THE LADY AND THE DUKE (2001)  ***

Reviewed 10/3/01

Eric Rohmer’s first period piece since 1976’s THE MARQUISE OF O is a rumination on the French Revolution taking the Royalist point of view.  The film is based on the the actual memoirs of Grace Dalrymple Elliott (Lucy Russell), an English expatriate brought to Paris by one-time lover Prince Phillipe (Jean-Claude Dreyfus), Duke of Orleans and fomenter of the Revolution.  This is likely as close as Rohmer will ever get to making an action movie, and indeed, the first half is gripping as the world around Grace falls apart.  In particular, her attempt to rescue the ill Marquis Champcenetz (Léonard Cobiant) from the guillotine elicits the kind of dread and suspense never before seen in the now 81-year old Rohmer.  Rohmer makes another innovation as well by shooting on digital video and using paintings as backdrops for “exteriors.”  The second half stagnates a little as the film becomes overly polemical.  The overwhelming Royalist view renders moot any ambivalence.  Russell, with her elegant rectangular face slightly resembles an older Alicia Silverstone.  She supplies Grace with a convincing mixture of courage, compassion, fear, and naiveté.