The Marquise of O…

Between helming his Six Moral Tales and Comedies and Proverbs—two series of films set in the contemporary world and unified by variations on a theme—Éric Rohmer made a rare foray into period drama with The Marquise of O…, which is based on a novel by Heinrich von Kleist and is set in Italy during the late 18th century. After a handsome and dashing Count (Bruno Ganz) saves the beautiful young Marquise (Edith Clever) from certain assault during a Russian invasion, she winds up spending the night being guarded by her chivalrous savior, who returns months later to rather insistently court her. When he leaves she discovers that she is unaccountably pregnant. Rohmer's style is both more lush (shot in rich colors by Nestor Almendros) and less intimate than in his previous romantic comedies; unlike the self-obsessed young adults of his modern films, the Count and Marquise act out of moral duty and social responsibility, with actions that reverberate through family and community. Yet this is still a Rohmer film, so it's full of carefully tooled dialogue and informed by irony. A story of innocence and corruption with a mote of delicate forgiveness and understanding, The Marquise of O… is presented with extras including archival interviews with Rohmer and Ganz, and an essay by film critic David Thomson. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)