The Duchess of Langeais

Something like a genealogy of romance that sees it as a sclerotic perversion generated by a repressive society. Thematically related to THE AGE OF INNOCENCE, but here the characters are so wracked by conflict and contradiction that love expresses itself essentially as war and death-bound tragic consciousness. Consistently interesting, though perhaps more intellectually than emotionally affecting, partly as a result of the decision not to adjust the characters to fit a more modern sensibility.

A slow, deliberate psychological study of two proud early 19th century lovers who torture each other through coquetry and silence. Rivette is a marvelous director of actors, and Balibar and Depardieu display much nuanced emotion, creating two characters who--in spite of all they reveal to each other and us--remain mysteries of self-destruction.

Duchess of Langeais -- compared to an exhilarating neo-New Wave movie like The Witnesses -- is always dull.

An elegant tale chronicling the complex and failed love affair between a married duchess and a decorated army officer. Rivette films the action beautifully with a camera that floats through the room, while unfolding the story in a subtle manner. Most interesting in the film is the duchess' choosing of religion as death to escape her fatally flawed relationship. What is for many a choice to a fuller kind of life becomes for her a means of ushering in her death.

"The film is a piercing pas de deux that excoriates romance even as its doomed characters are consumed by it." - Fernando F. Croce

generally interesting, with a text firmly rooted in various notions of love - love versus religious and social traditions, or love as the single thread holding one from collapsing into the abyss. the narrative seems constructed to explore the destructive nature of desire, particularly male desire, and particularly in this particular era. ultimately, though, and particularly, perhaps, this is fundamentally a BOURGEOIS PERIOD DRAMA, with many of its genre's familiar trappings.

A potentially interesting story that on this occasion did not translate to the screen. Maybe I'm missing something? Depardieu as Montriveau is imposing and more often than not genuine in his presence, however Balibar as Langeais is not coquettish (as seemingly intended by Rivette) but rather annoying and frustrating (at least for this viewer). Orson Welles said it is extremely difficult to make a historical film that is not reduced to its costumes etc.; unfortunately this is the case here.