Ridicule
Our Price: $25.49
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $10.09 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD Cover Information
Actor: Bernard Giraudeau, Charles Berling, Fanny Ardant, Jean Rochefort, Judith GodrècheBrand: Buena Vista Home Video
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); French (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 102 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-01-13
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Miramax
Movie Reviews of Ridicule
Movie Review: The best French film you'll ever see!
Summary: 5 Stars
Rarely do we witness an impeccable work of Art. Social issues duly addressed, it also bemuses us, and shows mean and altruistic motives combined in every person, noble or wicked. It is true frivolity doesn't come off very well in this film, but I find the contrast between l'ingénieur and la cour satisfying. I won't dance in our modern "cours" without having second thoughts from now on...
I love Jean Rochefort's roles, this one seems hand picked for him. Intelligence, restraint, frivolity and pragmatism alla Rousseau form this character. I'd love to have a guide in life like him!
Judith Godrèche's Mathilde de Bellegarde is fine. Probably too perfect, too much avant garde for the little education a woman was afforded at that time. But well, this and the fact that both father and daughter are "brilliant but poor" makes me wonder if this superb film does indeed have some elements of a feuilleton, of a pop novel. Like Cinderella, Lagardere and all its Hollywood variations, like, just to name one example, "Mona Lisa Smile". Mathilde said the cutting phrase I most liked of this film when observed that our hero started to like the corridors of power a bit for its own sake, mistaking his wit for his destiny. I wonder why Judith hasn't appeared on more quality films. Had her part been played by a lesser actress it would have brought the film to oblivion.
Madame de Blayac is just perfect. Beautiful, cunning, devoid of feelings. L'Abbé de l'Epée (Serpent) is extremely well thought of. De Bellegarde's words: "when he speaks, it's already too late" proved to be just too accurate. For some reason, the relationships between the two "Marquises" is at times like those middlebrow US films of boxers, from Rocky to "Million dollar baby". But I don't want to show a demeaning side of my favourite film, so I'll keep to the bright side :).
Music is, yes, PERFECT if you like the baroque. So is photography! The foggy duel with "L'Officier Duel", aerial views of "le marais" and some small moments, like the scene of the palace's flowers resembling it to a "The cure" song (an aspect S. Coppola's Marie Antoinette understood very well: the "modernity" of classic European culture). Any fool can film beauty at Versailles and Vaux-le-Vicomte. It takes a Leconte to show them under a new fresh light, "like if we had never seen them before".
As usual, Berling is fine. Some actors are born with "the gift"; it's obvious he's one of the chosen ones. Yes, this film is similar to "Dangerous Liaisons", but I find Ridicule is far superior for having likable characters and a human story to tell besides the "fireworks".
The storyboard is obviously perfect. C. O. DeRiemer in Amazon, "Terrell-4" at IMDb said something funny, in the spirit of the film, probably a good ending for this humble review. (On F. Ardant): "A man would be a fool not to want to bed Ardant, and even more a fool to trust her".
Enjoy!
PS: It's true that, as this reviewer writes, good command of French is in order if you want to follow this film. It would be like drowning in a marais.
No subtitle could do the job, and maybe only in French does detached verbal swordplay appear "refined" :).
Summary of Ridicule
RIDICULE - DVD MovieIn Patrice Leconte's cool, precise moral comedy Ridicule, the corrupt, sycophantic court of King Louis XVI is invaded by a provincial nobleman, Ponceludon de Malavoy (Charles Berling), who with the help of his own sharp tongue, the coaching of the retired courtier Marquis de Bellegarde (Jean Rochefort), and the love of the Marquis's beautiful, nature-loving daughter (Judith Godrèche) hopes to win funds for his project to drain the fever-infested swamps of his homeland. But first he has to get by the cunning, sexually manipulative Madame de Blayac (Fanny Ardant, imperious and superb) and her waspish, priestly ally, the Abbot de Vilecourt (Bernard Giraudeau).
As shaped by screenwriter Rémi Waterhouse, Ridicule is a kind of dashing verbal swashbuckler in which duels aren't fought with swords, but with the equally fatal weapon of words--rapier wit in its most literal sense. Laconte directs with an appealing elegance and a scathing sobriety as he unfolds a fable that could just as easily take place in a Wall Street boardroom, a Park Avenue executive suite, or a Hollywood commissary. --Dave Kehr
Similar DVD Movies
Madame BovaryKoch International; Release date: 2008-11-11; DVD
Best price: $16.85
Price in other shops:
8 WomenUNI DIST CORP. (MCA); Release date: 2003-02-11; DVD
Best price: $6.86
Price in other shops:
The Dinner GameLions Gate; Release date: 2003-08-19; DVD
Best price: $16.39
The Horseman on the RoofBuena Vista Home Video; Release date: 2003-06-03; Published: 2003-06-01; DVD
Best price: $31.99
The Last Metro (The Criterion Collection)Image Entertainment; Release date: 2009-03-24; DVD
Best price: $27.00
Price in other shops:
Queen Margot (La Reine Margot)Buena Vista Home Video; Release date: 2003-07-01; DVD
Best price: $24.71
MoliereSony; Release date: 2008-01-22; DVD
Best price: $8.99
Price in other shops:
Cyrano de BergeracSony; Release date: 2004-02-10; DVD
Best price: $7.17
Price in other shops:
The Widow of Saint-PierreLions Gate; Release date: 2001-09-18; Published: 2001-09-01; DVD
Best price: $7.49
Price in other shops:
Danton (The Criterion Collection)Image Entertainment; Release date: 2009-03-31; DVD
Best price: $20.74
Price in other shops: