Mademoiselle de Joncquières réal. by Emmanuel Mouret (review)

Following Fritz Wendhausen's silent film Madame de la Pommeraye's Intrigues (1922) and Robert Bresson's Les dames du bois de Boulogne (1945), this feature is another adaptation of an episode in Diderot's novel Jacques le fataliste et son maître, published at the end of the eighteenth century. Mouret offers a contemporary reading of this pre-revolutionary love triangle tale and its twists of deception, revenge, and redemption. Viewers witness and feel the spirit of libertinage and the female characters' agency as both perpetrators and victims. Madame de la Pommeraye (Cécile de France) is a beautiful aristocratic widow living in a vast estate outside Paris. For several months, she hosts Le marquis des Arcis (Édouard Baer), a prominent libertine who strives to win her heart. Le marquis succeeds in seducing her, making her his latest conquest. He leaves her mansion believing that they will stay good friends. Devastated, la Madame designs a revenge plan: "Ma colère est pleine d'un esprit de justice. [...] Je vois en moi le genre féminin, et en lui, le genre masculin." Her stratagem involves two of society's cast-out women, Madame de Joncquières (Natalia Dontcheva) and her daughter Mademoiselle de Joncquières (Alice Isaaz), who, in order to survive, have been driven to prostitution. Madame de la Pommeraye stages circumstances and meetings between the Joncquières and le Marquis. As premeditated, the exceptional beauty of Mademoiselle de Joncquières (who resembles "une vierge de Raphaël") smites le marquis, who is made to believe that the young woman is a devout virgin. Shot in soft daylight and pastel colors, the film is a visual pleasure. Although the exposition is a bit long and the titular Mademoiselle de Joncquières appears relatively late, the story captivates and flows smoothly from scene to scene. Mouret's cinematic tools create a specific sense of place and time. The juxtaposition of nature scenes and lavish interiors contributes to the impact of the first part of the film. Mouret uses long shots for the magnificent outdoors and close-ups and medium shots inside the mansions. Later, the characters' dangerous liaisons are filmed mostly in the buildings' closed spaces, adding to the sense of psychological manipulation. At times, the dialogue is too theatrical, but the conversations capture the old-fashioned eighteenth-century French language and expression. Henceforth, the gossip of Parisian aristocrats conveys the fate and disgrace of the Joncquières. The conversations flow seamlessly with the film score: baroque music played on a harpsichord, a typical musical instrument in pre-revolutionary France. The superb costume design by Pierre-Jean Larroque earned him a second César des meilleurs costumes in 2019, following his work on Marguerite (2015). The feature premiered at Toronto International Film Festival (2018), ranking as one of the top three films. It will please not only the fans of period dramas such as Les liaisons dangereuses and Ridicule, but anyone interested in representations of the turns and twists of human nature.