Set in the time of the French Revolution, this film traces the perilous life of Grace Elliott (Lucy Russell), a beautiful royalist Englishwoman living in France, and her tender but stormy relationship with the Duke of Orleans (Jean-Claude Dreyfus, Delicatessen, La Cité des Enfants Perdus - City of Lost Children), Louis XVI's cousin, who has been won over by revolutionary ideas. She persuades him to help her save an outlaw, but cannot discourage him from voting for the death of the king.

The irresistible fascination of this acclaimed drama springs from the contrast between indoor scenes, shot in tight chamber-drama style, and exterior sequences in which the actors are digitally inserted into land- and cityscapes. By recreating Revolution-era Paris and its near-suburbs as they looked to his real-life protagonists, Rohmer brings to life a series of extraordinary canvases, based on paintings, illustrations and maps of the day. As such, the actors seem to be strolling through etchings, the Seine flowing under corpse-strewn bridges; the effect is simultaneously state-of-the-art and breathtakingly simple.

"L'Anglaise et le Duc (is) constructed in the style of a Hitchcock thriller. We are frightened - we shudder. We have never been so close to what the history books will never be able to tell us. It is an unforgettable moment of cinema." (Thierry Klifa - Studio)

"A great contemporary political film and a magnificent work of art." (Jean Michel Frodon - Le Monde)

2001 - French - 125mn

Directed by Eric Rohmer
Writing Credits: Grace Elliott - Eric Rohmer
Cast: Lucy Russel - Jean Claude Dreyfus - Léonard Cobiant - Caroline Morin - Alain Libolt
Distributed by Pathé.