Film Review: Ridicule

France, 1996, 102 min
Director: Patrice Leconte
Cast: Charles Berling, Jean Rochefort, Judith Godrèche, Bernard Giraudeau, Bernard Dhéran, Carlo Brandt, Jacques Mathou, Urbain Cancelier

The film ‘Ridicule’ reminds one of movies that have handled the theme of decadence as a lifestyle. Similar films that come to mind are Hollywood exports ‘Dangerous Liaisons’ and the recently released ‘Marie Antoniette’ as well as the deliciously wicked ‘La Reine Margot’, a little known Merchant-Ivory movie, ‘The golden bowl’ and the under-appreciated Stanley Kubrick classic ‘Barry Lyndon’.

We know decadence is ‘bad’ but we love the thought of having the luxury to be so wicked.

‘Ridicule’ in that sense plays with the audience’s basic instincts, as it is set in the Palace of Versailles where ‘wit’ is everything, above truth, morality, people and hygiene, where decadence is seen as the height of civilization. If you are witty enough, you have the king’s ear. In this bad, rich world comes the good aristocrat Gregoire Ponceludon de Malavoy, played by Charles Berling, who needs money to build a sewage canal for his people. The hero is such a good boy that he repeatedly gets conned by the king’s mistress into ridicule though at one point he does manage to get the king’s ear.

Ultimately his self righteousness and his lady love make him choose the ‘correct’ path to success, which is by working hard, not by being witty or by sleeping with the king’s mistress (played superbly by Fanny Ardant)

In that sense the movie is a moral tale, and I must admit, disappointing. In its handling of the moral dilemma, it sounds more mainstream Hollywood than self-indulgent French. We would have hailed the hero more had he won by using the rules of the system to beat the system, instead he becomes a caricature of Tom Cruise transported to 18th century Versailles.

Shivani Ratra