L'anglaise et le duc (2001)

Director:

Eric Rohmer

Writers:

Grace Elliott (memoir "Ma vie sous la révolution")
Eric Rohmer (adaptation)

Release Date:

7 September 2001 (Belgium)

Genre:

Drama | History | War

Plot:

During the French Revolution, a Scottish aristocrat and her former lover, the Duke of Orleans, find themselves on opposite sides of the conflict.

Plot Keywords:

Duke | Revolution | Lover | French Revolution | Duke Of Orleans

Awards:

3 nominations

Cast

Jean-Claude Dreyfus	...	Le duc d'Orléans
Lucy Russell	...	Grace Elliott
Alain Libolt	...	Duc de Biron
Charlotte Véry	...	Pulcherie the Cook
Rosette	...	Fanchette
Léonard Cobiant	...	Champcenetz
François Marthouret	...	Dumouriez
Caroline Morin	...	Nanon
Héléna Dubiel	...	Madame Meyler
Laurent Le Doyen	...	Section Miromesnil: Officer
Georges Benoît	...	Section Miromesnil: President
Serge Wolfsperger	...	Section Miromesnil: Aide
Daniel Tarrare	...	Justin the Doorman
Marie Rivière	...	Madame Laurent
Michel Demierre	...	Chabot

Also Known As:

The Lady and the Duke (Australia) (USA)
L'anglaise & le duc (France) (poster title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for some violent images.

Runtime:

129 min | USA:125 min (New York Film Festival)

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Italy:T | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Brazil:14 | France:U | Germany:6 | Peru:14 | Spain:7 | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | UK:PG | USA:PG-13 | Canada:PG

Filming Locations:

Saint-Ouen, Seine-Saint-Denis, France

Company:

Pathé Image Production

Trivia:

Chosen by "Les Cahiers du cinéma" (France) as one of the 10 best pictures of 2001 (#02)

Movie Connections:

References The Far Country (1954)

Soundtrack:

Ça ira

seeing through other eyes

I think this was one of the most intelligent, and most un-likeable, films, which I've seen for a long time. Somehow, Rohmer succeeds in placing us behind Grace's eyes, and we see her world as she has learnt to see it, constructed from the elegant water-colours which taught her to understand cityscapes, the frontal courtly portraits which record her own circle, and the sub-Hogarthian, propaganda caricatures which describe the revolutionaries for her. Not Hogarthian, of course: Grace wouldn't appreciate Hogarth, since he dared to contaminate HER world with caricature, just as she dislikes Laclos, and says so. And it hardly matters that what is happening around her is genuinely savage and terrible, because it is certain that Grace wouldn't have seen the crowd any differently six years previously. Rohmer constructs it with terrifying clarity: these are the eyes, this is the brain, which could produce the famous 'Let them eat cake', suddenly elucidated in a way no 'history of mentalities' could ever quite achieve. It's almost frightening, at the turn of the millennium, to become an eighteenth-century aristocrat with eighteenth-century aristocratic prejudices, even if you are made very aware of the references, if you can see the mechanics of those prejudices (and I think Rohmer is assuming that you are, and you can), if a part of your brain is beating on the bars and protesting against these generalisations, this lack of sympathy. You can't escape, the progression of events is so clear, Grace has such a clear vision within her invariable perspectives and distortions, she, and Rohmer, are so determined and convinced that you're locked into her logic. And then I came out of the cinema, and there were people running for the train and someone selling the Big Issue, and I realised just how Grace would have seen them - and just what a relief it was not to have to be her any longer.For two hours, Rohmer the sorcerer turned me into Grace Elliot, and I never, never want that experience again; but I know that I understand something a little more clearly for it.