MovieChat Forums > L'Anglaise et le duc (2001) Discussion > Confused by the title

Confused by the title

posted 17 years ago by incandescent
6 replies | jump to latest

The English title "The Lady and the Duke" makes sense, but why is the French title "L' Anglaise et le duc" if Grace is Scottish?

[–] laxmax7 17 years ago

She is referred to as "l'Anglaise" because she lived in England before moving to France and that's where she claims her alleigances and nationality. She is Scottish by birth, English by territory, and French at heart. In a time when it is considered blasphemy against the revolution to be a French aristocrat, it was much safer for Elliott to show herself as English. Make sense?

[–] redbrian3655 14 years ago

Perfect explanation... the movie still left me as cold as The Hebrides!

[–] BlueGreen 14 years ago

She may have been called "the Englishwoman", simply because she came from (English-speaking) Great Britain, with the sort of sweeping (but rarely ill-meant) generalisation that is still very much alive and well today.
(Ask Anthony Hopkins or Catherine Zeta Jones, to name just two, if you don't believe me...)

[–] katjavm 15 years ago

me too, I'm confused by the title, seeing as "L'Anglaise et le Duc", is "The English lady and the Duke", but the lady appears to be Scottish, so technically speaking they should have translated it as "L'Ecossaise et le Duc" ...

[–] oakcourt 15 years ago

Picked this up from our excellent Fopp store here in Manchester at a good price. I'm about halfway through it at the moment but it's not the title that confuses me. I don't understand why Rohmer chose to film against either as is stated in another thread paintings or CGT images. Very authentic but spoils the film a little.

[–] florentyna1972 10 years ago

I can assure you all that to any other nationality there would never be any confusion over something like that! We all know England and Scotland are two things, but when it comes to distinguish between England and Britain, Great Britain and United Kingdom, well, we feel lost somehow. So I believe ''English lady'' was going safe.