Photo: Lucy Russell as Grace Elliott in Eric Rohmer's The Lady and the Duke
The Lady and the Duke is Eric Rohmer's economical antidote to the bloated costume drama, a visually primitive delineation of the French Revolution that toys with conventional cinematic presentation. Like Marquise of O and Perceval, The Lady and the Duke questions the authenticity of history as it is presented to the masses. The film's exteriors were shot on blue-screen backgrounds with 18th-century paintings superimposed during the editing process. The memoir of Grace Elliott (Lucy Russell), an Englishwoman who lived in Paris during the revolution, is Rohmer's source material. Grace's relationship to her former lover, the Duke of Orleans (Jean-Claude Dreyfus), does little to prevent the execution of King Louis XVI, whose death adds fire to the Reign of Terror. While Rohmer's anti-revolutionary stance is more than evident, The Lady in the Duke is too ambiguous in all the wrong places. The extent of the sexual relationship between the titular figures is unclear though Russell fabulously evokes Elliot's many political conflictions—her devotion to her cause and loyalty to her friends. While Rohmer's dialogue grows weary, there's always the fascinating artificiality of his video experiment.
The Lady and the Duke is Eric Rohmer's economical antidote to the bloated costume drama, a visually primitive delineation of the French Revolution that toys with conventional cinematic presentation. Like Marquise of O and Perceval, The Lady and the Duke questions the authenticity of history as it is presented to the masses. The film's exteriors were shot on blue-screen backgrounds with 18th-century paintings superimposed during the editing process. The memoir of Grace Elliott (Lucy Russell), an Englishwoman who lived in Paris during the revolution, is Rohmer's source material. Grace's relationship to her former lover, the Duke of Orleans (Jean-Claude Dreyfus), does little to prevent the execution of King Louis XVI, whose death adds fire to the Reign of Terror. While Rohmer's anti-revolutionary stance is more than evident, The Lady in the Duke is too ambiguous in all the wrong places. The extent of the sexual relationship between the titular figures is unclear though Russell fabulously evokes Elliot's many political conflictions—her devotion to her cause and loyalty to her friends. While Rohmer's dialogue grows weary, there's always the fascinating artificiality of his video experiment.
