To get royal backing on a needed drainage project, a poor French lord must learn to play the delicate games of wit at court at Versailles.
Writing
Dialogue so sharp it should carry a rating.
Costume
Every wig tells a story of anxiety and arsenic.
Acting
Berling's slow corruption from earnest to elegant.
Director
Patrice Leconte
Charles Berling
Le Marquis Grégoire Ponceludon de Malavoy
Jean Rochefort
Le Marquis de Bellegarde
Fanny Ardant
Madame de Blayac
Judith Godrèche
Mathilde de Bellegarde
Bernard Giraudeau
L'Abbée de Vilecourt
Bernard Dhéran
Montalieri
Carlo Brandt
Milletail
Jacques Mathou
Abbé de l'Épée
Urbain Cancelier
Louis XVI
Albert Delpy
Baron de Guéret
Marie Pillet
Charlotte
Jacques Roman
Chevernoy
Philippe Magnan
Baron de Malenval
Maurice Chevit
Le notaire
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The film's title refers to 'la roquade,' a specific Versailles insult requiring the victim to leave court for 24 hours—social death by wordplay.
Released four years before the Bicentennial of the Revolution, it's a stealth critique of French intellectual snobbery that somehow became required viewing in école normale supérieure.
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