The Duchess of Langeais

"Ne touchez pas la hache (The Duchess of Langeais) is a searing film about painful love and alienating passion. Jacques Rivette clearly takes pleasure in filming the body, the body of the wounded man or of the captive woman, carnal envelopes revealing the invisible, the art of the mask and the revelation of truth, the way in which the character comes to terms with their own story, their own mystery; and the way in which the actor finds the right tone, far from the emphases, sets and costumes of Hollywood, to suggest the obscure imbroglio, the coincidence between what they are supposed to perform and what belongs to them. Jeanne Balibar’s fragility disguised as vain provocation, Guillaume Depardieu’s painful experience of a clumsy, hobbling obsessive." (Jean-Luc Douin; Le Monde)