The Duchess of Langeais

the stunning new film by French New Wave master Jacques Rivette (CELINE AND JULIE GO BOATING, LA BELLE NOISEUSE, VA SAVOIR). A tantalizing tale of obsessive love and romantic gamesmanship in Restoration Paris, the film features powerful, fire and ice performances by Jeanne Balibar (VA SAVOIR) and Guillaume Depardieu (POLA X) as cat-and-mouse lovers, and boasts screen legends Bulle Ogier (THE DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGEOISIE, CELINE AND JULIE GO BOATING) and Michel Piccoli (BELLE DU JOUR, CONTEMPT). A seductive, impeccably assured adaptation of Honoré de Balzac’s celebrated novella, THE DUCHESS OF LANGEAIS screened at the Berlin and Toronto film festivals.

Antoinette (Balibar) is the Duchess of Langeais, a married coquette who frequents the most extravagant balls in 1820’s Paris. At one such event she meets the handsome, brooding general Armand de Montriveau (Depardieu), who recounts his death-defying adventures in Napoleon’s army. Walking home later that evening, Montriveau declares to himself that Antoinette will become his lover. Flattered by his attentions, the alluring Antoinette orchestrates a calculating game of seduction, inviting him to her home but refusing physical intimacy. His romantic entreaties denied and his passion unfulfilled, Montriveau finally seeks revenge for his humiliation. Yet as Montriveau exacts his price, Antoinette’s love awakens.

Among the world’s greatest living directors, Jacques Rivette’s uncompromising career in cinema spans more than half a century. A vibrant, transporting evocation of Restoration France – as lived-in as it is exactingly detailed – THE DUCHESS OF LANGEAIS also furthers Rivette’s timeless fascination with performance and deception in human relationships.

“One of the best films I saw at Toronto [Film Festival]. Mr. Rivette’s superb camera moves through the period spaces and around the performers fluidly, surprisingly…(his) direction affirms that he remains at the height of his artistic powers.” – Manohla Dargis, New York Times

“A masterful, multilayered, sometimes enigmatic work of dark irony, an assured tragicomedy of manners and more. Depardieu and Balibar give deeply palpable performances. This is aesthetic bliss on a dizzyingly high level.”
– Glenn Kenny, Premiere