1979 - LADY OSCAR, a film late in the career of Jacques Demy

 A film made towards the end of Jacques Demy's career and not really one of his best.  Lady Oscar is based on a Japanese manga originally called The Rose of Versailles. Set in the 1700's as France heads towards their revolution. A French nobleman with a whole lot of daughters declares that the next daughter will be raised as a male and trained as a soldier.  If you think you are going to be watching some film about cross-dressing and male/female sex roles forget it.  Lady Oscar is sort of about the uprising and finally attack on the French Aristocracy particularly the end of the monarchy.  The character of Oscar is the personal guard to Marie Antoinette so she gets a front row seat on all of this but doesn't seem very affected by all the upheaval.

The film was funded by the Japanese and it's certainly elaborate with opulent sets and costumes in about every scene.  However the actors don't seem to bring much passion to their roles considering all that's going on around them.  Demy manages to stage a few scenes of interest but it seems like the old passion for making films just isn’ here with this film.  Even the tragic ending is indifferently filmed.

 

It's hard to believe this is the same director whose resume includes Lola, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Donkey Skin and The Young Girls of Rochefort.  All films that were really charming and quite beautiful to look at.  Even a misfire like Demy's remake of Cocteau's Orpheus called Traffic is more interesting than this film

 

The film was written by  Jacques Demy and Patricia Louisianna Knop, the running time is 124 minutes.