tellurikwaves Blog : CINEMA :Les blessures narcissiques d'une vie par procuration

Š DR -RIDICULE de Patrice Leconte (1996) p14

14/07/2013 01:13 par tellurikwaves

Š DR -RIDICULE de Patrice Leconte (1996) p14

14/07/2013 01:13 par tellurikwaves

Malicious Wordplay, and Watch Your Back

Author: Terrell-4 from San Antonio, Texas

3 August 2004

Ridicule is a French film which takes place in 1783, a few years before Louis XVI lost the ability to wear a hat; where "...in this country, vices are without consequence, but ridicule can kill."The film is about the effect of wit and word play on people's lives and careers. Malicious,mannered and highly enjoyable.

Charles Berling, Jean Rochefort, Bernard Giraudeau and Fanny Ardant are excellent. A man would be a fool not to want to bed Ardant, and even more a fool to trust her. The love affair between Berling and his deep-diving sweetheart is amusing and endearing.The film is sumptuously mounted. The dialogue is so clever a knowledge of French might be in order, but the English subtitles do a superb job of conveying the witty, cruel, self-serving word play.

Š DR -RIDICULE de Patrice Leconte (1996) p13

14/07/2013 00:57 par tellurikwaves

Š DR -RIDICULE de Patrice Leconte (1996) p13

14/07/2013 00:57 par tellurikwaves

Š DR -RIDICULE de Patrice Leconte (1996) p12

14/07/2013 00:55 par tellurikwaves

Š DR -RIDICULE de Patrice Leconte (1996) p12

14/07/2013 00:55 par tellurikwaves

à droite le réalisateur Patrice Leconte

the thing that can destroy your life...

Author: dbdumonteil

9 April 2003

"Ridicule" confirms well a thing: Patrice Leconte is one of the most talented French film-makers that French cinema has known. His gift comes from the fact that ke knows how to find original and eye-catching subjects for his movies and he also knows how to make them fascinating (watch "mister Hire" or "the hairdresser's wife" to be aware of it). Here, he chose to broach a make his movie around a feeling that men always dreaded: ridicule. The action takes place in 1780, in the reign of Louis XVI.

A young noble (Charles Berling) intends to get a meeting with the king, in Versailles. Indeed, he'd like him to lend important sums of money so as to drain marshes infected by mosquitos. This action will enable to save hundreds of peasants. But what Berling doesn't know is that he's not the only one who wants to get a meeting with the king. Hundreds of nobles like him feel the same thing.

Above all, according to an elderly noble (Jean Rochefort), when you're in the court of a king, you have to avoid the ridicule which consequences can be disastrous. Berling will learn it, will face it and will just avoid it.You could compare the court of Louis XVI as a jungle where only the strong survive. The strong are those who are quick-witted and skillful-minded. Ridicule invades the weak and leads them to disgrace, even suicide.

With this movie, Leconte's aim is at denouncing vanity and hypocrisy of courtiers in the court of the king who take advantage of their privileged situation.An outstanding and precise film-making, a dazzling performance especially Jean Rochefort and some powerful cues ("now, you mustn't make a single mistake" said Rochefort to Berling when the last one's going to meet the king).

Obviously, the movie doesn't lack ironical humor: when the king asks to a courtier: "I hope it's not a pun" and the courtier replies: "no, Sir, it's a play on words". Play on words and pun mean the same thing.At the end, a brilliant movie rightly awarded in France where it won the Oscar( heu...plutôt le César non?) for the Best movie in 1997

Š DR -RIDICULE de Patrice Leconte (1996) p11

13/07/2013 11:32 par tellurikwaves

Š DR -RIDICULE de Patrice Leconte (1996) p11

13/07/2013 11:32 par tellurikwaves

At the court of Louis XVI before the guillotine

Author: Dennis Littrell from United States

27 September 2002

This reminds me a lot of Dangerous Liaisons (1988) and Valmont (1989) in its cynicism and sharp wit. Set in France during the same time period (the eve of the French Revolution--that's the eighteenth century, reviewers), Ridicule concentrates not so much on sexual intrigues (although there is plenty of that) but on cynical wit as though in homage to Voltaire, France's master of satire whose spirit is suffused throughout.

First a warning. Don't let the rather gross crudity of the opening scene mislead you. That is meant merely as satire, not as a presaging of further crudities to come. It is also meant as a kind of cinematic joke since there is no comparable female nudity in the entire film. Indeed, there is no comparable, shall we say "expression," anywhere in legitimate filmdom that I am aware of. So let it pass or close your eyes.

Charles Berling stars as Gregoire Ponceludon de Malavoy, a country engineer who comes to Versailles to get financial backing to drain a swamp to save the peasants who are dying of mosquito-borne disease. ("Peasants feed aristocrats as well as mosquitos.") He discovers very quickly that a way to an audience with Louis XVI is through gaining a reputation as a clever courtier. Guided by M. Bellegarde (Jean Rochefort), a retired courtier himself, Ponceludon quickly picks up the games of wit and ridicule that reign at court.

