Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13521 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-01-29
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: French
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 98 minutes

Synopsis
During the pre-revolutionary reign of Louis XVI, a young engineer travels to Versailles to petition the king to help him save the people of his region from a mosquito infestation. Upon his arrival, the naive country squire discovers lust in the form of a widowed countess, love in the form of his host's beautiful daughter, ultimate power in the form of wit, and the ultimate weapon in the form of ridicule. Academy Award Nominations: Best Foreign Language Film.

Customer Reviews

Literate and wicked
Ridicule is a French film which takes place in 1783, a few years before Louis XVI lost the ability to wear a hat; where "...in this country, vices are without consequence, but ridicule can kill." The film is about the effect of wit and word play on people's lives and careers. Malicious, mannered and highly enjoyable. Charles Berling, Jean Rochefort, Bernard Giraudeau and Fanny Ardant are excellent. A man would be a fool not to want to bed Ardant, and even more a fool to trust her.

The film is sumptuously mounted and the DVD transfer does it justice. The dialogue is so clever a knowledge of French might be in order, but the English subtitles do a superb job of conveying the witty, cruel, self-serving word play.

Delicious period piece
Well, it is.
'Ridicule' is one of those lovely films to be enjoyed again and again. It's amusing, clever, and the period look is ravishing.
The performances are of the highest calibre, and the screenplay is one of those rare piece of screenwriting that doesn't take the audience for half-wits.
Especially worthy of note is the scene in which English 'Humour' (or 'Humah') is described at great length.
It won't change the world in the way that the French Revolution did, but it's none the less a delightful way to spend just over 90 minutes.

"Wit opens any door."
Sometimes with movie distribution, as with humour, timing is everything. Patrice Leconte's Ridicule is a long way from the best work from almost anyone involved, yet still proved a major arthouse success outside France, picking up Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for Best Foreign Film, winning a BAFTA as well as a nomination for the Palme D'Or at Cannes and winning four Cesars, including Best Film and Best Director, as well as another eight nominations in France itself. All of which leaves you with the suspicion that it couldn't have been up against much competition that year. It's certainly not a bad film, but at times it's almost as slight as its subject - the rules of wit and ridicule at the Court of Versailles under King Louis XVI, where you live or die by the readiness of your wit and where a single misstep can cast you into oblivion.

Charles Berling is the impoverished minor aristocrat seeking royal patronage for a drainage project to stop his peasants from dropping like flies only to discover that the only way to get near to the King in a world where wit opens any door is to demonstrate a sharper and more malicious tongue than those around him. Tutored in the rules of engagement by Jean Rochefort's friendly courtier and both championed and checked by Fanny Ardant's court predator, he briefly finds himself a sensation in a world where honesty and wit are so rarely combined, only to find himself heading for a fall.

While it's a cut above the usual dry costume drama and passes the time more than pleasantly enough, it never quite escapes the feeling of a safe and predictable morality tale while at times the wit could be sharper and the venom more prominent. There are some fine moments and Ardant gets a great screen entrance, her servants blowing powder over her naked body, but at the end of the day it manages to be a curious mixture of both a mildly satisfying diversion and slightly less than the sum of its parts. Very much like the Court of Versailles itself...

Whereas Miramax's Region 1 DVD is barebones, Second Sight's UK PAL DVD boasts a fine 2.35:1 widescreen transfer as well as a very good 52-minute documentary on the making of the film.