The Occasional Critic: Ridicule

I received feedback about Liza, the Occasional Critic, that asked for more of her musings on movies, and so I will hand today's posting over to her. I didn't realize she had seen so many foreign films with subtitles. She usually seems too practical and busy for those, but she assures me that the best ones are worth the additional reading required for the experience.

On the 1996 film Ridicule:

Judith Godreche as Mathilde, a young woman more interested in Science than Marriage

While the cover art of the movie features a half-clothed beauty turning to us with a come-hither gaze, she is not the principal actor. Instead, this film follows the fortunes of a young estate owner, whose land has fallen into marshy pestilence. His servants are falling ill and dying, as is happening to other landowners in the area. As a single man, he is entreated upon and sent to the King's palace of Versailles to plead for a grant to have the area drained and restored to prosperity. The families have taken up a collection to add to his own money to finance his sojourn. His is a heavy burden, to keep his ancestral home and its people from being swallowed up by the bog.

What does any of this mundanity have to do with this vixen staring at us so invitingly? Perhaps she is a symbol of the distractions our uncertain but determined hero encounters, once he begins the ordeal of trying to secure an audience with the King. At this time in the court's history, having a biting and satirical wit was all the rage, as opposed to other times, when piety and waxing religious sentiments were fashionable. He is from neither extreme, being somewhat provincial, and so he needs to be brought up to social speed if he is to save his land. The court at Versailles is, of course, the complete opposite of this nobleman's estate. Everyone and their surroundings are bright, refined, progressive and lightning quick. Fortunately for him, it turns out that he does indeed have the rapier wit or l'esprit that men of this era were expected to display, to prove not only their intelligence but also their rightful earthly place. An aristocrat by divine right shouldn't need to try very hard to be dazzling. Apparently, the dazzle comes pre-ordained from the heavenly realm, even if it illuminates in a diabolical manner.

As a caution, this is a French movie, so there are a few scenes that may rumple our sense of propriety and perhaps cause some mild squeamishness. The first scene depicts an act of revenge upon an elderly man. A spurned courtier urinates on him as he recites an ancient grievance against his pride. The scene isn't necessary to watch in order to understand the story, but it does set the tone for how terribly seriously wit and style were taken in this time. The players of it have no sense of humor, because careers, stations and livelihoods depended upon refining the sport of Ridicule. As one columnist put it, about the times we ourselves now live in: "The World Turns on a Snark."

Continued in Part 2