Based on fact, this case of disputed identity in provincial France is set in the 16th Century, and no pains have been spared to re-create accurately the look of an era prior to the invention of Palmolive soap and Tide detergent. And prior to the invention of the movie camera, too. This last invention fosters impatience with the entire premise. All actors, well-known or not, have an indelible identity on screen, and the young actor and actress in the first part of the movie look only vaguely as if they could have grown up, in an interim of nine years, to be Gerard Depardieu and Nathalie Baye. It might have been wiser to skip this part altogether, since our impatience with it owes something to its storytelling methods as well. Belated plot twists are not sufficient to compensate. Directed by Daniel Vigne. (1982) — Duncan Shepherd
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