|
|
Ne touchez pas la hache
2007 Drama / Romance / History
Review
There is a cold mortuary feel to this sombre portrayal of an impossible
love affair involving a coquettish noblewoman and a soldier set in the
early part of the Nineteenth Century. Ne touchez pas la hache is closely
based on Honoré de Balzac’s novel La Duchesse de Langeais, which was
in turn inspired by the writer’s own painful amorous experiences with
the Duchesse de Castries. In one of his bleakest films to
date, director Jacques Rivette succeeds not only in relating Balzac’s
tragic love story with exquisite poignancy and elegance, but he also
captures something of the author’s style, particularly the unremitting
sense of oppression that stems from the harsh societal constraints of
the period. William Lubtchansky’s cinematography lends the film a
claustrophobic feel and austerity that emphasises the hopelessness of
the predicament in which the lead characters find themselves. Jeanne Balibar and Guillaume Depardieu are superb as the star-crossed lovers in what is pretty well a two-handed theatrical piece. The understated yet intensely focused performances of both actors cannot help but draw the spectator into their world, a world that is darkened, not brightened, by a passion that fails to ignite. The apparent coldness with which Balibar’s character treats Depardieu’s can barely conceal her true feelings, but by the time she realises the truth of her own sentiment, the damage has already been done. Thwarted by the protagonists’ own tragic failings and by a hypocritical society that looks askance at illicit liaisons in the nobility, this fragile love can only wither and die before our eyes. In what is surely his darkest and most pessimistic film to date, Jacques Rivette seems to take a sadistic pleasure in showing just how cruel and destructive that fatal attraction can be. © filmsdefrance.com 2009 Write a review for this film...User Comments
How do you rate this film?
|
Director:
Jacques Rivette
Starring: Jeanne Balibar, Guillaume Depardieu, Michel Piccoli, Bulle Ogier, Anne Cantineau Synopsis
General Armand de Montriveau arrives on a Spanish island as part of a
French expedition to re-establish the rule of Ferdinand
VII. There, in a monastery, he discovers Sister
Thérèse, the woman he has been desperately seeking for
five years... The story began in Paris, what seems like a
lifetime ago. The moment he saw Antoinette de Navarreins for the
first time, Armand de Montriveau knew that she was the woman of his
life. But she is a coquette and a schemer, renowned for toying
with the affections of men. Besides, she is already
married, to the Duke of Langeais. Yet it pleases her to let
the gallant general court her, knowing as she does that he will never
have her heart...
Credits
 More French Drama  More French Romance |
   |
© filmsdefrance.com 2009