Rohmer, practically the poster boy for Verbal Cinema, tries his hand at a special-effects movie. That's not to say that it's any less talky, stilted, static, and stagy than Rohmer's norm. The effects are strange but go down easier, though, than the digital-video image in the non-CG interior scenes: the anemic color, the flattened forms and perspectives, the literally chintzy surface of the image.

"The Lady and the Duke is Eric Rohmer's economical antidote to the bloated costume drama." - Ed Gonzalez

Good Movie

Be advised that this movie is a huge lie. Grace Elliott was not a noble; she was a courtesan a la Lola Montes. (Max Ophuls's Montes movie is the same kind of lie.) That being said, it's still well-made enough to be worth seeing, as one woman's struggles amidst the French Revolution. (Did Rohmer know? Or is her memoir also a load of crap?) Also featuring this weird technique in which no outdoor locations or sets are used; the actors are superimposed against CGI backdrops with bad matting