Lady Oscar - A Jacques Demy Film

Cross-Dressing Drama About A Woman Protecting Marie Antoinette

Aug 20, 2009

Jacques Demy's adaptation of the Japanese Manga 'The Rose of Versailles,' about a woman raised to be a man and serving in the court of Marie Antoinette.

``A son at last,” announces the General de Jarjayes ignoring both the protestations of the midwife and his mother who point out little Oscar is actually a girl. Oscar is raised as though she were a man by her father, who dresses her as such and teaches her to fence. As a child she spars with her friend Andre and seems happy. As adults they are both sent to serve at the court of Marie Antoinette, with Oscar joining the Queen’s Guard and Andre as a lowly stable boy.

Oscar in the Court of Marie Antionette

Oscar finds herself in Marie Antoinette’s (Christina Bohm) inner circle. Most are unaware she is actually a woman, although the Queen is perfectly aware and treats her as a confidant. During her time in service, Oscar is treated as a man, though one visitor to the court begins to worry about himself when he admits to having feelings for somebody he presumes to be a man.

Oscar is stunned by the difference in the behaviour of men towards her when she attends a ball dressed as a woman. They talk down to her as if she is stupid, comparing her beauty to snowflakes and other such nonsense. Oscar is expected to be quiet and not answer back, a situation she has never been put in before.

Oscar Gets Caught up in the French Revolution

Oscar’s carriage is stopped by a young woman begging for money. Oscar cannot believe anybody could be starving in Paris, but Andre insists they are. Life at court has blinded Oscar to the problems facing many people. Other carriages pass through the cobbled streets and we see how the aristocrats treat the poor, as an inconvenience, as vermin, or as sexual playthings. Andre rejects his servitude and joins up with the dissidents led by Robespierre (Christopher Ellison, aka Burnside from The Bill). Oscar too must pick a side, but she is torn between her loyalty to Marie Antoinette and the cruelty she is now aware is being inflicted on the populace.

Demy’s films owe something to the fairytale regardless of when they are set. Here that ‘Once Upon a Time’ style seems oddly out of place when applied to something as brutal as the French Revolution. Demy can occasionally show a sign of his brilliance, notably with a pan-reverse shot showing Louis XVI preening on a balcony, while below him his Queen canoodles with her lover, all blissfully unaware they are approaching their final days.

Lead actress Catriona McColl is a beautiful woman and dressing her up in a soldier’s outfit makes no difference to her appearance. The film then is undone because it can never convince us Oscar could be mistaken for a man. Unlike Tilda Swinton in Orlando (Sally Potter 1991), McCall lacks the androgynous looks needed to play such a role. Christina Bohm fares better as Marie Antionette, a child-bride who never quite grew up and is a victim of circumstance, court politics, and her own delusions. As a film about the fall of Marie Antoinette, it is arguably superior to the 2005 biopic by Sofia Coppola.

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