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- Title
Ridicule (Film).
- Authors
Adams, Christine
- Abstract
The article reviews the motion picture Ridicule, starring Charles Berling, Jean Rochefort and Judith Godréche. During the English Revolution in the 1640s, the gap between court and country symbolized the profound ideological and religious split in that country. In France a similar rift existed between provincial France and the gay decadence of Paris and the court at Versailles. Provincial France has always found it difficult to compete with the cultural richness and the elegant wit of the Babylon on the Seine. During the Age of Enlightenment in the eighteenth century, this split between the refined and sometimes cruel life of the court and the tedious and often grueling life in the provinces was intensified. Patrice Leconte plays with this contrast in his sparkling film, Ridicule, which received great praise when it opened the Cannes Film Festival of 1996. Any student of French history will appreciate the film's embeddedness in the milieu of the late Enlightenment in its multiple manifestations. The Enlightenment of the court, with its emphasis on superficial wit, appreciation of the bon mot, and growing skepticism about both religion and government, contrasts with the Enlightenment of the Encyclopédie, with its appreciation of reason, science and practicality. This contrast provides the backdrop for the story of the young Baron Grégoire Ponceludon de Malavoy, played by Berling, who in 1783 makes the journey from his estates in the Dombes in southwest France to Versailles.
- Subjects
RIDICULE (Film); BERLING, Charles; ROCHEFORT, Jean, 1930-2017; LECONTE, Patrice
- Publication
Film & History (03603695), 2004, Vol 34, Issue 1, p73
- ISSN
0360-3695
- Publication type
Film Review
- DOI
10.1353/flm.2004.0002