His quick and clever mind and youthful good looks gain the attention of the king's mistress, Madame de Blayac (Fanny Ardant) who demonstrates how access to the king can come through her bedroom. Ponceludon is sincere only in his desire to drain the swamp and so readily allows himself to become another of Blayac's lovers in exchange for a chance to present his program to Louis XVI.

At the same time he meets Bellegarde's daughter Mathide (Judith Godrèche), an idealistic beauty with a scientific bent, who is betrothed to a dying old man of wealth and position. They fall in love, but their differing agendas keep them apart. What makes this film such a delight is the delicious way it satirizes the decadent court of Louis XVI. The dramatic irony is superb and absolute in the sense that at no time does director Patrice Leconte give even the slightest hint that any of the byzantine sycophants at court are aware that Danton and the Terror await them.

Throw in the impending Industrial (and scientific) Revolution symbolized in the form of Ponceludon and Mathide, and the ancien régime with its antiquated feudal titles and corrupt privilege is seen for what it was, a parasitic anachronism,ripe to rot for destruction.The sets,the direction and especially the acting are excellent. Veteran Rochefort is particularly good in a part that depends on a directive and expressive face amid the whispers at court. Berling is smooth and believable as a man with a noble mission, adroit at repartee, love and dueling, a modest and earnest hero.

Godrèche is good, but seems a little restrained here. She is an impossibly healthy, handsome beauty no man could resist. I first saw her as a 17-year-old in The Disenchanted (1990) where her adolescent charm was carefully and craftily displayed by director Benoît Jacquot. Here Leconte concentrates on her strength of character.Fanny Ardant's Madame de Blayac is a Machiavellian mistress of love's duplicity, very much like the Marquise de Merteuil from Dangerous Liaisons and Valmont. Her performance compares favorably with that of Glenn Close and Annette Bening, respectively, although there is an earthy quality to Ardant that seems most realistic. Her character is also more vulnerable.

The sets are sumptuous without being artificially showy. The gray, high-topped wigs and the beaked-nosed masks at ball are charming and, along with the gilded attire, the caked makeup, etc., somehow suggest the true state of costume and personal hygiene circa 1784, reminding me that in those days people did not generally wear underpants or take showers.

Some bon mots:

"The soul of wit is to know one's place."

When asked by the king to say something witty about the king himself, Ponceludon returns: "The king is not a subject." The king asks if this is not a (lowly) pun, but is assured that it is a "play on words."

When Blayac discerns that Ponceludon is not entirely smitten with her, she responds, "Learn to hide your insincerity so that I may yield without dishonor."

The film closes with a scene in England on a cliff overlooking the English channel. Bellegarde and another reflect on the changes after the revolution: "Wit was the very air we breathed." "Now the bloated rhetoric of Danton rules in place of wit." Bellegarde's hat is blown off by the wind. His companion remarks: "Better your hat than your head."

By the way, the subtitles (and this is usually not the case) are excellent, inventive and faithful enough, while comfortably brief, to have been done by a professional translator instead of by someone handy who is passably bilingual.(eh oui ça fait toute la différence)

(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon!)

Š DR -RIDICULE de Patrice Leconte (1996) p10

13/07/2013 11:22 par tellurikwaves

Š DR -RIDICULE de Patrice Leconte (1996) p10

13/07/2013 11:22 par tellurikwaves

Récompenses et distinctions

Ouverture du festival de Cannes 1996

César (1997) du meilleur film

César du meilleur réalisateur - Patrice Leconte

César des meilleurs décors - Ivan Maussion

César des meilleurs costumes - Christian Gasc

Nomination : Oscar du meilleur film étranger

David di Donatello (Meilleur film étranger)

BAFTA (Meilleur film étranger)

La critique des spectateurs ImDB

Delightful!

Author: Katie-93 (botswana16@hotmail.com) from Washington

29 May 2000

I must say that I wish I could speak better French, simply because this film has such a great sense of humor, it would only intensify the hilarity of the picture. The story was not perhaps the most original, then again, what is? This film had heart and a flow about it that was very interesting and pleasing to the eye and soul. Sometimes I hoped that I could see the lives of the other people in the plot, like that little deaf/mute boy, Paul or whatever happened to the abbot? Overall, I must say that the film is beautifully shot, funny in a very literary, upper minded way and a sheer delight. Not for those with a taste for low-brow humor however.

