December 10: The Duchess of Langeais

Several months ago I rented The Duchess of Langeais from Blockbuster (it was an exclusive to that outlet) and watched it. But I didn't write about it because at the time I wasn't making the time to write. I had health issues (a bad reaction to a prescribed medication), work was stressful and consuming, and while I enjoyed watching films, I really didn't feel like writing about them. I was burnt out after a decade on the job and need a bit of an extended vacation.

Well, the same film recently turned up on the Sundance Channel and I watched it again, because, frankly, I had enjoyed it a lot the first time. I also was particularly drawn to the film because of its French title Ne touchez pas la hache, or as it was known in the United Kingdom, Don't Touch the Axe.

Adapted from a Balzac novella by Pascal Bonitzer, Christine Laurent and director Jacques Rivette, The Duchess of Langeais opens with General Armand de Montriveau (the late Guillaume Depardieu in dashing mode), a military veteran of the Napoleonic wars, who makes a pilgrimage to a convent in Spain in order to speak with a Carmelite nun known as Sister Theresa (Jeanne Balibar, who also starred in the director's Va Savoir). After the interview, Theresa announces that she has lied to the Mother Superior -- the military office was not a relative but her lover -- and then the story flashes back several years.

Five years earlier, the pair had first met in Paris. At the time, she was Antoinette de Langeais and he was a celebrated military figure who had been wounded in battle in Africa. They share an immediate attraction, but societal pressures cause her to only play the coquette. Frustrated, Armand resorts to kidnapping the duchess and threatening her. But she continues to refuse to surrender herself entirely to him. He pulls away and she then recognizes how much she loves him. There's a failed rendez-vous that leads them to the Spanish convent and the film's tragic denouement.

The Duchess of Langeais falls nicely in with much of Rivette's work, embracing themes of enslavement and escape. The movie's logline could read something along the lines of Beauty and the Beast meets Les Liaisons Dangereuses. There's romance but the relationship takes on a decidedly martial tone. Antoinette enjoys being a flirt and a tease, but she pushes too far and Armand resorts to what he knows best, battlefield strategy. She becomes an object to defeat in order to possess and that leads to the multi-year separation which in turn leads to tragedy.

The cast is superb with Balibar appropriately mercurial and sensual while Depardieu delivers a memorable performance as the man who lashes out at that which he cannot have. There's also strong support by veteran actors Bulle Ogier and Michel Piccoli (the co-stars of Belle Toujours) who proffer advice to the duchess on how to handle her affairs.

Watching the film now, though, there is a poignance to Depardieu's work. He had lost a leg to an infection following a motorcycle accident, so he employs that in his characterization of this wounded general. Now, following his surprising death from pneumonia, watching his work invokes the same sort of feelings that seeing any performer gone too soon (e.g., James Dean, Heath Ledger), the prospect of what might have been. For many years, Depardieu acted in the shadow of his famous father, but along the way, he came into his own and was establishing himself as a strong screen presence. This film is one that serves as a testament to his abilities. Rent it or seek it out on Sundance.

Rating: A-