Lady and the Duke

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amznwin.focus();} document.open(); document.write("<a href=javascript:popUp('http://buybox.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=reelmoviecriticc&link_code=xsc&creative=23424&camp=2025&path=/dt/assoc/tg/aa/xml/assoc/-/B00006FI0P/reelmoviecriticc/ref=ac_bb1_,_amazon')><img src=http://rcm-images.amazon.com/images/G/01/associates/remote-buy-box/buy1.gif border=0 alt='Buy from Amazon.com' ></a>"); document.close(); </script> <noscript> <form method="POST" action="http://buybox.amazon.com/o/dt/assoc/handle-buy-box=B00006FI0P"> <input type="hidden" name="asin.B00006FI0P" value="1"> <input type="hidden" name="tag-value" value="reelmoviecriticc"> <input type="hidden" name="tag_value" value="reelmoviecriticc"> <input type="image" name="submit.add-to-cart" value="Buy from Amazon.com" border="0" alt="Buy from Amazon.com" src="http://rcm-images.amazon.com/images/G/01/associates/add-to-cart.gif"> </form> </noscript>  </B></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="592" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 20 WIDTH="588"><div> <B>The Lady and the Duke    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Wingdings 2" ><B>êêê</B></FONT><B>  Stars  Rated PG-13</B></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="588"><div> Reviewed by Shelley Cameron</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="588"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="588" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 23 WIDTH="588"><div> Diary of a Lady</div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="593" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="263"><div> Lucy Russell: Grace Elliot</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> Jean-Claude Dreyfus: Le Duc d'Orleans</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="263"><div> Director: Eric Rohmer</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="323"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="323" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> Marked by an inventive blend of digital technology and traditional film, director Eric Rohmer paints an authentic portrait of late 18th century France during the French Revolution.  From the first frame, this charming visual style has the effect of allowing us to step into a painting of the period.  Soon thereafter, I feared it was becoming a repeat of the rather tedious <I>Marquis of O</I>. Instead, a compelling narrative develops that recounts the French Revolution through the memoirs of real life English noblewoman Grace Elliot. </div> <bR> <div> Rohmer came upon her diary and focused on the segments that relate to her relationship with the Duke of Orleans, a cousin of Louis XVI.  Based on her reflections and using specific diary entries that effectively encompass decisive elements of the revolution, Rohmer has painted, in more ways than one, a lively and convincing depiction of the political climate and its impact on real individuals.  </div> <bR> <div> The first of five entries from her memoirs begins with July 14, 1790, the first anniversary of the storming of the Bastille.  Through the following three years, we are privy to an inside view of events as seen by Lady Elliot.  By digitally creating the surroundings as they would have been </div> <div> seen at the time, Rohmer successfully creates a mood that allows us the feel of the city or the intimacy inside the country house, where she flees from Paris to her rural estate.  Unlike many memoirs, Grace Elliot's seems to narrate the events in the third person rather than the first.  She places herself in the story rather than being the center of the story.  This works extremely well for Rohmer's vision.  As he puts it, the tense of film is the present.</div> <div>  </div> <div> Shortly after she has left the city for the relative calm of the country, she is asked by a friend to aid a man trying to escape Paris.  She agrees, but is dismayed when he is revealed to be a man she loathes, as does her friend and former flame, the Duke of Orleans.  Nevertheless she hides him in her home and eventually enlists the Duke's reluctant help.  </div> <bR> <div> As events of the three years unfold, the progressive shifts in the new government proceed to cast both the Lady and the Duke in increasingly suspect light.  They both condemn the execution of the king, even while they share some progressive ideas.  Because these are real lives in most unstable times, attitudes shift, and they both wind up in grave risk.  What is particularly interesting is the lack of frenetic zeal that so often characterizes film depictions of this period, on both sides of the struggle, lending it wonderful credence from a woman who was actually there.  The final entry in April 1793 brings us to the point of the fall of Robespierre, which somewhat ironically, is Elliot's good fortune.  Rohmer has given us an insightful vantage point from which to view the revolution, that is also quite lovely to look at.</div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="592" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 20 WIDTH="588"><div> Shelley Cameron <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Symbol" >Ó</FONT> 2002</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="588"><div> <A HREF="mailto:shlcameron@aol.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:shlcameron@aol.com"><U><U>Shelley@reelmoviecritic.com</U></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>