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Duchess of Langeais, The

EMAILPRINTIFC Films

Duchess of Langeais, The reviews
74
5.1 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 23 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 9 votes
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Movie Info

Genre(s): Drama  |  Romance

Written by: Jacques Rivette
Christine Laurent
Pascal Bonitzer
Honoré de Balzac (novel "La duchesse de Langeais")

Directed by: Jacques Rivette

Release Date:
Theatrical: February 22, 2008

Running Time: 137 minutes, Color

Origin: France / Italy

Language(s): French

Summary

RATING: Not Rated

Starring Jeanne Balibar, and Guillaume Depadieu

Antoinette is the Duchess of Langeais, a married coquette who frequents the most extravagant balls in 1820s Paris during the Restoration, when hypocrisy and vanity reign. From the moment of the handsome general Armand de Montriveau's first meeting with her, he realized it was true love. Flattered by his attentions, the alluring Antoinette orchestrates a calculating game of seduction, but she repeatedly refuses Montriveau. Despite his sincere romantic declarations, Montriveau's passion remains unfulfilled. When the humiliated Montriveau eventually seeks his revenge, Antoinette's love awakens. But it may well be too late for the star-crossed lovers. (IFC Films)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Premiere Glenn Kenny

The first masterpiece of 2008 -- at least by American release date standards -- the latest film from master French director Jacques Rivette is a masterful, multilayered, sometimes enigmatic work of dark irony, an assured tragicomedy of manners and more.

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100

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

Duchess of Langeais seems to me a nearly impeccable work of art -- beautiful, true, profound.

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100

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

Jacques Rivette has brought the Balzac short story to screen as a superb chamber drama. His is a graceful work of austerity and formality that perfectly captures the chaos of repressed emotions that see beneath the rigid conventions of aristocratic society.

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100

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

The movie's satisfactions are subtle, but they run deep, and there are many.

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88

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Rivette's slow-moving but seamless study of the rituals of courtship has a disarming grace, even as its downcast hero, Depardieu's Gen. Armand de Montriveau, limps around stiffly.

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83

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

A highbrow chick flick that made me feel older, in a good way.

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83

The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray

Though not exactly a "comedy" of manners, since it's more melancholy than funny, The Duchess Of Langeais is very much concerned with how the rules of social etiquette interfere with raw human need.

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83

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

The Duchess of Langeais is a romantic dance of death.

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80

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

With its sophisticated psychology, its brilliant story structure and its riveting performances, The Duchess of Langeais feels very new, even if everything about it is old.

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78

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

Balibar and Depardieu make a compelling duo who exude an animal magnetism that's undeniable.

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75

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

The performances reveal precisely what Rivette wants to reveal, which is to say, in conventional psychological terms, not a great deal.

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70

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Masterfully charted and adeptly played, but also rather minimalist.

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70

The New Yorker David Denby

The Duchess is enragingly elusive and possibly mad; the General is very direct and also possibly mad.

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70

Variety Russell Edwards

Rivette uses intertitles (including some direct quotes from Balzac) to move the plot along and underline the dry wit. Helming is both leisurely and exact, offering auds ample opportunities to intimately observe the selfishness and folly of two people who would rather fight than switch.

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70

New York Magazine David Edelstein

Rivette has aged into one of cinema’s most ingenious minimalists. In The Duchess of Langeais he uses intertitles--bits of literary exposition--with cheeky understatement.

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70

Village Voice Nathan Lee

Rivette is teasing his way, thinking afresh, playing a game but tweaking its rules, telling a story, but only sort of--making, in short, not simply a movie, but that ineffable magic called cinema.

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70

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

The picture has an unsettling, haunting quality that I haven't been able to shake.

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67

Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan

The performances are solid and subtle, with Depardieu growing nicely into the brooding, smarter-than-he-looks roles his father tackled for years.

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63

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Stephen Cole

A typically hypnotic, slow-coiling drama from 80-year-old French filmmaker, Jacques Rivette.

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63

TV Guide Ken Fox

Rivette brings a refreshing realism to what could have been a stodgy costume drama, it's still pretty slow going.

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60

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

If anything, as it lathers up into an abortive attempt at scarlet-woman branding and a goofy siege on the nunnery where a dazed and confused Antoinette has holed up, The Duchess of Langeais works best as the comic bondage fantasy implied in its deliciously sly French title: "Don't Touch the Axe."

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50

Boston Globe Ty Burr

The film's a minuet fetishistically repeated until either the audience or the lovers go crazy. I'd say it was a tie.

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38

New York Post Kyle Smith

Jacques Rivette's film is full of painstaking historical detail, but the behavior of the two nonlovers is mired in inaction and emotionally incomprehensible.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 5.1 (out of 10) based on 9 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

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