NAME THAT FILM PART N, Regency Fop edition
November 29, 2013 12:14 PM   Subscribe

Some time ago, on one of the national basic cable movie channels (USA, I think) which would run multiple showings of a given film for a month or so, I repeatedly flipped into a period film that amused me each time I watched a snippet. Unfortunately, I never watched enough of the film to get a good idea of the plot, and therefore can't effectively describe the story, sooo...

The film was shot in English, and set in England or France during the early-to-mid 1700s. It had a relatively high production value, and I remember repeatedly being struck by the cinematography, in particular the lighting, which had the effect of reproducing the look of certain paintings of the era.

After a decade of thinking about it, I think the film must have been made after Kubrick's Barry Lyndon and that Ridley Scott may have had a hand in the technical development of the photography - the painting-like appearance of the scenes is reminiscent of what he did in The Duellist, which of course owes a great deal to Barry Lyndon.

However, the earthy and golden pallettes of both those films do not apppear in this film. The colors are light and sparkling, pinks and whites and pale gold.

The only character I can describe is a sort of dejected, ridiculous fop, a tall, slender man with an absurdly tall wig and horrifying white face powder, dressed in a breeches suit of light colored satin. In the scene I recall most clearly, he sits dejectedly in the back of a peasant cart as other characters in the foreground of the scene carry on a lively discussion as to their next course of action. I have the impression they may have just escaped from prison.

It is quite possible that this is a film adaptation of a work by Moliere or a peer. The film was clearly a black comedy. I recall the tone of the humor as similar to that if early Coen Bros material, more or less totally unsympathetic to the characters on screen and misanthropic overall.

Films that is is NOT:
Barry Lyndon
The Duellists
Marat/Sade

Thank you hive mind!
posted by mwhybark to Media & Arts (23 answers total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
Response by poster: (Scott's IMDB entries are not terribly helpful here, fwiw, so my guess that his eye was involved could well be wrong)
posted by mwhybark at 12:18 PM on November 29, 2013


Valmont? Dangerous Liaisons?
posted by Sticherbeast at 12:25 PM on November 29, 2013


Restoration?
posted by BlahLaLa at 12:27 PM on November 29, 2013


Response by poster: not Dangerous Liasons, hadn't considered Valmont (but it seems unlikely, as my impression is that the settings for the film are more out in the country than in the manicured garden).

Looking at Valmont's Wikipedia entry, geez, 33m budget on 1m revenue. Ouch.

Restoration also seems unlikely.

I just now realized I left out a few points:

1. no recognizable stars that I saw
2. I'm nearly sure this was shot between 1970 and 1980.
3. If I'm right that Lyndon served as inspiration, the film must have been shot after 1975.

I can't substantiate the time frame above, except to note that the use of stars in big budget movies became even more strongly required after the 1970s. There were obviously movies made with stars and big budgets in the 1970s but there were also more bug budget films made with unknown casts.

Also, the film's sensibility was more Gilliam than Forman. No soft-focus gloss. Razor-sharp focus and clarity of scene, relentless. Contrasts between wealth and squalor.
posted by mwhybark at 12:55 PM on November 29, 2013


It's not Amadeus, is it?
posted by LN at 1:11 PM on November 29, 2013


Response by poster: definitely not Amadeus.
posted by mwhybark at 1:22 PM on November 29, 2013


Ridicule?
posted by tomboko at 1:23 PM on November 29, 2013


One of the various versions of The Scarlet Pimpernel? I'd plump for the 1982 version as a likely candidate.
posted by ninazer0 at 1:28 PM on November 29, 2013 [1 favorite]


Damn, I only just saw your followup. Ridicule is much too late, 1996. Apologies.
posted by tomboko at 1:31 PM on November 29, 2013


"The draughtsmans contract" by Peter Greenaway?
posted by svenvog at 1:56 PM on November 29, 2013


You might take a look at this site that has an archive of costumes and see if anything looks familiar.
posted by Ideefixe at 1:57 PM on November 29, 2013


Richard Lester's Musketeers movies?
posted by Sticherbeast at 2:01 PM on November 29, 2013


Response by poster: This fellow closely resembles the character design I recall, although the man in the photo is wearing an ensemble which emphasizes yellows, pinks, and greens, and my recollection of the movie character has him in an outfit emphasizing light blue and very very pale pink, nearly white.

Ridicule is not a terrible guess, but I agree it seems too recent. The color palette in the IMDB still gallery leans to warm light, golden candlelit tones, as well.
posted by mwhybark at 2:15 PM on November 29, 2013


Response by poster: Draughtsman's Contract is an EXCELLENT lead. It's prior to Greenaway's high-period work, but very, very clearly shares his exacting visual sensibility and merciless tone.

I don't know that I have ever seen it. Is primarily a comedy? Regardless, I will definitely seek it out.
posted by mwhybark at 2:19 PM on November 29, 2013


Response by poster: Not the Scarlet Pimpernel (although I did get a kick out of seeing Sir Ian's younger face while image surfing for my wigman).
posted by mwhybark at 2:28 PM on November 29, 2013


Response by poster: The Lester Musketeers films actually are not a bad guess, but it's the wrong period. Looking at stills from the films there's a lot of use of all-over light, which fits Lester's style and is actually closely related, in theory, to lighting scenes to resemble paintings. I also suspect I would have recognized some of the cast - Oliver Reed, Michael York, Raquel Welch...
posted by mwhybark at 2:36 PM on November 29, 2013


Perhaps try looking through Wikipedia's list of costume dramas and see if anything strikes your eye. Could it possibly be one of a slew of made-for-tv romances which were popular in the 80's?
posted by ninazer0 at 2:39 PM on November 29, 2013


Could it be one of the versions of Tom Jones? 1963 is the best known.
posted by biffa at 2:54 PM on November 29, 2013


Response by poster: I'm pretty sure this was NOT made for TV, the budget was too high and filmwork too striking.

It was certainly a film made after 1965.
posted by mwhybark at 3:08 PM on November 29, 2013


Response by poster: Very outside possibility of Plunkett & Macleane, due to Allan Cumming as outlandish fop.
posted by mwhybark at 3:16 PM on November 29, 2013


It's worth revisiting ninazer0's suggestion of The Scarlet Pimpernel. Foppish nobles with ridiculous hair escaping/hiding in carts was a major plot point. In particular, I remember the Jane Seymore version being a major network television event in the 80s and 90s. The miniseries aspect could explain why you remember seeing it repeatedly over a month.
posted by Gable Oak at 5:13 PM on November 29, 2013


Blackadder III ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackadder
posted by andreap at 11:42 AM on November 30, 2013


The other movie that comes to mind from about the right time period with horrendous wigs galore is "The Slipper and the Rose", which got endless re-runs on TV. I don't recall a cart scene in it, though.
posted by ninazer0 at 2:35 PM on November 30, 2013


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