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Marquise
*Premiere*
"Erotic, rambunctious, ravishing... a feast for the senses."
-- Toronto International Film Festival
"Lavish and sexy." -- Toronto Sun
"Marquise, a French movie set at court during the 17th century reign of the Sun King, is both lavish and sexy. It works as a romp through history that unfetters the actors so they can play like soap opera divas. Melodrama and humour sweep aside the stuffiness of many of the historical movies of the past... [In] director Vera Belmont's look at the intersecting lives of famed writers Moliere and Racine with King Louis XIV... costume drama conventions are blown up big and beautiful while scenes in the gutter suggest the horrid smells, disease and dirt of the times. By presenting it as farce, Belmont actually makes the era seem more real than in the cleaner, slicker Hollywood versions of France... Most importantly for the success of Marquise, the ravishing Sophie Marceau (Braveheart, Anna Karenina) stars as the title character. She is a country dancer and actress discovered by Moliere's theatre troupe and brought to Paris, where the King is impressed by her singular charms. So am I. Marceau can be ingenue, femme fatale, comedian and tragedian all within the same scene -- and make sense of the conflicting passions... Marquise is a treat with a few charming surprises... it would make a brilliant double bill with another recent French film, Ridicule..." -- Bruce Kirkland, Toronto Sun
(France, 1997, subtitles, 118 min.)
Classification: TBA
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