yearbook 2004/05 - The European Film College

The Duellists
By
Bue B. Petersen
Emmanuel
Dayan
Keira Robertson
Mads Grage
Rosenkrantz
Maria Lomholt-
Thomsen
Mofizur
Rhaman
FROM THE STUDENTS
This text was produced by a group
of students in Petru Maier’s course
on Picture and Composition.
The cinematography of
the last duelling scene
‘The Duellists’ is based on a story by Joseph
Conrad, variously titled “The Duel” and “The
Point of Honour” (1908). D’Hubert (Keith
Carradine) and Feraud (Harvey Keitel) are officers
in Napoleon’s army and they spend their
off-hours challenging each other to bloody duels.
This goes on for many years with neither
man showing any inclination of calling a truce.
‘The Duellists’ was the debut feature from Ridley
Scott and won the Cannes Prize for ‘Best
First Film’.
The film can be seen as an effort to return to
the golden age of visual representation: romanticism
and academicism.
An important fact concerning the historical
setting of the film is the duplicity of the relationship
of the aristocracy to Napoleon in those
times: The success of Napoleon during this period
was the occasion for the old principles of
aristocracy to affirm themselves strongly against
the egalitarian principles of the revolutions and
for the apparition of a new class of rational noblemen
who were ready to adapt themselves to
Napoleon, or any new power that came their
way.
The two characters have a duel because one
is still into duels and the other is not. But
somehow they can’t manage to kill each other,
though they have a lot of occasions to do so.
As the main character, D’Hubert, loses the belief
in the meritocratic order, his first love, and
his physical ability, the audience has the feeling
that he is caught up in Feraud’s game. D’Hubert
goes to the point of secretly saving his life and
the spectator is given a hint that it is to have
another occasion to kill him within the ritual
of the duel.
Therefore, the tension that nourishes this duel
scene is double. The questions are:
• Who will end up killing the other?
• Whether D’Hubert will surrender in more
general, underlying conflict, which takes place
between the principles of rationality and the old
codes of manly honour?
We chose to analyze the sequence of the last duel
because it represents the two questions mentioned
above. The tension of the fight builds
into another tension; will D’Hubert stick to
his contempt of duelling? Has D’Hubert been
used up and transformed by this life of losses
and duels or is he still the same character as in
the first scene?
The last duelling scene represents the cinematography
we see throughout the whole film
very well. The cinematography of this sequence
is characterized by beautiful steady shots that
make one think of the oil paintings of the 18th
century. Part of the duelling scene is shot with
hand-held camera and the spectator gets the
feeling of seeing the duel through the eyes of
one of the duellists. This happens in the earlier
duel scenes as well.
The sequence opens with a wide shot of a grey,
frosty landscape. D’Hubert walks towards the
camera on a gravel road framed win the centre.
His black coat forms a strong contrast tot the