Ridicule
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Movie Reviews of Ridicule
Movie Review: The Great Disconnect-Aristocrats and Common People=Revolution
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a wonderful depiction of the consequences of a massive disconnect between the "haves" and "have nots" in a society. The consequences of the great disconnect in the France of Louis XVI are amply documented in history books. The movie is beautifully shot as a historical period piece. The cinematography is lush and sensual in its tone. It's message, however, is not confined to the time period.
Charles Berling, as Le Marquis Grégoire Ponceludon de Malavoy, is the French equivalent of an English country squire. The peasants on his estate are dying of diseases cause by a mosquito-infested swamp on his estate. He goes to Versailles to petition the king for funds to drain the swamp and save the lives of his peasants.
He arrives naively thinking that a straightforward discussion of the merits of his engineering project will win him the necessary funds. He is soon disabused of that notion by the disdainful bureaucrats who inhabit different wings of the Versailles castle. By chance he is fortunately taken under the wing of an experienced doctor and courtier, Le Marquis de Bellegarde, played by the excellent Jean Rochefort.
The doctor tutors de Malavoy in the ways of the court, where only wit and ridicule matter. De Malavoy finds that the only way to obtain funds for a practical project like draining a swamp is to become a favorite at court, where one must must be witty and lucky rather than smart and good. De Malavoy sets out to accomplish his practical goal which can only be achieved by engaging in an absurd gamesmanship wholly unrelated to dying peasants or the general good. Wit gains favor and funding, ridicule results in banishment from the court.
De Malavoy is fortunate to have the wit necessary to thrive at court and to catch the attention of one of the king's beautiful courtesans, Madame de Blayac, played by the gorgeous Fanny Ardant. Madame can make or break him. His relationship with her and the doctor's beautiful daughter, Mathilde (Judith Godreche), is the pivot point of the story. De Malavoy is called upon to put means over the end in order to save his loyal peasantry.
You will have to see the movie to discover whether de Malavoy is able to finally drain the swamp. History shows, of course, that the swamp that was Louis XVI's court was eventually drained; by the ridiculed peasants of the French Revolution. The corruption and cynicism of a dying regime and its court are wonderfully captured in "Ridicule". Both history and art are well-served in this movie.
Movie Review: Just remember that : Here, the vices are of minor importance: It's the ridicule what it really kills you!
Summary: 5 Stars
It's worthy to mention how the French society reacted before the rationalism ages, its response was to activate the frivolity and triviality until its maxim consequences: without Voltaire there would not be Beaumarchais. Perhaps the only adjective to qualify Versailles in the XVII Century: Ridicule.
Every age has its peculiar way to revisit the history. And Patrice Leconte has a very acidic view about Versailles in that century. The sequence in which we watch Madame de Playac (Fanny Ardant) besmeared by rice dust introduces us into the decadent Court of Luis XVI and its itching of antechambers, where the power and the favoritisms are achieved by the verbal development of the talent.
Gregoire Ponceludon de Malavoy (Charles Berling), is descendent of a noble rural linage, who pretends to desiccate the swamps of his rustic land, devastated by fearing mosquito anopheles, guilty of that terrible disease better known as the malaria. In order to get the state aid for put in action his projects, he decides to introduce himself into Versailles and their pertaining to the palace intrigues, shared between the fresh and sincere love of Mathilde and Mrs. Blayac.
This sharp script allows us to analyze and be aware about what meant to be taken into account in those times, where the ridicule sense was a true knife in the throat of all of those who lacked or abused of it. In this sense the cleverness was an authentic tool of survival that foresaw the Darwin statement.
So, to have spirit equaled to have a certain intellectual elegance, to suggest without offending, to provoke the easy laughs but without seconds intentions like irony or the intelligent humor.
Gregoire challenges and surpasses all these obstacles even playing cards of opposite significance. He defies the enemy but not against it but with it: he knows this is the only way to get into the core of the monster.
One of the nest films of the year not only its undeniable originality but its undeniable hidden agenda in which the decadence is carved in relief through several sequences: the meeting of the Indian delegate, the sequence of the dance and the terrible ending of the theatrical representation in which the starring makes a comment out of place just at the end of the show, falling in disgrace before the politic and religious status.
Without hesitation, this is the masterwork of Patrice Leconte.
Movie Review: 'Vices are without consequence, but ridicule can kill'
Summary: 5 Stars
RIDICULE deserved all the lavish praise it engendered upon its release in 1996. As a period piece (France in the final throes of King Louis XVI) it is one of the finest - visually, contextually, musically, AND it is wonderfully intelligent! Unlike many period pieces that serve as elegant decoration for meager stories, RIDICULE carries pungent statements about the decline of aristocracy and the whispers of the cause of democracy.
