Summary
When his wife dies in childbirth, a proud aristocrat refuses to accept that his new offspring
is a girl. He names her Oscar and brings her up as a boy, sharing her childhood
with André, the son of a domestic servant. Twenty years later, the Lady Oscar
gains the position as personal guard to the Queen of France, Marie Antoinette, whilst
André works in the royal stables. At the royal court, Oscar gains many
admirers, to the chagrin of André, who is hopelessly in love with her. Oscar
insists that she and André belong to different worlds, but then André enlightens
her that her world is about to disappear, swept aside by a national revolution...
Review
Lady Oscar is a little known work directed by one of France’s most influential
film directors, Jacques Demy. It was commissioned by a Japenese production company
and is based on a hugely popular Japanese strip-cartoon. Among the requirements
placed on Demy was that the film be made in English, so he cast mainly English actors,
although the fairly tight budget prevented him from hiring any big names.
Although the film is noticeably handicapped by its sponsor’s brief, Demy manages to create
a colourful, engaging film, brought to life by his customary fluid photography.
It is similar with his earlier triumphs such as Les parapluies de Cherbourg and
Les demoiselles de Rochefort in that it transposes a real-life situation into a
fantasy world where everything appears pretty and harmless, although a glimmer of tragedy
can be glimpsed beneath this veneer.
Unfortunately, the absurdity of the plot, dialogue and characters makes this Demy-esque
artifice appear more nauseating than endearing. Most off-putting is the fact that
every character in the film, even the lowliest street urchin, speaks with a crisp English
accent that could cut butter from fifty yards. Generally, the quality of the acting
is mediocre, although Christina Bohm’s fluffy bunny Marie-Anotinette is quite enjoyable.
Catriona Mac’s portrayal Oscar is so wooden and devoid of character that you would hardly
notice she was in the film at all.
Overall, the film is a disappointment. It lacks the purity of Demy’s fairy tale
cinematography and the rigour and depth of a serious period drama. There is an attempt
to draw some sense of irony out of the inevitability of the fall of the court of Versailles,
but, hampered by weak characterisation and some risible dialogue, it just fails to ring
true. The film’s comic book origins are all too apparent.
© James Travers 2001
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