RIDICULE
(MOVIE)
FRANCE
To get royal backing on a needed drainage project, a poor French lord must learn to play the delicate games of wit at court at Versailles. In the periwigged and opulent France of Louis XVI, an unwitting nobleman soon discovers that survival at court demands both a razor wit and an acid tongue. This is a very intelligent movie and from a historical viewpoint, it shows how cruel and vain the French noblesse was before the French Revolution of 1789.
The action in this film is nearly entirely a matter of verbal cut and thrust and quick repartee. A period piece shot in pre-revolutionary France in the days of King Louis and Marie Antoinette, Ridicule portrays an era when wit could earn a passport into courtly favor, and one verbal faux pas could ruin a man's reputation and position in society. Charles Berling's performance as Ponceledon, the rustic nobleman trying to bring his petition to drain the disease-infested swamps of his region before the King of France, is superb... Fanny Ardant is also a well-cast Madame de Blayac, the dexterously duplicitous countess who appears disposed towards aiding Ponceledon in his suit.
Venue: Alliance Française Theatre, Level 1, Alliance Française, 1 Sarkies Road
Time: 8pm sharp
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