A poor humanitarian travels from the ill swamps of Southern France to the court of Versailles to seek funding from the Royal Court to correct the deplorable living conditions ignored by the King. Upon arrival he finds a vapid society diverting attention from problems that plague the kingdom by inventing word games whose purpose is to find who can is best able to ridicule the fellow shallow players of this verbal chess game. Finding he has the gift to outclass the court with his verbal wit our humanitarian is 'accepted' into nobility and spars with the finest. For a while our humanitarian's focus is diffused by women, duels, and other diversions of the court until he finally regroups his cause and returns to the suffering sector from whence he came...with the ability to correct the conditions at last.
The cast of Director Patrice Laconte's gem is exemplary and includes such fine actors as Charles Berling, Fanny Ardant, Jean Rochefort, Judith Godrèche, Bernard Giraudeau, and the mute role so sensitively performed by Bruno Zanardi (the one constant presence who keeps us reminded of just how absurdly low the court of France has fallen). The costumes by Christian Gasc (especially in the masked ball) are some of the more sumptuous ever created and the musical score by Antoine Duhamel and cinematography by Thierry Arbogast capture the atmosphere of both comedy and underling decay that makes this film so fine.
Truly a film for those who enjoy double entendres and acerbic wit, this film grows better with repeated viewings. In French with English subtitles. Grady Harp, May 05
Movie Review: Off With Their Heads!
Summary: 5 Stars
It's the waning days of the old regime in France. A conscientious but impoverished nobleman from the south travels to Versailles to petition the royal government for funds to drain his swamps so that his tenants can be spared periodic outbreaks of disease. Instead of finding the sympathetic ears he expected, he finds a government nearing bankruptcy, a well-intentioned but befuddled king who is surrounded by a bureaucracy trying to temper the king's naive generosity and stave off the final collapse, and an aristocracy that has descended into a depraved comedy of manners. All substantive thought at court has been replaced by endless games of witticisms, whereby a person's social standing and political access are functions of mastering the art of the putdown . . . preferrably in as ascerbic a manner as possible.To everyone's surprise -- including his own -- our hero turns out to be quite good at the art of malicious wit. First trying to use his new-found talent to speed up his campaign to drain his swamps, he soon succumbs to the appeal of the game for the game's sake. A series of events eventually snaps him back to reality, and therein lies the plot of the piece.
This is a supremely engaging costume piece. The cast is superb, the settings and costumes dead-on accurate, the dialog entertaining and sophisticated. In the end, it's really a gorgeously-filmed morality play about the triumph of conscience over wealth, power, and hollow social graces. The only real fault with the movie from a historical perspective is that it portrays Louis XVI as the affable nitwit of popular legend instead of the serious monarch overwhelmed by ultimately uncontrollable events that he really was.
This movie is so good at drawing you in that you soon cease to notice you're reading subtitles (at least if you don't speak fluent French). Although the plot hinges on the most delicate subtleties of 18th-century court French, the story telegraphs through with searing clarity. And it's a story for all times, all places, and all tongues.
Movie Review: An Addendum to "Off With Their Heads"
Summary: 5 Stars
H.M. Pyles's review "Off With Their Heads" is probably a more cogent plot synopsis than I would make time to write here, so I will forego the synopsis and refer the reader to his review for that. But I wanted to add a few comments about this film, which is a true favorite of mine... While not averse to foreign language films, I don't watch too many of them, probably for the reasons most movie-goers in America forego them: I want to watch rather than read when an actor is performing, and I know I'm losing some contextual nuances when I watch a film in a language where I am not totally fluent. But this is a wickedly entertaining film IN ADDITION to being a real morality play. The stunningly gorgeous and stunningly talented Fanny Ardant really shines in this film, and to my delight, gets lots of screen time. All of the acting is exceptional, as are the sets, costumes, et cetera.
Of course, there are a lot of differences between American and French cinema, as anyone who has seen even a few examples of French film will realize. However this film is particularly accessible to American audiences in a few ways... It is not terribly esoteric (like the Red, White and Blue trilogy, for example), so you don't have to struggle to understand the story as well as the language. It's very visually appealing, as I mentioned, and it also employs that favorite of American script scenarios, The Love Triangle. And the humor - caustic and costly as it is to the characters - really does keep one engaged. And because this is a French rather than Hollywood production, a happy ending is not guaranteed for all concerned. Therefore, if you want to know what happens next, you actually have to watch!
Buy this film. You will not experience buyer's - or viewer's - remorse!