Main Cast: Catriona MacColl, Barry Stokes, Christina Bohm, Jonas Bergstrom
Release Year: 1979
Country: FR/JP/US
Run Time: 125 minutes
Plot
An truly international production if there ever was one, this costume epic was based on a Japanese comic book, directed by a noted French filmmaker, and features a primarily British cast. Oscar (Catriona MacColl) is a young woman whose father, a career military man, wanted a boy. Rather than surrender to his disappointment after she was born, Father took to dressing Oscar in boy's clothes and raising her in a masculine fashion. While privately Oscar acknowledges her feminine side, she still dresses as a man and has gained an honored position as a guard to Marie Antoinette (Christina Bohm). In her younger days, Oscar was deeply infatuated with Andre (Barry Stokes), the son of the family's housekeeper, and when the French Revolution begins to catch fire, Oscar and Andre's paths cross for the first time in years. However, with the assault on the Bastille, Oscar and Andre find themselves fighting on opposite sides of the political fence. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Oscar Françoise de Jarjayes (Catriona MacColl) is a young woman whose father, a career military man, wanted a boy. Rather than surrender to his disappointment after she was born, her father took to dressing Oscar in boy's clothes and raising her as a man. While privately Oscar acknowledges her feminine side, she dresses as a man and gains an honored position as a guard to Marie Antoinette (Christina Bohm). In her youth, Oscar was in love with Andre (Barry Stokes), the son of the family's housekeeper. Years later, when the French Revolution begins, Oscar and Andre's paths cross for the first time in years. With the assault on the Bastille, Oscar and Andre find themselves fighting on opposite sides of the revolution.
The film was not very popular,[1] and McColl's feminine and weak portrayal of Oscar, in particular, was criticised, and it was felt that she was not androgynous enough to play Oscar.[2] In the film, Andre was the dominant partner in the Oscar-Andre relationship, unlike in all other adaptations, and he has been described as smug. The ending of the film, in which Andre dies and Oscar searches for him in the crowd, is suggested to be because both lovers dying would have been too tragic for a romance film, but that the film is incoherent and without resolution.[3]
References
^Buruma, Ian (1985) [1984]. "The Third Sex". A Japanese Mirror: Heroes and Villains of Japanese Culture. Great Britain: Penguin Books. p. 118–121. ISBN9780140074987.
