The Duchess of Langeais
IFC Films | Release Date: February 22, 2008 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
74
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 23 Critic Reviews
Positive:
20
Mixed:
2
Negative:
1

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
PremiereGlenn Kenny
The first masterpiece of 2008 -- at least by American release date standards -- the latest film from master French director Jacques Rivette is a masterful, multilayered, sometimes enigmatic work of dark irony, an assured tragicomedy of manners and more. Read full review
100
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
Duchess of Langeais seems to me a nearly impeccable work of art -- beautiful, true, profound. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
Jacques Rivette has brought the Balzac short story to screen as a superb chamber drama. His is a graceful work of austerity and formality that perfectly captures the chaos of repressed emotions that see beneath the rigid conventions of aristocratic society. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
The movie's satisfactions are subtle, but they run deep, and there are many. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Rivette's slow-moving but seamless study of the rituals of courtship has a disarming grace, even as its downcast hero, Depardieu's Gen. Armand de Montriveau, limps around stiffly. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
A highbrow chick flick that made me feel older, in a good way. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubNoel Murray
Though not exactly a "comedy" of manners, since it's more melancholy than funny, The Duchess Of Langeais is very much concerned with how the rules of social etiquette interfere with raw human need. Read full review
83
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
The Duchess of Langeais is a romantic dance of death. Read full review
80
Washington PostStephen Hunter
With its sophisticated psychology, its brilliant story structure and its riveting performances, The Duchess of Langeais feels very new, even if everything about it is old. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Balibar and Depardieu make a compelling duo who exude an animal magnetism that's undeniable. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
The performances reveal precisely what Rivette wants to reveal, which is to say, in conventional psychological terms, not a great deal. Read full review
70
VarietyRussell Edwards
Rivette uses intertitles (including some direct quotes from Balzac) to move the plot along and underline the dry wit. Helming is both leisurely and exact, offering auds ample opportunities to intimately observe the selfishness and folly of two people who would rather fight than switch. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
Rivette has aged into one of cinema’s most ingenious minimalists. In The Duchess of Langeais he uses intertitles--bits of literary exposition--with cheeky understatement. Read full review
70
Village VoiceNathan Lee
Rivette is teasing his way, thinking afresh, playing a game but tweaking its rules, telling a story, but only sort of--making, in short, not simply a movie, but that ineffable magic called cinema. Read full review
70
SalonStephanie Zacharek
The picture has an unsettling, haunting quality that I haven't been able to shake. Read full review
70
The New YorkerDavid Denby
The Duchess is enragingly elusive and possibly mad; the General is very direct and also possibly mad. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Masterfully charted and adeptly played, but also rather minimalist. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianMarc Mohan
The performances are solid and subtle, with Depardieu growing nicely into the brooding, smarter-than-he-looks roles his father tackled for years. Read full review
63
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Rivette brings a refreshing realism to what could have been a stodgy costume drama, it's still pretty slow going. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Stephen Cole
A typically hypnotic, slow-coiling drama from 80-year-old French filmmaker, Jacques Rivette. Read full review
60
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
If anything, as it lathers up into an abortive attempt at scarlet-woman branding and a goofy siege on the nunnery where a dazed and confused Antoinette has holed up, The Duchess of Langeais works best as the comic bondage fantasy implied in its deliciously sly French title: "Don't Touch the Axe." Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy Burr
The film's a minuet fetishistically repeated until either the audience or the lovers go crazy. I'd say it was a tie. Read full review
38
New York PostKyle Smith
Jacques Rivette's film is full of painstaking historical detail, but the behavior of the two nonlovers is mired in inaction and emotionally incomprehensible. Read full review
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