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SAINT-CYR
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France - Germany - Belgium
2000 / 35 mm / Color / 119 min.
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DAUGHTERS OF THE KING
France, late 17th century. Madame de Maintenon, wife of Louis XIV, has just founded Saint-Cyr, a boarding school outside of Paris for the daughters of destitute nobility. Girls of all ages are gathered throughout the kingdom and brought here to acquire the language and manners befitting their rank. For Madame de Maintenon, what begins as an amusing and heart-warming form of cultural charity will, over the years, become a source of nightmarish anxiety and eventually religious fanaticism. When the blooming young women present the court with a play written for them by Racine, Saint-Cyr is brought to the attention of the king's entourage of rapacious young men in need of fresh blood. The ensuing wave of wedding proposals only serves to exacerbate the growing sexual tension that is wreaking havoc in Saint-Cyr. As a result, Madame de Maintenon turns to Father Godet des Marais, an uncompromising Lazarist priest, who wraps Saint-Cyr in a cloak of disciplinarian asceticism. But will it ultimately bring Madame de Maintenon and her girls salvation or damnation?
A thoroughly researched vision of the time, but far removed from the academicisms that we have grown accustomed to with today's period films. -- Jean-Michel Frodon (Le Monde)
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Script: Patricia Mazuy, Yves Thomas. D'apr�s le roman/Based on the novel: La Maison d'Esther. De/By: Yves Dangerfield.
Phot.: Thomas Mauch.
Ed.: Ludo Troch.
Mus.: John Cale.
Cast: Isabelle Huppert, Nina Meurisse, Morgane Mor�, Jeanne Le Bigot, Mathilde Lechasles, Jean-Pierre Kalfon, Jean-Fran�ois Balmer, Simon Reggiani, Anne Marev, Bernard Waver.
Prod.: Denis Freyd, Archipel 35, 52, rue Charlot, 75003 Paris (France), t�l.: (33-01) 42 72 10 70, fax: (33-01) 42 72 41 12, e-mail: [email protected] / Lichtblick Filmproduktion (Allemagne) / Entre Chien et Loup.
Sales: UGC International, 2, rue des Quatre-Fils, 75003 Paris (France), t�l.: (33-01) 40 29 89 00, fax: (33-01) 40 29 89 10.
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Patricia Mazuy
Born in 1960, Patricia Mazuy assisted Jacques Demy on UNE CHAMBRE EN VILLE and worked as an editor before making her directorial debut in 1983 with the short film, Colin-Maillard. This was followed in 1984 by La Bo�teuse in 1984, and five years later she made her first feature, PEAUX DE VACHES. She has since directed several shorts, documentaries and and television serials. Among them: A Whole New You (an episode of TV's The Hitchhiker, 1990), We, the Enemy (an episode of Scene of the Crime, 1991), Des taureaux et des vaches (1992) and Travolta et Moi ( part of the series Tous les gar�ons et les filles de leur �ge, 1993). |
