Lady and the Duke, The

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Rohmer's films are renowned for their beauty, so it's surprising that he made a picture using digital video rather than film. But this was the right choice.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

Played by Lucy Russell with a defiant, unapologetic embrace of aristocratic privilege, Grace is a maddening yet fascinating character.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

If you can forget the world-historic significance of the mass revolution that overthrew Europe's oldest absolute monarchy -- or rather, subsume it in the mysteries of personality -- The Lady and the Duke is the stuff of human interest.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

This is absorbing throughout--not just a history lesson but, as always with Rohmer, a story about individuals

The New York Times Dana Stevens

The director manages to evade both the stuffy antiquarianism and the pandering anachronism that subvert so many cinematic attempts at historical inquiry.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

A vivifying film, though it's done in such a strange style that it takes a while to get used to it.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

The technique is impressive. But it would count for little if the human story -- of a magnetic, resourceful, and, in the way of all Rohmer heroines, articulate woman who was mistress to the Duke of Orleans -- weren't engrossing on its own dramatic terms.

Washington Post Sarah Kaufman

Still, it is a decidedly fresh take. Rohmer has said he came upon a condensed version of Elliott's diary by chance, in a history magazine. His rendering of her story focuses not so much on the politics of the time -- though they are the basis of much of the dialogue -- but on the emotional thicket.

Variety Lisa Nesselson

History comes alive with verve and cold-sweat suspense in The Lady and the Duke.

TV Guide Frank Lovece

The effect is one of gorgeous puppets, a removed perspective that makes some of the most powerful political and social events in history seem like the sad, desperate flailing of monkeys.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

In the lively exchanges between the titular duo and the technical innovation that links the past to the present, The Lady And The Duke brings the period to life with surprising immediacy.

New Times (L.A.) Andy Klein

Surprisingly manages never to grow boring -- which proves that Rohmer still has a sense of his audience.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Just as interesting, if not more so, is how Rohmer integrates his very contemporary concerns into a period drama, how he creates characters who manage to be true to our times as well as their own.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

That Mr. Rohmer is an octogenarian just beginning to play with digital technology makes the venture even more intriguing.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Rohmer pulls off a wonderful feat: celebrating the elegance, and artifice, of another era at the same time he brings this tale of social upheaval boldly into the present.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Rohmer doesn't attempt to create any skepticism about Grace's perspective on her experiences; we are shown them as she saw them, and seeing is the real pleasure of The Lady and the Duke.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

An elegant story about an elegant woman, told in an elegant visual style. It moves too slowly for those with impaired attention spans, but is fascinating in its style and mannerisms.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

The result is a galvanizing mix of intellectual discourse and guillotined heads.

Miami Herald Marta Barber

The Lady and the Duke is not about the revolution. It's an intimate story of a woman's perspective during a dramatic event in world history.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Old master Eric Rohmer, 82, uses new tricks in the form of painted backdrops inserted digitally to create a virtual reality. Rohmer goes Lucas - who could have guessed?

LA Weekly Hazel-Dawn Dumpert

As always, conversation is the constant threading together Rohmer's stately pace and episodic structure, the thing he uses to show us who his characters are and what their friendship entails.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

The effect, in this French period drama, is something like a moving pop-up book, in which characters seem to be two-dimensional cardboard cutouts come to life.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

Rohmer's style saps the film of the drama that flows directly from the subject matter.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

The Lady and the Duke, which drags on for over two hours, is an experiment in shooting a period film on a shoestring that turns out to be more interesting than actually entertaining.

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

The line between the dispassionate and the dull can be ominously faint, and when Rohmer kicks off his film with ten or fifteen minutes of solid anecdotal chat, you fear for the stamina of the audience. [13 May 2002, p. 96]

San Francisco Chronicle Carla Meyer

It's a fascinating concept, gorgeously rendered. Seeing the paint actually dry, however, would probably be more fun than most of this overly expository film.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

It's dull in a very tasteful way, with none of the reverberating tenderness and sometimes surly vigor that characterize Rohmer's best work, things like "Summer" and "The Aviator's Wife."

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

A bold (and lovely) experiment that will almost certainly bore most audiences into their own brightly colored dreams.