The Duchess of Langeais (2008)

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 in Restoration-era France, and... 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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