Angélique, Marquise of the Angels
While the standard-bearers of the nouvelle vague were off making stuff like The Soft Skin, Contempt, and Muriel, le cinema du papa was cranking right along with this historical potboiler, a romance about the lavish and dangerous love shared between Angélique (Michèle Mercier), the daughter of a poor nobleman living in the French countryside, and Joffrey de Peyrac (Robert Hossein), a wealthy count with a reputation for deviltry who essentially buys her hand in marriage. Peyrac takes Angelique away from the common people she loves -- and from Nicolas (Giuliano Gemma), the strapping young fieldhand who first took her fancy -- but wins her over by declining to force himself on her. Instead, the cold, cold cockles of her heart are thawed when the limping, scarred Peyrac manages to perforate the chest of a rival in a swordfight. By contemporary standards, this is hilarious stuff -- yet somehow it's still stirring, swooning through its melodramatic paces with the speed and slippery, unstoppable heft of the proverbial greased pig. Think of a Francophone cross between Gone With the Wind and Barbarella.
Get Angélique, Marquise of the Angels on Blu-ray pr DVD from Amazon.comYes, it's an awfully long way from Alphaville, but this is fun. Mercier (who actually had a role in Truffaut's Shoot the Piano Player several years earlier) complained later that her acting career was stunted by her lifelong identification with the role of Angélique. Indeed, the film was so beloved by European audiences that it spawned four (!) sequels. It doesn't hurt that it's heavy on sex appeal, with the lovely Mercier appearing nearly nude in several scenes (and some topless dancers visible in a party at Peyrac's place midway through the film). None of the performances strikes me as especially impressive technically — Hossein's is generally considered the standout — but everyone seems to hit their marks. The production values are reasonably high, with the set design (by René Moulaert) and the costumes (designed by Rosine Delamare) benefiting from cinematographer Henri Persin's warm, lush widescreen photography. I wouldn't want to mount a defense of it on aesthetic or ideological grounds (as cinema it strikes me as obstinately conservative, despite its hugely satisfying flirtation with trashiness) but as cinematic comfort food, it's mighty tasty.
Posted by on January 19, 2024 4:00 PMGet Angélique, Marquise of the Angels on Blu-ray pr DVD from Amazon.com