Letters, balls, scandal, a kidnapping, and an ultimatum bring her to the cloister and him to melancholy. The lovers in "The Duchess of Langeais" never consummate their love, but it consummates them. Its original French title is Ne touchez pas la hache. So I went back into a book I was reading a few weeks ago, The Dreams of Interpretation: A Century Down the Royal Road, finding this perfect quote from the editors describing the illumination of the space between Pascal (19th Century) and Freud (20th) which the movie by Jacques Rivette that I saw tonight so monumentally demonstrated (and which is so fundamental to what I am experiencing myslef): "If, in the century in which Freud's own life began, it was still necessary to secure a stronghold as Pascal's Wager thus had to be transformed, honed into the sharpest superegoic injunction imaginable - "believe" - as the only apparent means to this end; if thus it was still apparently necessary to submit to the Father at every instant, to remain standing awake all night to assure one's salvation - if this is the way the post-Copernican theologians would have it, Freud, nonetheless, and lucky for us, offers a new turn, something quite different, in the necessity of thought and practice." Boy was I duped. A few of the other cinephiles in attendance seemed to get their jollies from this film. I guess I should see some more of Rivette's work before I toss in the towel on him (I still prefer Trufaut,or even Goddard,among the French "new wave" directors). I dare someone to count the abrupt entrances/exits through darkened doorways. In despair, she gives him an ultimatum: to meet her or never see her again. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 70%, based on 66 reviews, with an average score of 6.5/10. You may like it. I guess the acting was okay, but there was so little conversation in the film that it was difficult to tell. You must either worship him or turn on him and shatter an idol. This story that casts aspersions on the artificiality of French high society in the early 1800s and the stilted rules that govern their affairs has now been brought to the screen by 80-year-old French auteur Jacques Rivette. With help, the woman spies on the pirates and then gets a job as bodyguard to the pirate leader. My guess would be if the two are meeting tomorrow and he's wearing a different outfit that it indeed is THE FOLLOWING DAY! One can cite the names of writers such as Michel Houellebecq, Virginie Despentes, Yann Moix and Vincent Ravalec who have also worked behind the camera. She is Antoinette, for five years he has searched for her. He asks her to move in with him, and she does. I would recommend it to anyone who likes these kind of period pieces, if not anyone who craves action mostly. To each their own, I say. Jacques Rivette’s “Duchess of Langeais” seems to me a nearly impeccable work of art beautiful, true, profound. France is one of those few film making nations where the tradition of making films based on best selling as well as famous books continues to flourish as there is a huge cinema literate public which is always willing to welcome such films.