Lady Oscar

I've watched this movie once over ten years ago and again today. I have also watched the anime and read the manga at different parts of my life and have taken away different things at times.

The movie is called Lady Oscar but it honestly feels more like it should be called "Andre, the manservant" or something else entirely (Rose of Versailles would have been ever more appropriate than Lady Oscar), as Oscar doesn't feel like much of a centerpiece of this movie, we're hardly privy to her thoughts and feelings and it seems to be dictated and stripped of her agency but every other force.

I personally did not dislike the acting this time around, it looks and feels quite theatrical, which can be jarring since the trend has been naturalistic for a long time. The scenes though are very clumsily strung together and don't make sense if you don't have the knowledge of the manga/anime. For example near the end when we see Oscar transfer to the French Guards, they don't respect her. We don't see them again until much later when Oscar and the guards are stationed against the peasants and Oscar refuses to attack the people and the guards somehow follow her. What the movie decided not to show was the relationship Oscar built with the guards and gained their respect.

In general the movie despite being called Lady Oscar failed to show the qualities that make Oscar stand out as a character and that still stands out despite the passage of time. Oscar has a lot of internal conflict in the original source as well as physical prowess due to her training from a young age, she is also educated as she is a noble and very aware of the ideas of the revolutionaries. Instead in this movie Oscar's qualities are transferred onto Andre for some reason, elevating him to a totally different status and playing up the old tired cliche of the man saving the damsel in distress.

Regardless, I can understand that an adaptation is not always meant to be faithful and directors like to focus on specific themes of the original source and such a projected can be appreciated as a stand alone thing. This is where it hits the mark once more. This movie cannot stand alone and make sense or appear well-rounded. As I mentioned earlier the scenes are strung together clumsily and a lot of important stuff is mentioned and glossed over, and to think this movie is two hours. You cannot focus on both Marie Antoinette and Oscar in just two hours unless you do a masterful job of combining both sides, which could work I believe and of course you'd have to cut a big chunk of the manga and alter even more of it than has already been altered, which I would not be opposed to if it guaranteed a movie that could be watched, appreciated and evaluated as a stand alone piece.

Unfortunately though the movie requires you have some understanding of the happenings of the manga/anime that it refuses to spend more time on and its female lead is hardly likeable if you're a fan.

The actors also feel rather miscast, with Oscar appearing in full makeup for some reason and looking positively delicate and Andre looking quite macho despite being much more lithe in appearance and submissive in behavior. Marie Antoinette is also rather young and foolish, but her actress appears a lot older, which might be an informed choice to magnify her impulsiveness and lack of seriousness and understanding of the situation.

I feel like this would have worked a lot more as a theatrical play perhaps than a movie. For me it seems to lack the understanding of what makes the original appealing and especially a character like Oscar who you never see. And even if they decided to focus on themes instead of a character study, I feel like there are a lot more poignant movies out there with similar themes that work a lot better as a movie.

The ending was atrocious.

Actually,to correct what another reviewer said(wanting also to correct a supposed error,but making a mistake),the anime "Lady Oscar(Rose of Versailles)" came AFTER the movie(that means almost an year after the movie was made) and WAS ALSO TARGETED TOWARDS THE CHILDREN.So,the movie is based ONLY upon the manga and NOT AT ALL upon the anime.Also,the "historical clichés" aren't "cliches",but REAL HISTORICAL FACTS and I really don't see why the movie shouldn't present them,like the manga did,too. To talk about the movie,as a Lady Oscar's fan,I would consider it somehow average.It has some good-or even very good-parts(the costumes,the sets,the music,some aspects of the play of some characters-I disagree with someone who said that the acting is "incredibly weak all around",because it's clearly not like that!) and some more bad parts(the way in which most of the characters were presented,different from the ones in the original story,the fact that some important events in the story aren't showed at all,the play of some actors,the ending which is an almost complete nonsense).But,in the end,it's,like I said,it's an average movie,though enough fans are,quite rightfully,disappointed of it.

To correct some inaccuracies in the above review, the anime "Rose of Versailles" came before "Lady Oscar," not afterward, and it was not targeted towards children. "Lady Oscar" is primarily based on the manga "Rose of Versailles" by Riyoko Ikeda, although it contains several plot differences from either anime or manga. The so-called "historical clichés" and the feminism the above reviewer cites are part of Ikeda's story and have nothing to do with the director of "Lady Oscar." I found the movie slightly disappointing in its variations from the anime and manga, but overall I liked it. It was nice to see the story of Lady Oscar presented in English, and I enjoyed seeing European actors filling the roles. Oscar's character differs greatly from her personality in the anime, but I found her much more personable in "Lady Oscar." I was disappointed, however, in the portrayal of Marie Antoinette as she was wholly flaky and unlikeable in "Lady Oscar" and lacked all the redeeming qualities she possessed in the anime. Also, the film overlooks the close nature of her relationship with Oscar as portrayed in Ikeda's manga.

The sad truth is that Jaques Demy is a horrible filmmaker. The much celebrated "Umbrella's of Cherbourg" was dreadful. Absolutely dreadful, but pretty in a stagy way. There isn't much you can say when you encounter something pretty but hollow. Of course it happens all the time to me, that I find movies with no soul. like girls trained to be empty.

But there is something notable when something is so very pretty as this is, and so very empty at the same time.

The provenance of this is at least interesting: a Japanese comic book. And if you wish to sit through it, you'll see copious references to "Barry Lyndon," on which this is clearly modeled. Now the magic of that was its carefully spaced vacuums. It had engineered emptiness, something that only a master could do.

This. This is just empty.

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

This film is an absolute joke. The acting is so horrible that I got up during the film and went to check IMDb to have some entertainment from all of the scathing reviews I was sure I would find... Well, the critics didn't even bother to review it and the only published review was from a person who is probably related to the director or the producer. This film is so bad, I'm sure 40 years from now it will be a cult film simply for its downright awful acting!