The Lady and the Duke

Éric Rohmer's 2001 French film is adapted from the memoirs of Grace Elliott, a British aristocrat who remained in Paris during the French Revolution. She keeps up her friendship with her former lover, the Duke of Orléans, and at the same time hides a fugitive in her home. What stands out is the technique: rather than shoot exteriors, Rohmer placed his actors digitally into painted tableaux inspired by eighteenth-century engravings. The result is not a historical reconstruction but a film speaking in the visual language of its period. Rohmer's view of the revolution is plainly negative and the crowd is painted as an unreasoning mob, the film's most contested aspect. Who it's for: viewers interested in Rohmer and formal experiment in historical film. Who it's not for: anyone wanting a balanced account of the revolution, or troubled by an artificial image.