz
eFilmCritic.com
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: This is London | comment Comment
12/15/03
Alexander Walker
This is London
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Daily Mail [UK] | comment Comment
12/15/03
Christopher Tookey
Daily Mail [UK]

My problem with The Lady and the Duke is not Rohmer's ostensibly pro-Royalist politics, but his now reactionary aesthetics.

Full Review Source: PopMatters | comment Comment
10/05/02
John Demetry
PopMatters

Rohmer's novel, exhilarating and elegant work with painted scenery and digital equipment is a revelation. But this work is stuck in a film in which the foreground action is sleep-inducing by comparison.

Full Review Source: Vue Weekly (Edmonton, Canada) | comment Comment
10/03/02
Josef Braun
Vue Weekly (Edmonton, Canada)

Leave it to Rohmer, now 82, to find a way to bend current technique to the service of a vision of the past that is faithful to both architectural glories and commanding open spaces of the city as it was more than two centuries ago.

Full Review Source: Detroit News | comment Comment
09/27/02
Susan Stark
Detroit News
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Denver Rocky Mountain News | comment Comment
08/09/02
Robert Denerstein
Denver Rocky Mountain News
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Not only has Rohmer reinvented the costume drama with The Lady and the Duke, he makes the case that the genre is worth reinventing.

Full Review Source: eye WEEKLY | comment Comment
08/03/02
Jason Anderson
eye WEEKLY

Rohmer makes a gracious, if occasionally tedious, effort to dress the French Revolution in digitally rendered scenes that bespeak the period perfectly.

Full Review Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel | comment Comment
08/02/02
Laura Kelly
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Seldom has the elegant past of 18th century royal life married modern filmmaking with the grace and sophistication of Eric Rohmer's L'anglaise et le duc.

Full Review Source: Miami Herald | comment Comment
08/02/02
Marta Barber
Miami Herald

To the vast majority of more casual filmgoers, it will probably be a talky bore.

Full Review Source: Deseret News, Salt Lake City | comment Comment
08/02/02
Jeff Vice
Deseret News, Salt Lake City

Watching The Lady And The Duke is like looking at a really fine play.

Full Review Source: Jam! Movies | comment Comment
07/27/02
Liz Braun
Jam! Movies
 
 
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