Don't Touch the Axe
| The Duchess of Langeais | |
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Film poster
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| Directed by | Jacques Rivette |
| Produced by | Roberto Cicutto Martine Marignac Luigi Musini Ermanno Olmi Maurice Tinchant |
| Screenplay by |
Pascal Bonitzer Christine Laurent Jacques Rivette |
| Based on |
La Duchesse de Langeais by Honoré de Balzac |
| Starring |
Jeanne Balibar Guillaume Depardieu |
| Music by | Pierre Allio |
| Cinematography | William Lubtchansky |
| Edited by | Nicole Lubtchansky |
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Production
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| Distributed by | Les Films du Losange |
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Release date
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Running time
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137 minutes |
| Country | France Italy |
| Language | French |
| Budget | €3.9 million |
| Box office | $616,441 |
The Duchess of Langeais is a 2007 French-Italian drama film directed by Jacques Rivette. Its original French title is Ne touchez pas la hache ("Don't touch the axe"). It is based on the 1834 novel of the same name by Honoré de Balzac. The film stars Jeanne Balibar and Guillaume Depardieu as lovers in early 1823 Majorca who are involved in a tormented and frustrating relationship.
Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 69%, based on 64 reviews, with an average score of 6.4/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "At times plodding and dialogue heavy, The Duchess of Langeais is nevertheless an intriguing and rewarding dissection of class and gender relations." At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 74, based on 23 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
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Wikipedia