Š DR -RIDICULE de Patrice Leconte (1996) p9

13/07/2013 11:15 par tellurikwaves

Š DR -RIDICULE de Patrice Leconte (1996) p9

13/07/2013 11:15 par tellurikwaves

Autour du film

Les scènes d'extérieur de la résidence du marquis de Bellegarde ont été tournées au château de Villiers-le-Bâcle, propriété de l'humoriste Yves Lecoq.Les acteurs Albert Delpy et Marie Pillet sont conjoints à l'époque du film.On notera la présence d'un personnage historique assez intéressant vis-à-vis des thèmes du langage, de l’expression et de la compréhension au travers de Paul, l'élève sourd-muet du Marquis de Bellegarde, qui est envoyé auprès de l'Abbé Charles-Michel de L'Épée.Appelé l'abbé de L'Épée il fut un des premiers à s’intéresser à la question de l'enseignement pour les sourds-muets et notamment en ce qui concerne la langue des signes ou en tous cas un moyen de communication efficaces pour les sourds.

Š DR -RIDICULE de Patrice Leconte (1996) p8

13/07/2013 04:24 par tellurikwaves

Š DR -RIDICULE de Patrice Leconte (1996) p8

13/07/2013 04:24 par tellurikwaves

Autour du film

Les auteurs ont sans doute tiré le nom du personnage interprété par Charles Berling "Ponceludon de Malavoy" d'une personnalité du monde des lettres champenois, Aubin Louis Hédouin de Malavois, né en 1783 à Épernay, mort à Reims en 1866. Il était surnommé "Pons-Ludon" en raison d'une propriété épo...du même nom qu'il avait entre Reims et Cormontreuil.C'est un certain Comte Pierre-Emmanuel Luneau qui reprit la propriété de M. Hédouin.Pour l'anecdote-(Huh Huh une gaufrette marquis?) la demeure toujours existante est située sur l'un des anciens marais asséché au XVIIIe.

Š DR -RIDICULE de Patrice Leconte (1996) p7

13/07/2013 04:18 par tellurikwaves

Š DR -RIDICULE de Patrice Leconte (1996) p7

13/07/2013 04:18 par tellurikwaves

Analyse Wiki (Pamphlet / Sourate / Episode 3)

Notons qu'à cette époque,des livres de saillies verbales circulaient régulièrement, et étaient appris et utilisés (vente Rothschild Sotheby's mai 2006, l'exemplaire personnel du Marquis de Marigny - frère de la Marquise de Pompadour).Pourtant, si les costumes semblent cohérents par rapport aux description de l'époque, (cf. par exemple le livre de fête intitulé "Le mariage du dauphin"fils de Louis XV -1,2), le film prend quelques libertés, en dépeignant de façon grotesque,Louis XVI et Marie-Antoinette notamment.

Š DR -RIDICULE de Patrice Leconte (1996) p6

13/07/2013 04:14 par tellurikwaves

Š DR -RIDICULE de Patrice Leconte (1996) p6

13/07/2013 04:14 par tellurikwaves

Analyse Wiki (Verset 2)

Historiquement parlant, le film semble proche des descriptions qui nous sont parvenues de la cour sous l'Ancien Régime :Le Comte de Bussy-Rabutin dans ses mémoires sur le Début du Règne de Louis XIV décrit l'aspect peu accessible du souverain, et l'extrême difficulté que celui-là a à faire parvenir des messages au roi, alors qu'il est issu d'une des plus anciennes et influentes familles du Royaume.

Le Duc de Saint-Simon de son côté, relate dans ses mémoires son ambassade en Espagne pour le mariage de Louis XV et de l'infante Marie Anne Victoire d'Espagne, et apprécie les séances hebdomadaires où le roi d'Espagne reçoit tout demandeur, à la différence de ce qui se passe en France. On peut aussi citer le témoignage de Norbert Elias qui décrit le phénomène de cour dans lequel se laissent enfermer Louis XV mais surtout Louis XVI, le roi ne devient presque plus accessible.

Š DR -RIDICULE de Patrice Leconte (1996) p5

13/07/2013 04:10 par tellurikwaves

Š DR -RIDICULE de Patrice Leconte (1996) p5

13/07/2013 04:10 par tellurikwaves

Analyse (Tome 1)

Ridicule montre la vie à la cour au XVIII e siècle, où la seule manière de s'adresser au roi est d'user d'esprit,d'intelligence et de beau langage.La rivalité est omniprésente dans les salons les nobles s'humilient les uns les autres afin d' augmenter leur estime auprès du roi. Un des protagonistes du film va même jusqu'à se suicider après avoir raté de très peu une rencontre avec le roi.

Le monarque apparait la comme un dieu impitoyable, égoïste et capable de conduire les hommes à la mort sans même s'en rendre compte. Le héros du Ridicule, le baron de Malavoy, bien qu'étranger à cet esprit, est obligé d'y entrer pour pouvoir s'adresser au roi afin d'obtenir les fonds nécessaires à l'assèchement des marais de la Dombes. Il se découvre très vite un don particulier pour le beau langage, mais ne parviendra cependant pas à obtenir une vraie conversation avec le roi.