575 - Letters of Love, France, 1942. Dir. Claude Autant-Lara.
Before Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo (1984), there was Lettres d'amour (Love Letters) (1942).
Dance off!
But instead of taking a windmill into a headspin, these danseurs and danseuses are doing the quadrille.
The Society versus The Shop. Who will win?
Neither group thinks the other knows how to do it. The Society decided the night before to cram lessons in order to show up and show out. But The Show overheard them, and went and crammed too.
The Dance Doctor is worn out. Can he not ever get some rest? And while he is secretly training two separate factions, he still has to be a doctor. Or does he?
Meanwhile, Mr. Mortemort--whose name means Mr. Death Death, or Mr. Dead Death--is putting on the ball of the year, with all the people in tow.
The Prefect approaches him with decorum. "We dance together in harmony, according to His Majesty's wishes."
But The Marquis puts it a little more bluntly. "We dance on a volcano of cordiality."
Kaboom!
All the while a scandal proceeds on the dance floor.
Among the Prefect's wife and her former lover and his presumed-to-be-but-not-actually current lover. And the task he was assigned to do which it appears he has not done. The loss of his job. And the loss of her reputation and place in society.
And those letters.
And those letters.
But that is just the climax. Let us go back to the beginning.
The Emperor and Empress are coming to visit.
"No more love letters! I prefer love without the letters."
Hortense is talking to her best friend Zelie Fontaine. Her "old-school" best friend. Hortense receives weekly love letters from her boyfriend Hedgehog--Hedgehog lives in Paris--who addresses them to Zelie, whom he has never met, so as not to draw attention to the married Hortense.
Zelie is the postmistress. She also owns the mail coach. So it makes sense for Hedgehog to mail the love letters to Zelie.
This week's love letter has not arrived. And yesterday, May 15, was their anniversary. Hortense does not remember these things, but Zelie does. So Zelie reminds her. Hedgehog and Hortense met on May 13, and two days later they began dating. Hortense is surprised to be reminded she started dating a man so soon.
Hortense says she wants her next lover to live here in town or to be illiterate so that she does not receive love letters from him. She is scared because she believes his last love letter has gotten into the wrong hands and their secret will be made known.
There are two battling camps in this town, this town of Argenson, Loir-et-Cher: The Society versus The Shop.
Zelie is a member of The Shop. The town's name for the working class. People who own stores and work in them. Hortense is a member of the other camp in town, The Society. Members of the government or land owners. People with wealth or power.
Members of The Society and The Shop do not intermingle with one another, let alone be friends. But Zelie and Hortense have been best friends since childhood. Perhaps that will be tested.
The Prefect has cuckolded the District Attorney, who has just stepped down from his position. Zelie wants her foster brother Désiré Ledru to take his place.
But the Magistrate has other plans. He wants someone to go down to Argenson and cuckold the Prefect. To get him back for his insulting Justice.
Enter Hedgehog. Oops.
Francois du Portal. He is made the new District Attorney of Argenson, and not Zelie's foster brother Désiré Ledru.
Going down there and winning Hortense's heart should be easy for Francois. After all, he has already been doing it through the mail for a year.
Until Hortense sends her own mail. A breakup letter. She is just too scared of that last letter being read by the wrong person.
Francois comes to Argenson anyway. Without Hortense. He has a job to do.
His first case is lawsuit against Zelie and her employee. For insulting members of the aristocracy.
And things will begin to unravel from there.
In this Comedy of Manners. Comedy of Misunderstanding. Comedy of Mistaken Identity.
* * * *
Let me think. I have an idea. Me.
My lawyer, Bourbousson, representing me at the trial, will speak to you.
I have nothing to say to you.
My lawyer, Ledru, representing me at the trial, will speak to you.
The mail coach is 58 minutes late. The court will hear of this. We'll win our case and replace the postmistress.
I said we are old school friends and you are the only one I can trust. - Hortense to Zelie.
Is he my lover or yours? Make up your mind.
Next time I take a lover in town, or someone illiterate, because I'm done with your letters. I get too attached. No more love letters. I prefer love without letters!
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