A little known but emblematic chapter in the history of 17th century France comes to life in Patricia Mazuy's devastating historical epic, SAINT-CYR. Isabelle Hupert plays the disastrously ambitious proto-feminist, Madame de Maintenon, who studiously climbed her way from a lowly... [More]

A little known but emblematic chapter in the history of 17th century France comes to life in Patricia Mazuy's devastating historical epic, SAINT-CYR. Isabelle Hupert plays the disastrously ambitious proto-feminist, Madame de Maintenon, who studiously climbed her way from a lowly courtesan to the bejeweled wife of Louis XIV. Maintenon uses her influence over the king in order to create a utopian school for the female children of destitute nobility. Maintenon sets out to create Saint-Cyr, a utopian school filled with "spirit, loftiness, and great freedom in conversation" and she resolutely demands that it not be a convent. The slow transformation of the young charges from ill-mannered ragamuffins to bright young things seems to fulfill Maintenon's desires and vanities until everything begins to spin out of control. Two of the young girls--impressionable Anne and headstrong Lucie--lead the group of young girls as they fall victim to the violent see-sawing of Maintenon's whims. When a play by Racine commissioned for the girls acts as a catalyst for their burgeoning sexuality and incites a wild religious panic in Maintenon, a draconian priest is called in and plunges the school into religious fervor. Lucie and Anne therefore become slaves at the mercy of Maintenon's unbridled vanity and unthinking, self-serving actions. This film was screened as part of the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2001 festival organized by The Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York City. [Less]