Distance and Involvement : Visualising History in Patrice Chéreau's La Reine Margot (1994) and in Éric Rohmer's L'Anglaise et le duc (2001)

Abstract

This article analyses strategies of visualisation of the past in two French films d'histoire: La Reine Margot (1994) by directed by Patrice Chéreau and L'Anglaise et le duc (2001) by Éric Rohmer. Both films have modern political and societal implications: Chéreau's film contains several clear hints towards a reading of the “greatest massacre” of France's past as a critique of the modern era, while Rohmer rather wanted to make his audience aware of the ambiguities of the founding period of the French Republic. However, the two film directors have made use of completely different strategies for visualising the past and in order to involve their audiences: Chéreau by making a conscious use of visual anachronisms and Rohmer by a scrupulous reconstruction of a painterly historical vision.