Discover this splendid Poster of the Film Ridicule by Patrice Leconte, a cult work of cinema which won more than 4 Césars.
- Paper characteristics:
- 🎨 Canvas: world standard in terms of printing and imitating a “painting canvas” look.
- By default, the poster contains a 4cm white border for framing (frame not included). If you don’t want it, please choose “without white border”.
- ✅ Size: Multiple choices available. ✅
- High UV resistance.
- Color vibrancy maximum, glare-free.
- recycled paper, guaranteeing environmental friendliness.
- Poster packaged carefully and delivered in a protective tube for Total protection.
- FREE STANDARD DELIVERY.
⚠️ Frame not included. ⚠️
Ridicule is a 1996 French film directed by Patrice Leconte and starring Charles Berling, Jean Rochefort, Fanny Ardant, and Judith Godrèche. The film is set in the 18th century at the decadent court of Versailles, where social status can rise or fall based on one’s ability to dish out witty insults and avoid making a fool of oneself. The film’s plot examines the social injustices of late 18th-century France, showing the corruption and insensitivity of the aristocrats.
In Dombes, a marshy region north of Lyon, Baron Grégoire Ponceludon de Malavoy is a minor aristocrat and engineer. He is one of the few aristocrats concerned about the plight of the peasants. Horrified by the disease and death caused by the mosquitoes infesting the marshes, he wishes to drain them; he travels to Versailles in the hope of obtaining the approval of King Louis XVI. Just before arriving at Versailles, Ponceludon is robbed and beaten. He is found by the Marquis de Bellegarde, a minor nobleman and physician. While Ponceludon recovers with the Marquis, Bellegarde takes him under his wing and teaches him wit, the main means of gaining a place at court. At first, Ponceludon’s provincial background made him a target at parties and gatherings, though he proved a formidable opponent in verbal jousts.
At one such party, he caught the Abbé de Vilecourt cheating at a game of wit, with the help of his lover, Madame de Blayac, the beautiful and wealthy recent widow of Monsieur de Blayac, who was to be Ponceludon’s godfather at court. Blayac repaid his generosity by not exposing them and arranging for the certification of his lineage, thus allowing his trial to proceed. Despite his success, Ponceludon began to see that the court at Versailles was corrupt and empty.
The one exception was Mathilde de Bellegarde, the doctor’s daughter. She had agreed to marry Monsieur de Montaliéri, a wealthy elderly aristocrat whose wife was dying. His motivation is twofold: to support her scientific experiments and to help pay his father’s debts. Ponceludon begins to help her with her experiments. Montaliéri observes their growing attraction to each other. Later, Montaliéri tells Ponceludon that he should wait, as he probably won’t live very long, and Mathilde would be a wealthy widow. Even though Mathilde admits that she dreads her upcoming marriage, Ponceludon does not want her to become the wife of a poor man.
One day, a deaf-mute man named Paul runs through the woods wearing Mathilde’s diving suit and frightens Madame de Blayac. Blayac asks Bellegarde to send him away. Bellegarde sends the boy to the Abbé de l’Épée, a pioneering educator of the deaf. Mathilde visits Madame de Blayac and pleads unsuccessfully for Paul. Madame de Blayac senses a rival for Ponceludon. Meanwhile, Vilecourt worries about Ponceludon’s success, and Madame de Blayac promises to bring him down. Madame de Blayac traps Ponceludon at a dinner party (along with his accomplice Montaliéri) where one guest too many has been invited. A contest of wits decides who should make a humiliating departure. Distracted by Blayac, Ponceludon loses and is convinced that his disgrace will force him to leave court. However, he remembers his reason for leaving when a village child dies after drinking contaminated water. Meanwhile, Mathilde appears at court, breaking the terms of her betrothal contract.
Vilecourt finally gains an audience with the king, but blunders by accidentally blaspheming against God in an attempt to be witty, and Blayac turns his attention to Ponceludon, convincing him to return to Versailles. He sleeps with her in exchange for her help; She arranges a meeting with the king. She mischievously has Bellegarde assist in her capacity as physician while Ponceludon is still with her, so that Mathilde will learn of their relationship.
During a court presentation of Abbé de l’Épée’s work with the deaf and the development of sign language, the nobles mercilessly mock the deaf. However, some nobles change their minds when the deaf demonstrate their own form of wit: sign language wordplay. In response, de Bellegarde stands up and asks how one signs “bravo,” leading Ponceludon to stand and applaud in support. Mathilde is touched, and they quickly reconcile.
Ponceludon joins the king’s entourage and, after demonstrating his engineering prowess by proposing an improvement to a cannon, he is granted a private meeting with the king to discuss his project. The embarrassed gunner then insults Ponceludon, forcing him to demand a duel. Madame de Blayac is unable to persuade him to avoid the duel. He kills the gunner and learns that the king cannot meet someone who killed one of his officers immediately after his death, although he is assured that it was only right to defend his honor.
Madame de Blayac is furious when she learns that Ponceludon has left her for Mathilde and plots her revenge. Ponceludon is invited to a costume ball “reserved for spirits.” Arriving at the ball with Mathilde, he is pressured to dance with Blayac and stumbles. His spectacular fall earns him the derisive nickname “Marquis of the Antipodes” from Milletail. Ponceludon rips off his mask and condemns their decadence. He tells them that they rank among the Voltaires because of their wit, but they lack Voltaire’s compassion. He vows to drain the swamp himself and leaves the court with Mathilde. Madame de Blayac removes her mask and weeps silently.
In 1794, in Dover, England, Bellegarde fled the French Revolution. The on-screen text indicates that Grégoire and Mathilde Ponceludon have successfully drained the Dombes and are living in revolutionary France.