Lady Oscar (film)
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This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in the French Wikipedia. (October 2010) Click [show] on the right for instructions.
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| Lady Oscar | |
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 A poster promoting the movie |
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| Directed by | Jacques Demy |
| Produced by | Mataichiro Yamamoto |
| Written by | Screenplay: Jacques Demy Patricia Louisianna Knop Manga: Riyoko Ikeda |
| Starring | Catriona MacColl Barry Stokes Christine Bohm Jonas Bergstrom |
| Music by | Michel Legrand |
| Cinematography | Jean Penzer |
| Editing by | Paul Davies |
| Release date(s) | Japan: March 3, 1979 |
| Running time | 124 minutes |
| Country | France Japan |
| Language | English |
Lady Oscar is a 1979 film, based on the manga The Rose of Versailles by Riyoko Ikeda. The film was written and directed by Jacques Demy, with music composed by his regular collaborator Michel Legrand. The film is a Japanese-French co-production and was filmed in France.
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[edit] Plot
Oscar Françoise de Jarjayes (Catriona MacColl) is a young woman whose father, a career military man, wanted a boy. Rather than surrender to his disappointment after she was born, her father took to dressing Oscar in boy's clothes and raising her as a man. While privately Oscar acknowledges her feminine side, she dresses as a man and gains an honoured position as a guard to Marie Antoinette (Christina Bohm). In her youth, Oscar was in love with Andre (Barry Stokes), the son of the family's housekeeper. Years later, when the French Revolution begins, Oscar and Andre's paths cross for the first time in years. With the assault on the Bastille, Oscar and Andre find themselves fighting on opposite sides of the revolution.
[edit] Cast
- Catriona MacColl as Oscar François de Jarjayes
- Patsy Kensit as young Oscar François de Jarjayes
- Barry Stokes as André Grandier
- Jonas Bergström as Hans Axel von Fersen
- Christine Böhm as Marie Antoinette
- Terence Budd as Louis XVI
- Mark Kingston as General Jarjayes
- Georges Wilson as General Bouillé
- Martin Potter as Count de Gerodere
- Sue Lloyd as Duchess de Polignac
- Anouska Hempel as Jeanne Valois de la Motte
- Mike Marshall as Nicolas de la Motte
- Christopher Ellison as Robespierre
- Constance Chapman as Nanny
- Gregory Floy as Cardinal de Rohan
- Shelagh McLeod as Rosalie Lamorlière
- Michael Osborne as Bernard Chatelet
- Angela Thorne as Mademoiselle Bertin
- Paul Spurrier as Prince Louis Joseph
- Rose Mary Dunham as Marquise de Boulainvilliers
[edit] Production
The major sponsor of the film was Shiseido, a cosmetics company, and Catriona McColl promoted a red lipstick for the spring cosmetic line that year.[1] Frederik L. Schodt translated the entire manga series into English as a reference for the producers of this film, but gave the only copy of the translation to them and it was lost.[2]
[edit] Reception
The film was not very popular,[3] and McColl's feminine and weak portrayal of Oscar, in particular, was criticised, and it was felt that she was not androgynous enough to play Oscar.[4]:13 In the film, Andre was the dominant partner in the Oscar-Andre relationship, unlike in all other adaptations, and he has been described as smug. The ending of the film, in which Andre dies and Oscar searches for him in the crowd, is suggested to be because both lovers dying would have been too tragic for a romance film, but that the film is incoherent and without resolution.[4]:14
[edit] References
- ^ Graham, Miyako (1997). "Lady Oscar & I". Protoculture Addicts (45): 41.
- ^ http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/jason-thompson-house-of-1000-manga/the-rose-of-versailles/2010-05-06
- ^ Buruma, Ian (1985) [1984]. "The Third Sex". A Japanese Mirror: Heroes and Villains of Japanese Culture. Great Britain: Penguin Books. pp. 118–121. ISBN 9780140074987.
- ^ a b Shamoon, Deborah (2007). "Revolutionary Romance: The Rose of Versailles and the Transformation of Shōjo Manga". Mechademia (University of Minnesota Press) 2: 3–17. ISSN 2152-6648. http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/mechademia/v002/2.shamoon.html.
[edit] External links
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