Lady Oscar (film)

Infobox Film
name = Lady Oscar
image_size = 200
caption =
director = Jacques Demy
producer = Agnes Varda (executive producer)
Mataichiro Yamamoto (producer)
writer = Riyoko Ikeda (original story)
Jacques Demy (screenplay)
narrator =
starring = Catriona MacColl
Barry Stokes
Christine Bohm
Jonas Bergstrom
music = Michel Legrand
cinematography = Jean Penzer
editing = Paul Davies
distributor =
released = flagicon|Japan March 3 1979
runtime = 124 min.
country = flagicon|Japan Japan
flagicon|France France
language = English
budget =
gross =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0077827

"Lady Oscar" is a 1979 film, based on the manga/anime "The Rose of Versailles", created by Riyoko Ikeda. The film was written and directed Jacques Demy, with music composed by Michel Legrand. "Lady Oscar" is a Japanese - French co-production, and was filmed in France.

Plot synopsis

Oscar Françoise de Jarjayes (Catriona MacColl) is a young woman whose father, a career military man, wanted a boy. Rather than surrender to his disappointment after she was born, her father took to dressing Oscar in boy's clothes and raising her as a man. While privately Oscar acknowledges her feminine side, she dresses as a man and gains an honored position as a guard to Marie Antoinette (Christina Bohm). In her youth, Oscar was in love with Andre (Barry Stokes), the son of the family's housekeeper. Years later, when the French Revolution begins, Oscar and Andre's paths cross for the first time in years. With the assault on the Bastille, Oscar and Andre find themselves fighting on opposite sides of the revolution.

Cast

*Catriona MacColl as Oscar François de Jarjayes
*Patsy Kensit as young Oscar François de Jarjayes
*Barry Stokes as André Grandier
*Jonas Bergström as Hans Axel von Fersen
*Christine Böhm as Marie Antoinette
*Terence Budd as Louis XVI
*Mark Kingston as General Jarjayes
*Georges Wilson as General Bouillé
*Martin Potter as Count de Gerodere
*Sue Lloyd as Duchess de Polignac
*Anouska Hempel as Jeanne Valois de la Motte
*Mike Marshall as Nicolas de la Motte
*Christopher Ellison as Robespierre
*Constance Chadman as Nanny
*Gregory Floy as Cardinal de Rohan
*Shelagh MacLead as Rosalie Lamorlière
*Michael Osborne as Bernard Chatelet
*Angela Thorne as Mademoiselle Bertin
*Paul Spurrier as Prince Louis Joseph
*Rose Mary Dunham as Marquise de Boulainvilliers

Reception

The film was not very popular, and McColl's feminine and weak portrayal of Oscar, in particular, was criticised, and it was felt that she was not androgynous enough to play Oscar. [cite book |last=Shamoon |first=Deborah |editor=Lunning, Frenchy |title=Networks of Desire |series=Mechademia |url=http://www.upress.umn.edu/Books/L/lunning_mechademia2.html |volume=2 |date=2007 |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |isbn=978-0-8166-5266-2 |chapter=Revolutionary Romance: "The Rose of Versailles" and the Transformation of Shōjo Manga |page=p.13 ]

Trivia

*The Japanese cosmetic company Shiseido, one of the co-producers of the film, later used Catriona MacColl as a spokesmodel for their 1979 line of lipstick.cite web |url=http://yue-chan.tripod.com/berubara/Manga.htm |title= Lady Oscar: Película (movie)|accessdate=2007-01-21 |format=HTM |work=El Portal de Yue-Chan|accessdate=2007-01-21| language=Spanish]
*The film was not released in French theaters and remained unseen by the French public for several years.

References