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Lady J (2019)
Sep. 6th, 2019 12:06 pmLast weekend, I watched the French period drama Lady J (Mademoiselle de Joncquières), about a wealthy widow in the 1750s (?) who "concocts a scheme to get revenge when her romance with a lustful marquis takes an unwelcome turn." Now, the mention of revenge in the Netflix blurb should really have been my first clue things were going to take a sharp turn for the absolutely cuckoo bananas, but I spent a good 75% of the movie with this exact expression on my face.
The premise of the wealthy widow's revenge plot was to manipulate her ex into falling in love with a woman who'd refuse him, which she does by hiring a sex worker and her daughter to pose as an aristocratic widow (and her daughter) who lost their fortune and dedicated their lives to the church. This is very much an "only in the 18th century" plot - apparently based off a subplot from a mid-18th c. novel I've never heard of, Denis Diderot's Jacques the Fatalist - but at this point I was like, okay, let's see where this goes. The marquis does, in fact, fall instantly in love with the daughter's beauty, and his desire is only intensified by her elusiveness.
And this is where things get really weird.
( Read more... )
To end on a positive note: it was an extremely aesthetically pleasing film, all gorgeous 18th century clothing in candy-colored pastels and wide shots of symmetrical gardens and lush, sun-dappled forests. But, seriously, what a ride.
The premise of the wealthy widow's revenge plot was to manipulate her ex into falling in love with a woman who'd refuse him, which she does by hiring a sex worker and her daughter to pose as an aristocratic widow (and her daughter) who lost their fortune and dedicated their lives to the church. This is very much an "only in the 18th century" plot - apparently based off a subplot from a mid-18th c. novel I've never heard of, Denis Diderot's Jacques the Fatalist - but at this point I was like, okay, let's see where this goes. The marquis does, in fact, fall instantly in love with the daughter's beauty, and his desire is only intensified by her elusiveness.
And this is where things get really weird.
( Read more... )
To end on a positive note: it was an extremely aesthetically pleasing film, all gorgeous 18th century clothing in candy-colored pastels and wide shots of symmetrical gardens and lush, sun-dappled forests. But, seriously, what a ride.
