LE DIVORCE, based on the novel by Diane Johnson, is a contemporary Merchant/Ivory production that explores the fundamental differences between Americans and the French, especially in matters of the heart and manners. Isabel (Kate Hudson) is a brash, outspoken Californian who travels to Paris to help her pregnant expatriot .. Read more
| Starring | Kate Hudson, Naomi Watts, Glenn Close, Stockard Channing |
|---|---|
| Director | James Ivory |
| Genres | Comedy, Drama, Romance |
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LE DIVORCE, based on the novel by Diane Johnson, is a contemporary Merchant/Ivory production that explores the fundamental differences between Americans and the French, especially in matters of the heart and manners. Isabel (Kate Hudson) is a brash, outspoken Californian who travels to Paris to help her pregnant expatriot sister Roxeanne (Naomi Watts). Once there she finds that Roxeanne's cheating husband (Melvil Poupaud) has abandoned her for his sexy mistress. Determined to help Roxeanne, Isabel settles in and quickly succumbs to the charms of Paris, including its men. She embarks on her own affair with Edgar (Thierry Lhermitte), the married brother of Suzanne de Persand (Leslie Caron), Roxeanne's bourgeois mother-in-law, and falls into the stereotypical life of a French mistress, receiving expensive Hermes gifts, and undergoing a chic cultural makeover. However, Suzanne quickly learns of the affair and is enraged, claiming that Americans don't know how to have proper, temporary affairs. Upon the arrival of Isabel and Roxeanne's typically American parents (Stockard Channing and Sam Waterson), the cultural divide becomes deeper as the two families battle it out over love, marriage, infidelity, fortune and ultimately: divorce.
| Starring | Kate Hudson, Naomi Watts, Glenn Close, Stockard Channing, Sam Waterston, Bebe Neuwirth, Matthew Modine, Stephen Fry |
|---|---|
| Director | James Ivory |
| Studio | 20TH CENTURY FOX HOME ENTERTAINMENT |
| Certificate | |
| Collections | 100 Rom-Coms |
| Genres | Comedy, Drama, Romance |
| Language | DVD: English |
| Released | DVD: 02 Feb 2004 Production year: 2003 |
| Format | DVD |
This romantic comedy drama from director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant is a more contemporary work than the pair's customary period excursions. However, although it's still about civilised manners and mores, this convoluted yet entertaining look at French and American sexual attitudes lacks the sophistication of Howards End and A Room with a View. Complications arise when Isabel (Kate Hudson) arrives in Paris just as her pregnant stepsister Roxeanne (Naomi Watts) is deserted by husband Charles-Henri (Melvil Poupaud). Isabel then starts an affair with his uncle (Thierry Lhermitte). Glenn Close contributes to the proceedings as an expatriate American writer and Leslie Caron has a callously disapproving eye for everyone. The upshot of this clash of characters is that the French do not expect their romances to be permanent, and Americans do. All in all, Merchant Ivory's regular screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala has worked Diane Johnson's source novel into rather cumbersome shape with some satisfying moments but too little depth. Fans of Merchant Ivory films will have to settle for this failed fix until a better movie comes along.
Dull adaptation of a waspish novel about the perfidious French.
I was surprised by this film.
I thought that the film was going to be a light romcom set in beautiful Paris, and so worth seeing but not digesting.
Instead, I found myself days later discussing the film. I would say it's an interesting drama, that is more like a play than a film.
The characters are interesting and I enjoyed the insight into French family life...
Worth a rent if this sounds like your cup of tea
This is, without a shadow of a doubt, the worst film that Merchant and Ivory ever made. Minimal plot, dialogues stilted and toe-curlingly awful, and the impressive achievement of having Stockard Channing, Naomi Watts, Glenn Close, Stephen Fry, Romain Duris and so on and so on give the worst performances of their careers to date.
If I say that the cliched chase scene on the Eiffel Tower is one of the *least* abominable moments of this car crash of a film then you might have some idea of what a waste of 1 and 3/4 hours (one and three quarter hours, my god) this has been.
Avoid. 'Comme la peste'.
Ismail Merchant and James Ivory's final film The White Countess is to be released. The partnership that brought 45 films to the screen came to an end in May when Merchant died. The Merchant Ivory brand came to stand for high quality costume drama with their great catalogue including adaptations of EM Forster's A Room With A View (starring Dame Maggie Smith, Helena Bonham Carter and Denholm Elliott), Howard's End (with Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson) and Maurice. The White Countess, set in... Read more